This week you reach your baby's "official" estimated due date. But with so much medical technology available today is it worth remembering that pregnancy is a natural process and your baby will be born when it is ready to enter the world.
Only five percent (1 in 20) babies are born on their due dates. You may be thoroughly prepared, but your baby may be a little too comfortable in the uterus. Most doctors don't consider a baby postterm until it enters the forty third week of pregnancy. If your baby is not yet ready to enter the world, relax and enjoy the last few days you have left before you have to get up in the middle of the night to change diapers.
Your baby has deposited a lot of fat and has taken on the plump features of a newborn. Your baby's face is round with soft smooth skin. Like all newborns, your baby's eyes are blue, although their color may change up to six months after birth.
Your baby will be born awake with open eyes. Your baby's limbs are now fully developed. It's arms and legs are rounded with long finger and toenails.
Your baby's skin is smooth and soft although the skin may be dry and peeling because it has been living in fluid for many months.
Your baby's lanugoThe soft downy hair that covers the fetus while it is in the womb. Lanugo is almost entirely shed by the time the baby is born.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions. will have been shed although patches may remain down the spine, in front of the ears and across the base of the forehead.
All internal organs are ready to take over at birth. Lungs are fully operational, although they still need to mature. Cortisol, a hormoneA complex chemical substance created in a part or organ of the body. When released it initiates or regulates activity in an organ or group of cells in another part of the body.
Hormones secreted by endocrine glands are transported through the bloodstream to their target organ. The amount of hormone secreted is regulated either by other hormones, by neurotransmitters, or simply when an excess of the organ's activity indicates a need to reduce the amount of the hormone produced.
Other hormones are produced locally by the organs themselves and are common in the digestive tract.
Visit our comprehensive glossary for more pregnancy terms and definitions., is produced by your baby to aid lung development.
Your baby's heart is beating at 110 - 150 beats per minute. And your baby's circulation will change dramatically at birth as the lungs expand allowing blood to enter the lung tissue. 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. now comprises about fifteen percent of your baby's body weight.
You will now be waiting for labor to begin. Be sure that you have completed your birthplan and that everyone who needs it has a copy. Practice your breathing exercises during any false labor or Braxton-Hicks contractions. Your labor will probably not proceed as you planned, so be well prepared and flexible. Labor is painful, and remember that even if you have chosen not to use pain relief you can change your mind later.
This week your baby is no longer premature, but simply preterm. There are no complications usually expected from preterm babies, so even if it's a little early, you can look forward to see your new baby a little sooner, and put the discomfort of pregnancy behind you earlier!
Fill out your health insurance paperwork so that it is all prepared for when you go into labor. Fill your car up with gas! Since you can go into labor any time in the next three weeks, be sure that you are ready and complete any last minute chores.
If you haven't yet bought a car seat, you should consider buying it this week. Next week your baby will be at term, so labor may begin at any time.
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