Your baby is at present considered to be fullterm. Past now your baby will be curled into the "fetal" position, filling the whole of your uterus. His range of movements volition be restricted to a boot and a bit of stretching and perhaps attempts at rotating. Your baby will continue to lay downward fatty deposits under his skin and volition be practicing all the movements you lot'll meet later he is born, e.k. breathing, suckling, swallowing, blinking, grasping and clasping her hands, head turning, boot and stretching, maybe even sucking his fist or thumb. You may notice a slight reduction in the number of movements yous feel – your babe is likely to accept quite distinct periods of action and longer periods of sleep. (If you exercise not feel your baby moving regularly and you lot are concerned, yous tin can drink a glass of iced water and come across if this stimulates movements, if not, you lot should arrange an engagement for your LMC midwife or doctor to listen to your babe'southward heartbeat a.s.a.p. ) Your baby will now probably weigh 3- 4kg and measure out approximately 51cm tall.


Your torso: By now, lots of women are feeling completely over being meaning and impatient to meet their babies. Remind yourself and others, that the due appointment y'all've been given is but an average and it is completely normal for a baby to arrive after the estimated due date every bit long as mother and baby are well.

It is usual for you to see your LMC midwife or md for a check-upwardly each week during this fourth dimension.

Postdates or overdue?: The normal length of pregnancy is between 37 and 42+weeks. Your Expected Due Date (EDD) is 40weeks correct in the heart of this normal range. Despite commonly used terminology, your babe is non overdue simply because he has non been born on his EDD. In most cases pregnancies that continue past the EDD represent a completely normal variation of the boilerplate. Although information technology is hard not to exist disappointed almost your baby's "no show" and completely "fed upwards" with being pregnant, information technology can aid you lot (and your relations and friends), to be aware that sixty% of babies are born after their EDDs.

The best time for your baby to be born is when he is fullterm and this is non necessarily on the EDD you accept been given. Some babies do remain in utero (in the womb) past the best time for them to be built-in. Your infant's placenta has a express life span and this is different for every mother and baby. If your pregnancy continues past your placenta's "use by" date, information technology will no longer efficiently transfer oxygen and nutrients to your baby and your baby will showroom symptoms of postmaturity eastward.g. slow growth, reduced movements, reduced amniotic fluid volume etc. This can happen earlier or later the EDD and this is 1 of the reasons why your visits to your LMC become more frequent every bit yous arroyo your EDD. If your pregnancy lasts more than one week by your estimated due appointment (or if your LMC midwife or doctor is concerned that your placenta might not be performance efficiently at any stage of pregnancy), s/he will probably recommend that you take a exam called a Fetal Biophysical Contour. This exam uses ultrasonic technologies to appraise fetal movement, tone, reactivity, breathing movements and amniotic fluid volume and gives your babe a score out of 10. If your baby gets a score of 8 or more, it indicates that your placenta is still providing acceptable nourishment for your baby, i.east. if you accept passed your EDD your baby is probably postdates rather than postmature and, in the absenteeism of any other problems, you can safely and normally remain pregnant till your labour starts spontaneously.

Stop Work: If you are in paid employment you should have started your maternity leave by calendar week 37. Fifty-fifty if you have a really cruisey job/dominate and tin come in late, exit early etc, you should reduce your working calendar week downward to effectually 3 part-time days around now. You demand plenty of time to prepare physically, mentally and emotionally for the huge transition that is ahead. Take time to enjoy these last days/weeks of pregnancy and if information technology is your first infant, to enjoy doing any y'all experience like. If you already have a child or children you volition take less self time and probably less time to residuum – attempt to organize regular childcare and/or playdates for your other kid(ren) so that you can focus on yourself and your nearly newborn babe for a few hours and go a daytime nap, or at to the lowest degree some uninterrupted relaxing time.

Pack your purse: If you are planning to requite birth in a maternity unit or infirmary, effectually now y'all can gloat by packing the not-perishable items y'all desire to have on hand for your labour and will demand during the get-go 12+hours afterward your infant is born. Use the list below every bit a guideline.

For Labour

Clothing – you tin wear your own wearing apparel during labour or a hospital gown. If you lot would prefer to vesture your ain clothes pack a couple of comfy tops or T.shirts. You may too want to pack a bikini top and/or a couple of ingather tops to wear in the pool if you don't fancy being totally naked.

  • Socks
  • Hairbands/clips
  • Massage oil or massage wax
  • Extra pillows in coloured pillowcases and then you remember to take them home
  • Hotpacks (Wheat/rice pack or gel pad) and cold packs (a bottle of frozen water wrapped in flannel makes a passable cold pack)
  • Drinks including bottled water
  • Lip Lotion or moisturizer
  • Photographic camera – fully charged
  • Music – CD player or Ipod and dock etc

After Labour

  • Soap, shampoo & conditioner, toothbrush and toothpaste
  • Sleepwear
  • Maternity/nursing bra
  • Extra knickers
  • Dressing gown or robe or coat
  • Shawl or cardigan
  • Slippers and shoes
  • Baby clothes – most hospitals provide nappies and peradventure some kind of shirt for the duration of your post birth stay but at the very least, you volition need a total set of clothes for your baby for coming home. i.e.
  • Belong or singlet
  • Grosuit/all-in-one
  • Socks or booties
  • Cardigan or jacket
  • Hat that covers your infant's ears
  • Carpet or blanket to put over your baby in her carseat
  • Infant carseat

Signs of Labour: A number of things can happen that will indicate that you will presently be in labour, but y'all are not in labour until yous are having regular contractions.

Contractions: Y'all know you are having a labour contraction when your uterus (and abdomen) go hard (like a tightly pumped upward ball) and you feel some sort of low abdominal awareness usually at the level of your pubic bone in the front and occasionally in your lower back instead or likewise. Both of these things (uterine tightenings and pelvic twinges/pains) have to be happening at the same time for y'all to be having a labour contraction. These sensations can be very mild to start with – a twinge or feeling of pressure, or catamenia-like hurting – but they will abound to get a pulling, stretching or tightening sensation that gets stronger equally time goes by. Contractions are intermittent not continuous i.east. they come and go. As your contractions become more than established you will probably notice that they have a wave-similar pattern i.e. they start fairly mildly build to a superlative of intensity then slowly fade abroad giving you a period of minutes when your body feels as relaxed as usual.

Prelabour contractions tin feel the same but they are more random in terms of their intensity and frequency and disappear before establishing into a pattern of being longer and stronger and closer together . Prelabour contractions frequently come and go depending on what you're doing e.grand. if yous might be up and moving and notice that you are having contractions so yous lie downward and they disappear or vice versa. Or, you are having contractions so you lot become into a warm bath and they disappear. Or, you detect them later in the day when you are tired but if you take a sleep they disappear etc etc.

Active labour contractions become longer, stronger and closer together over a period of time. Agile labour contractions require all your attention – they volition stop you lot mid-sentence or mid stride. You will need to focus to go on your breathing regular and you lot will probably be needing to utilize some labour coping techniques to help y'all to stay relaxed and allow these contractions to do their piece of work. You are not considered to be in agile labour until your contractions last for at least 1 minute and are v minutes or less autonomously and have been at this frequency for at least 1 hour. This is called the ane – v – i dominion. When your contractions are coming at this level of frequency your LMC midwife or doc will usually advise you to get the hospital or volition come to your home if you are planning a homebirth.

Waters breaking: For most 10% of women the first sign of labour is sudden loss of fluid from the vagina – this usually means that the amniotic sac has torn and amniotic fluid is draining out. Note the time, and the amount and colour of the amniotic fluid that is leaking out. Clothing a sanitary pad and keep whatsoever sanitary pads for your LMC to see. If the fluid loss is clear, contact your LMC during regular working hours. If the fluid loss is muddied-looking, green or brown, contact your LMC immediately. The fourth dimension betwixt waters breaking and the onset of contractions is enormously variable. Some women's waters will break and within five minutes they will have had their starting time labour wrinkle, while other women will await hours before they have their commencement contraction.

Alert Signs: You should phone call your LMC midwife or doctor immediately

if you lot experience whatever of the following:

  • Any vaginal bleeding (not the "show" which is oft claret stained mucus). Article of clothing a sanitary pad (go along any germ-free pads for your LMC to see)
  • Sharp stomach pain or severe cramping
  • Persistent or severe headache.
  • Dizziness or visual disturbances (fuzzy vision, seeing spots or flashes)
  • Persistent airsickness (cannot continue water down)
  • Pain or burning sensation while urinating or inability to urinate.

Eat well: Your uterus is a musculus that will function more efficiently if it is well nourished and well hydrated. Labour (start labour especially) is a fleck similar a marathon, you demand to be physically and mentally well-prepared and y'all need to have a skillful amount of free energy on lath and so that you concluding the altitude. Eat modest meals approximately every iv or five hours so that your energy levels are loftier but yous are non "weighed down with food or using excessive amounts of energy to assimilate big/heavy meals. You also need to drink regularly. Try to recall to drink at least ane loving cup of fluid every ii hours between meals. Your labour will establish (and progress) more efficiently if your muscles are well-hydrated.

Do: Continue with regular gentle practise. This will assist you to maintain strength and stamina and reduce the intensity of the common discomforts of late pregnancy. Do some stretching exercises each day at home as well as continuing to attend a pregnancy exercise form if you're still able. Go for brusque, leisurely walks one time or twice each twenty-four hours if your pelvis allows. Swim or water walk regularly, specially if yous are unable to do whatsoever other form of exercise.

Rest: Your night-fourth dimension sleep is probable to exist quite interrupted by now so you need to make certain that you have a nap or at least a substantial rest at some indicate each twenty-four hours. Your labour could showtime at any time, day or night. You will be amend able to cope if yous are equally well rested every bit possible.

Relax: Labour is a series of big muscle stretches. During labour the neck (cervix) of your uterus, then your pelvic muscles and vagina stretch open to let your baby out. Your muscles volition not stretch if yous are not able to relax. Practising relaxation during your pregnancy will help "railroad train" your subconscious mind to instigate a relaxation response to any stimuli (a word or phrase, an idea, a visualization, a slice of music, a certain type of affect) you have skilful relaxing to. You need to be able relax actively (due east.g. propped upward in a labour enhancing position, peradventure rocking or some other repetitive movement), or passively sitting or lying supported in some labour enhancing position and doing nothing except breathing and consciously releasing tension from all your muscles so that y'all feel as soft and flopsy as a rag doll. All relaxation requires fifty-fifty breathing so y'all demand to proceed to practise animate gently and evenly, focusing on lengthening your exhalations. Relaxing to the same music each twenty-four hour period will accept the added benefit that this music is heard by your babe and the hormones and he volition become accustomed to the hormonal land that you induce when you relax. After he is born it is likely that this same music will assistance your baby to relax.

Baby movements: Your babe is now very tightly packed in your body and has less and less space for move, and then you may detect a alter in both the quality and frequency of her movements. You lot could make a fetal kick /movement chart so that y'all become consciously enlightened of your baby'due south agile times. You lot can download a fetal boot nautical chart at www.babypartner.com/tools/charts/pregnancy/fetal-boot-nautical chart.pdf Although you may experience less frequent movements at present that your infant has entered your pelvis you should be feeling some vigorous kicks and movements each 24-hour interval (your placenta is fastened to the front of your uterus). If you are concerned that yous haven't felt any strong movements for 12 – 24 hours, drink a glass of iced water. The sensation of cold will usually get your baby moving. You tin can also try lying quietly on your left side for 1 hour and then rolling over onto your right side, if you however don't feel any movements. If neither of these tests upshot in obvious infant movements, y'all should contact your LMC midwife or doctor.

Breastfeeding: If this is your first baby and yous accept attended a birth preparation form, you should take got some basic information to help yous constitute successful breastfeeding. Still, since breastfeeding will be the equivalent of a full-time job information technology tin can be a adept idea to get every bit much information equally possible and have a refresher now that your birth is imminent. Attending a La Leche League "meeting" volition requite you a chance to find and chat with breastfeeding mothers. Check out your local group for information and back up with breastfeeding before and later your baby is built-in on www.lalecheleague.org.nz Many hospitals and maternity units too offer a one-off breastfeeding form for women booked to give nativity in their facilities – ask your LMC for information well-nigh these sessions or contact your local maternity unit for times and bookings.

Baby clothes and bedding: All the dress and bedding you accept bought or gathered for your baby needs to be washed earlier your baby is born. Choose natural fibre clothes and bedding e.m. cotton, wool (including merino), linen, bamboo etc. Your baby's skin is her biggest organ and then it needs to be wrapped in breathable fabrics. Also your infant's power to regulate her ain temperature is very immature, natural fibre clothes and bedding volition help ensure that she stays comfortably warm and that moisture is wicked abroad from her skin and evaporates instead of staying on her skin and making her cold. Click hither to check out the natural fibre clothing and bedding available from MAMA. Wash your baby'southward clothes and bedding in a balmy, biodegradable laundry powder/detergent and rinse well. Your infant'southward wearing apparel and bedding should be well enough rinsed that they not aroma of the laundry powder you have used. Take advantage of whatsoever fine days to line dry your babe'due south washing, the ultraviolet rays of the sun are a natural germicide.

Making Beloved: Remember it was loving that got your baby in and so loving will help become your baby too. The hormones released during lovemaking assistance soften your cervix getting it ready to stretch open during labour and the hormones that cause orgasm also cause uterine contractions. (Nipple stimulation too encourages your body to release the hormone oxytocin that causes your uterus to contract.) If you're non feeling like total-on, orgasmic lovemaking, just hanging out with your partner, kissing, cuddling, having massages, enjoying your baby's movements, speculating almost what your baby is going to exist like, what its going to exist like to have this new and absorbing focus in your relationship, sharing your excitement about becoming parents or enlarging your family. Taking the time to be together feeling loved and loving and bonded with your partner and your baby will help instigate the onset of your labour.

  • Calendar week 1
  • Weeks 2 – 3
  • Week 4
  • Weeks five-8
  • Weeks 9 – x
  • Weeks 11 – 13
  • Weeks 14 – 17
  • Weeks 18 – xx
  • Weeks 21 – 24
  • Weeks 24 – 28
  • Weeks 28 – 32
  • Weeks 32 – 36
  • Weeks 37 – 40