38 week of pregnancy for mom and baby

By this period, the fruit most often weighs 2800 - 3200 grams with an increase of 48-52 cm. All its organs and systems are already prepared for life outside the mother's tummy. There are no jumps in development, all functions are smoothly and gradually improved.

The 38th week of pregnancy is the period of the final formation of the pulmonary apparatus. The lining of the alveoli is completed by coating them with a special substance - a surfactant, which will prevent the alveoli from sticking together. A special center is formed in the brain, responsible for breathing. All this will later give the child the opportunity to make his first independent breath.

The liver and pancreas continue to develop, the 38th week of pregnancy is not final, because they will function fully in full after the baby is born.

The kidneys and the brain also gradually continue to develop. Now the child is extremely sensitive to the mood of the mother.

It starts to push and rotate much less. The place is not enough for him now, the head has dropped down, but his slightest movements mom will not only feel, but also observe in the form of moving tubercles on the abdomen: the elbow sticks out, but the heel moves.

Also, starting at week 28, the meconium accumulates in the intestine of the child - it is a mixture of digested dead cells, which it swallowed together with the amniotic fluid. Very often meconium begins to leave the intestine in the first hours after childbirth.

For Mom

When there is 38 weeks of pregnancy, then the breast becomes very large, from which milk can sometimes leak. It's time to start wearing a tight bra made of natural fabric with special removable pads, which will help a lot after giving birth, during the whole period of breastfeeding.

The weight of mommy ceases to grow, and even begins to decrease. During the last few weeks of pregnancy, a kilogram is often lost - one and a half.
A lot of young mothers are afraid not to notice in time that the birth began, so they will learn as much as possible about what signs and the first symptoms of the fact that the birth is already close.

In general, the chemical mechanism for the start of labor activity nature has provided perfect: from 38 weeks the placenta begins to slowly "grow old", reduces its hormonal function. As a result, the child feels a shortage of sufficient components for proper breathing and nutrition, is stressed because of this. In the mother's blood, the "stress hormone" of the baby-cortisol, which gives the body to understand that it's time to begin childbirth. Uterus, after receiving a signal from the brain, begins to actively reduce - fights begin.

The first births are extremely rarely fast, and last, as a rule, 12-18 hours. Therefore, you will have time to get to the hospital in time, do not run there with the appearance of the first fights, if nothing else bothers you, there are no bloody discharge, and the fetal movements do not subside.

Coming soon

The 38th week of pregnancy is often accompanied by signs that the birth is approaching.
One of these signs is the extraordinary ease and uplift that Mom feels for a day or two before giving birth. Fatigue is replaced by enthusiasm and a desire to do all things at once, to arrange general cleaning, rearrangement - any "revolution" in the house.

If 38 weeks of pregnancy has come, pulls the stomach and the sacrum area, presses into the pelvis and rectum, then the baby's head has moved even further down to the cervix, the pelvic bones begin to diverge, the birth canals prepare for the baby's passage.

Discharge from the vagina can intensify, the mucous stopper will depart or the amniotic fluid will leak, all signs of the onset of labor. And if there are allocations of a pinkish color, then the birth can begin literally in the next 24 hours. This color of discharge indicates that there is a gradual opening of the cervix, which is accompanied by rupture of small blood vessels.

Even before giving birth, the body strives to be cleaned up in every way, so nausea at the 38th week of pregnancy, vomiting, diarrhea, upset stomach, fever (with the fact that you definitely could not poison anything) mean that you will see the baby very soon.