Your baby is getting ready for birth itself. By this stage of your pregnancy your baby is no longer free to move in the uterus. It will have positioned itself ready for delivery in just a few weeks.
Head down in your uterus it is listening to the comforting sound of your heartbeat and the blood rushing through the umbilical cordA flexible structure that connects the fetus to the placenta during pregnancy. It carries blood, oxygen, nourishment and waste to the placenta. It is first formed during the fifth week of pregnancy and contains the yolk sac and body stalk.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions.. Soon it will emerge from the uterus and be exposed to the sounds and lights of the world in which it will spend the rest of its life.
Your baby has developed a relatively acute sense of hearing. Your baby can hear your voice as you speak. The pitch of women's voices is such that it can be heard over the noise in the uterus while men's voices tend to blend in it. Such familiarity with your voice will permit recognition immediately after birth.
As it prepares for birth, your doctor will want to ensure your baby's wellbeing in the uterus. With the end of your pregnancy drawing near, a number of tests to determine fetal distressA condition, usually discovered in labor, in which the fetal heartbeat follows an abnormal pattern. The fetal heartbeat is recorded using electronic fetal monitoring.
The acid balance of the fetal blood is measured, and labor is allowed to continue if it falls within prescribed ranges, and the abnormal heartbeat does not recur or persist.
If nescessary, attempts will be made to stabilize the fetus by administering oxygen to the mother, increasing her fluid intake or prescribing an agent to help the uterus relax. In some cases a cesarean section may be required.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions. can be performed. These include the contraction stress test, nonstress test and the nipple stimulation test. A simple test you can do at home is the fetal movement test. Simply draw mark up a sheet of paper with the hours of the day, or use our fetal kick chart, and make a note of every movement you feel. Your doctor will be reassured if you feel ten movements over the course of the day.
Rest assured that your baby is receiving enough oxygen through the placentaThe placenta is a large disk shaped membrane responsible for providing nourishment to the fetus during pregnancy. It consists of three parts, the fetal part made up from the chorion membrane surrounding the fetus, the maternal part, formed from the decidua basalis layer of the uterine lining, and the intervillous space between the two plates. It is connected to the fetus by the umbilical cord and consists of tissue from both the mother and the embryo.
Its function is complex. It has been described as a simple organ that combines the functions of a kidney-dialysis machine, heart and lung machine and intravenous drip. It consists of enormous numbers of blood vessel branches that permit the exchange of nutrition and oxygen, from the mother's bloodstream to the fetus and the removal of wastes to the mother to be excreted. The placenta's remarkable quality is that it does so without the blood of the mother mixing with that of the baby.
It also is responsible for the production of vital hormones including, estrogen, progesterone, and human chorionic gonadotropin. After birth, the placenta is delivered, and is sometimes referred to as the afterbirth.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions., an amazing organ, which performs a number of extremely complex functions. Although they never mix, your blood and that of your baby exchange nutrients, water and waste across the placental barrier at a rate of about 18 fluid ounces per minute. From now until your baby is delivered your doctor will start looking for signs of preeclampsia and is measuring your blood pressure more frequently.
Your baby is nearly mature with all organs functioning properly. However it has not finished depositing all of the fat necessary to keep it warm after birth and would need to be cared for in an incubator. While the prognosis for your baby is good if you do enter labor this week, your doctor may decide that your baby will be healthier if the delivery is delayed for a couple of weeks until week thirty four
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