38 week of pregnancy: what happens, pulls the lower abdomen, harbingers of childbirth

At the 38th week of pregnancy, the formation of the fetus ends. This period is considered appropriate for delivery. Often, girls are born exactly at this time. Boys remain in the womb for a couple of weeks. An expectant mother should be ready to meet with a baby at any time.

Changes in the 38th week of pregnancy

It is often difficult for pregnant women to bear a baby. They want to bring the moment of his appearance closer. To do this, you need to lead an active lifestyle. Long walks in the fresh air will stir up the baby. His body is fully formed and ready for birth. Having sex will also contribute to this. It is not worth resorting to traditional medicine. It can be harmful to health.

A pregnant woman should carefully monitor her diet. Complex carbohydrates can be included in the diet. They do not cause weight gain. Such food saturates the body for a long time, giving it energy. It will improve the woman’s well-being.

You need to consume protein daily. Cottage cheese and eggs are rich in healthy protein. Fermented milk products will saturate the body with microelements necessary to strengthen it.

All vital systems of the fetus are well-functioning. They function properly, allowing him to adapt to conditions outside the womb. In the subsequent time, he only accumulates a fat layer. However, he is not always in a hurry to be born. Nature will determine when the time comes for this.

The baby’s height is 50 cm. Its weight can exceed 3300 kg. His skin has a delicate pink tint. The last traces of the lanugo cannon disappear on it. Meconium begins to accumulate in the intestines. This original feces are excreted after birth. If the bowel cleansing happens earlier, the amniotic fluid will change color to greenish.

The body of a child is no longer different from the body of a newborn baby.

In boys, at this time, the testicles descend into the scrotum. The doctor must check whether the omission was successful. If by the time of delivery it has not happened, the boy will face difficulties.

Further strengthening of organs and systems is carried out after the birth of the baby. The nervous system is actively developing. In the lungs, the anatomical fluid is replaced by air. Bones harden and grow together in certain places. The microflora settles in the intestines. Immunity learns to resist the first antigens.

The manifestation of the harbingers of childbirth

A pregnant woman at a later stage is faced with pain arising from the preparation of the body for labor. She has false contractions. They differ from those observed more recently. The training contractions are intense and painful. Their frequency is increasing. A woman may confuse these symptoms with the onset of labor.

A change in posture will help determine the nature of the contractions. False pains will subside if you walk a little and stretch

The birth canal prepares for the passage of the fetus. Joints and ligaments become softer, which gives a woman unpleasant sensations. The crumb grows up, and its center of gravity shifts. The body of a pregnant woman reacts to this process with acute pains.

The pubic region takes on an increased load. The baby has already taken up a position with his head down. At the same time, his head is tightly pressed against the pelvic floor. The femoral nerve is compressed by the uterus. The result is pain in the hips and sacrum.

The most dangerous complication for the baby at this time can be preeclampsia. It is important to diagnose it in a timely manner. This condition is accompanied by vomiting and nausea, indigestion, and rippling eyes. Also a symptom of gestosis is severe persistent edema. Only a doctor can determine the diagnosis and method of treatment. Mild swelling is considered normal in the last trimester.

Labor activity can start unpredictably. It is impossible to predict its nature. A sign of its onset is not always the discharge of amniotic fluid. Often this happens only in the maternity hospital, after the doctor pierces the bladder.

The main indicator of delivery is contractions. A pregnant woman should accurately count their number and frequency. It is also important to control their intensity. Real fights cannot be confused with training ones. With each passing hour, they become more active and painful. Warming up or massage will not reduce their manifestation.

Doctors may decide if a caesarean section is needed

Such an operation can be both planned and emergency. If the woman has a medical condition, the doctor may prescribe a planned cesarean section. It is needed when the fetus is in the wrong position. The indication can also be the individual characteristics of the mother’s body.

If the pregnancy is complicated, surgery may be scheduled urgently. Indications include kidney disease or high blood pressure. The way of birth does not affect the health of the baby in any way. The woman will recover from surgery in the same way as after a natural delivery.

The baby is behaving more calmly than last month. He has reached such a significant size that he cannot move freely in the uterus. The cephalic presentation allows him to turn only slightly, as well as to make weak jerks with his arms and legs. The number of tremors should normally not be less than 10 per day.

The work of the digestive system is gradually improving. Heartburn no longer bothers a pregnant woman. Belching and stool problems also normalize. The woman feels clumsy, starts to pull the lower abdomen again, so she wants to speed up labor.

The cervix becomes softer and wider. Allocations appear in greater volume. They are not a cause for concern if they do not contain clots and other impurities, as well as an unpleasant odor.

A woman at this time can not wait to forget about the hardships of pregnancy. From day to day she will meet her baby.

What should be done if no labour signs are seen at 38 weeks of gestation? - Dr. Teena S Thomas

What happens when you get pregnant with twins?

If it was possible to bring the babies to this date, then their weight reaches 2,9 kg. They are already fully matured. The total weight gain of the mother this week is 0,6 kg. The woman becomes clumsy and walks hard. In a singleton pregnancy, the weight of the baby at this time is 3,1 kg.

Birth this week is considered to be the most favorable, but not all doctors think so.

Some stay with their mother until the 41st week. The current period requires the intake of iron-containing vitamins, since there is a lot of blood loss at the birth of twins.

Twin pregnancy is a joyful and responsible event. As a rule, labor begins early.

What happens to the baby at this time?

Now the weight of the child is 3000-3200 g. Sometimes the mother can feel in the abdomen not only the movement of the fetus, but also rhythmic tremors – this is the child hiccups, swallowing amniotic fluid. It is believed that hiccups are a kind of training before the start of spontaneous breathing. By this time, the baby has already taken its final position in the uterine cavity – head down, towards the exit from the uterus. The obstetrician determines the presentation of the fetus by probing the abdomen of the expectant mother. But sometimes doctors detect breech presentation, in this case, an examination is performed, ultrasound is performed and the tactics of childbirth are determined.

The first harbingers of childbirth appear in multiparous and primiparous. These are body changes, certain processes that set up the body and reproductive system for the birth of a child. The signs differ slightly depending on whether the mother is expecting her first baby or if this is her second and subsequent pregnancies.

Many mothers are afraid to miss or not recognize these important “calls”. Don’t worry about that – we’ve put together a handy labor checklist to help you figure out when it’s time to go to the hospital.

In this period, drops of a yellowish-whitish liquid – colostrum – can periodically stand out from the nipples of the breast. So the mammary glands prepare for childbirth and subsequent feeding of the baby. In order not to stain the linen, you can use special absorbent pads for the chest. They are sold in pharmacies and children’s stores, they are a small circle of absorbent materials that is inserted into a bra. If colostrum is absent, this is not a sign of pathology. In some women, the work of the mammary glands starts only after the birth of the crumbs.

Harbingers of childbirth in women expecting their first child

One of the first signs that labor is coming soon is easier breathing due to the fact that the stomach has dropped. This feeling is not always so vivid that the pregnant woman herself notices it, sometimes others focus on it. Although the child is also actively moving, but the mother’s shortness of breath decreases, it becomes easier to breathe, heartburn and mild nausea occur less often or completely disappear after eating . But due to the fact that the fetal head sank lower into the small pelvis, the uterus is increasingly in good shape, urination becomes more frequent due to pressure on the bladder.

Sometimes the expectant mother suddenly notices that the child is not moving much, his movements are not so sharp and active, he seems to be calming down. This is a completely natural process, since less and less space remains inside the uterine cavity every day , the walls of its temporary “house” put more and more pressure on the arms and legs, tightly cover, and the amniotic fluid becomes a little less.

If at an earlier date the fetal movements were felt as a variety of movements, pushes, kicks and even somersaults, then by this time it is more and more often sipping or slight movements. The baby already has little space, sometimes his movements are very noticeable – the woman notes that she is pulling her stomach in the area where the fetal activity is felt.

Preparing the body for childbirth

The term of the 38th week of pregnancy is a period of active restructuring of the body. Under the influence of hormones, the body prepares for hard work: there is pain in the lower back, pulling the lower abdomen, there is an ache in the area of ​​​​the pubic joint (the place where the pelvic bones are closed). The lower abdomen hurts due to the descent of the fetal head and its tight fit to the pelvic bones, the occurrence of more and more frequent training uterine contractions and the gradual loosening of the ligaments. Sometimes there is a feeling that the stomach is turning to stone – this is the tone of the uterus, muscle training for subsequent contractions. If these contractions are irregular, occur occasionally, they are not intense, you just need to lie on your side, rest, and they pass.If the same time passes between contractions, they become more and more sensitive, the interval is reduced – this is the beginning of labor, it’s time to go to the maternity hospital.

There is one easy way to tell if contractions are false or true. You just need to count the number of contractions and the interval between them. Use a stopwatch on your smartphone, noting how long the contraction of the uterus lasts and how long the period of relaxation, rest, will then be. If the contractions of the uterus gradually increase, intensify, and the time intervals between them gradually decrease, this is a sign of the onset of labor. Then it was time to go to the maternity hospital.

During the 38th week, the appearance of mucous secretions from the genital tract is possible. By the nature of the discharge, they look like lumps of dense transparent or whitish mucus with streaks of blood without any smell. This is the discharge of the mucous plug, which closed the cervix and prevented the penetration of pathogenic bacteria to the fetal membranes. The cervix gradually softens, opens slightly and the mucus gradually leaves.

In some cases, the expectant mother may have stool liquefaction at 38 weeks, although there have been no changes in the woman’s diet. This is an acceptable bowel reaction to changing hormone levels and preparing the body for childbirth. The intestines are gradually cleared of the contents. However, not always different sensations and changes in the work of digestion are explained precisely by prenatal changes. Diarrhea at this gestational age may also be the result of dietary errors, food poisoning, or other influences.

Harbingers of childbirth while expecting a second and subsequent children

If this is not the first pregnancy and childbirth for a woman, and the family is expecting a second, third baby, then the birth may come a little earlier. The body already knows what will happen and it takes less time for the preparatory phase. Thus, the appearance of the crumbs into the world can be expected in the period from the beginning of the 38th week of pregnancy. The processes themselves, which are associated with the preparation for childbirth, may not be so pronounced, sometimes they are absent or appear just a couple of days before the baby is born.

So, with a second pregnancy, there may not be a pronounced and significant lowering of the abdomen. Often, the baby is initially located lower than during the first pregnancy, or the cervix relaxes just before the onset of childbirth. Then the woman feels that it has become easier to breathe, the pressure on the bladder has increased.

Childbirth is unique, proceeding differently in women, and even in the same woman, childbirth is different. If this is the third birth or the fourth, often the precursors can be barely perceptible or completely absent. And the birth act itself proceeds quite quickly and sometimes even a little earlier than the date of birth, which is determined by the doctor. But, as for the second birth, this fact is not a strict pattern, childbirth is possible almost the same day with a pre-calculated date.

In any case, by the 38th week of pregnancy, it is necessary to collect everything you need for a trip to the maternity hospital and, at the first contractions, immediately seek help from doctors.

Is it worth it to speed up the birth at this time?

Many women experience fatigue towards the end of their pregnancy and want to give birth to a baby as soon as possible. Therefore, they ask one question – how to speed up the onset of childbirth, is it possible to stimulate this process in order to meet the baby faster and return home, accept congratulations and raise the baby. But you don’t need to think about inducing labor before the full term of 40 weeks. Although by the 38th week the baby is already full-term, he is still gaining weight, continues to develop, and nature knows better when he needs to be born.

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