What happens in the 38th week of pregnancy? Your baby is about the length of a stalk of rhubarb. His soft lanugo fur has disappeared and he’s ready for the real world. Now it’s all about plumping up and shifting into position for his big moment.
Your baby in the 38th week of pregnancy:
- You have reached 38th week of your pregnancy
- Your baby's height now is 19.61 inches and weighs 6.80 pounds
- Babies grow in weight for around 25-30g per day. Head and stomach stay the same
- Meconium accumulates in the fetus' intestines which will be the baby's first stool
- Your baby now has hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes
- During this week, all excessive hair is lost and the greasy layer will stay only on the upper part of the back
- Baby's lungs and other organs are now healthy and ready for life outside of the mother's womb
- Even though the baby is fully developed and ready, the brain and the nervous system continue developing
- Amniotic fluid has milky white color, which is a sign that baby is healthy
- Your little ones fingernails and toenails have reached the end of the fingers and toes
- Your baby now loses vernix, the waxy coating that's been protecting his fragile fetal skin from amniotic fluid and he'll shed remaining lanugo, the fine hair that was temporarily covering his body
- Once the vernix and lanugo are shed into the surrounding amniotic fluid your baby ingests them along with other waste products such as bile, urine, and old cells
- As your baby prepares for birth, the placenta starts to slowly deteriorate, but it still has plenty of life left to sustain your little one until the big day
Your body in the 38th week of pregnancy:
You might feel you’re spending most of your life on the toilet – the pressure on your bladder is so extreme now that it’s squished into a pancake (seriously!). But, annoying as it is, you keep hydrated. Another reason you might have to set up camp in the loo is that you could have diarrhoea now, too. Oh joy.
If so, it’s your body making room for the baby to emerge – yep, it’s a sign your small one is on his or her way soon. Word of advice: avoid rich, fatty or fibre rich foods and instead eat light soups, toast and ice lollies. And if leaking from your bottom end isn’t enough, your boobs (which by now might be of gigantic proportions) could be discharging a thin, yellowish fluid called colostrum.
It’s basically the first milk your baby will get, whi
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