If you can make it to the third trimester of pregnancy, you’re entirely more than the mid-way to your due date. You can now look forward to delivering your baby & make plans. The baby keeps developing as the third trimester presses forward.
Your baby’s position is so essential for safe delivery, & it would be better perhaps the baby comes out early. It would be best if you had more medical tests during this trimester, watch your health & that of the unborn child.
What is the third trimester?
The third-trimester lasts about the 26th week through to the 40th week. Usually, the trimester keeps going but stops any time you deliver your baby.
When you have your baby delivered within 37 to 42 weeks, such a baby comes out fully developed. Whereas, if the baby is born before the 37th week, it’s interpreted as premature. Assuming the baby is yet to be delivered the 42nd week, the mum-to-be might be forced to deliver.
Twenty-seventh Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby can cry with its arms becoming active. Also, it appeases itself by sucking its thumb.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
Possibly, you can notice striae while your womb keeps enlarging. By this time, you’d have added 7 – 10 Kg, which means you’re growing bigger.
Suggestion: Have a dialogue with a medical practitioner to know symptoms to guess you’re about to deliver the baby.
Twenty-eighth Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby now sizes approximately 10 inches from top to the bottom of the buttocks, with a weight of 2.4 pounds. The other parts of the baby’s lungs start to develop.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The womb expands properly beyond the belly button. While your baby grows large & firm, you can come about muscle contraction around your leg & soft swell in your toes & anklebones. Other discomforts include the inability to sleep, dyspnea, pains in the lower abdomen, heaviness, tightening and loosening of your uterus. You may start urinating more since the uterus further keeps up the bladder.
Suggestions: Give thought to engaging the doulas’ service to lower the chances of discomfort, pincers, or abdominal delivery.
Twenty-ninth Week
The Baby’s Growth
Commonly, the color of the baby’s eyes now turns blue & can differentiate shining sunrays to non-natural light via the uterine walls. Your baby now carries out little exercises since the uterus conditions get narrower; meanwhile, the baby keeps on with its kicks.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
By now, you’d have added 9 – 11 Kg. You can experience some early childbirth symptoms, menstrual-like labor pains or discomfort in your back, brown-colored secretions through the flow of a chunky, sticky liquid. Keep your nurse-midwife informed about this as soon as possible.
Suggestions: Your blood pressure can increase, often leads to serious migraines, eyes defect, critical hand dilations, etc. The signs can make gestures that you’re about to experience preeclampsia.
Thirtieth Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby sizes 17 inches from top to the bottom of its buttocks, with a weight of 1Kg. It starts developing a full rounded shape & gains freedom of its current temperature. The parts of the body & the head become normal just as a recently born child. Most of the external body parts are matured, with fingernails coming out.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The uterus expands to 4 inches beyond your belly button, though it’s difficult to believe. You can experience pains around your stomach, pelvic bone, & add like ½ Kg weekly.
Suggestion: Your baby surrounds by a bag made of amniotic liquid. It’s rare for this bag to crack immediately before your labor. If otherwise, it cracks ahead of time, can cause infectious disease.
Thirty-first Week
The Baby’s Growth
By now, the baby can listen clearly to sounds.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The uterus spreads over a big portion of your stomach, & you’d have topped 10-12 Kg.
Suggestions: Engage in respiratory & recreation fitness.
Thirty-second Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby size now is around 18.9 inches in length from top to the bottom of its buttocks, with a weight of 2 Kg. Beneath your baby’s skin, there’s a fat formed right there, & can open-close its eyes gradually.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
From this time onward, you need to visit your doctor two weeks interval till the final month. The muscle contraction experienced in your leg & back pains may continue, & you can observe your breasts letting out colostrum. This secretion precedes the real breast milk itself.
Suggestion: To experience a better condition, drink water a lot, sleep by your left, put on socks, raise your legs while sitting.
Thirty-third Week
The Baby’s Growth
The remaining days to go, the baby will experience much growth & add beyond ½ of its birth weight. It starts moving not as much since there’s no space any longer, with its legs & hands overlapped.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
Now, your weight adds up 10-13 Kg.
Suggestions: You can continue to have sex; meanwhile, you can find it very discomforting.
Thirty-fourth Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby sizes roughly 19.8 inches from top to bottom of your buttocks, with 2 Kg as weight. It gradually fixes to head-down post. By this time, the body systems are nearly developed, apart from skin & lungs. The toenails are about to be matured, while the fingernails stretch to the tips of fingers.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The womb tightens & shrinks from being ready for delivery. The pelvis is now enlarged & can discomfort you.
Thirty-fifth Week
The Baby’s Growth
The lungs of your baby are now fully-grown. The baby keeps adding fat deposits under its skin to maintain warmth after it comes out from the uterus.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
By this time, the uterus is approximately 6 inches on top of the belly button, while you must have added 11-13 Kg. You need to take a test for Group B streptococcus viruses from this day till 37 weeks.
Suggestions: Try making arrangements for your baby kits.
Thirty-sixth Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby sizes 20.7 inches from the top to bottom of the buttocks, with a weight of 3 Kg. Your baby can fall lower in your stomach, mostly taking head-down positioning, getting ready for delivery. The brain now grows very fast while its eyes keep winking.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The uterus is developed very largely. Get in touch with your doctor as you can experience back pain. You’ll feel weighty & pains in your bottom.
Thirty-seventh Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby sizes 21 inches from the top to bottom of the buttocks, with a weight of 3 Kg. The wrinkled skin starts to fade, while its head is already placed down by this time.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The uterus can maintain its current bigness from the previous week or two weeks back, with the weight roughly 12 – 16 Kg. You can carry out a genital test on the pregnancy.
Thirty-eighth Week
The Baby’s Growth
Many of the baby’s soft, fine hair & colorless skin starts to fade while it gets its immune responses through you for defense against sickness. The pace at which the baby develops now is slow; you can now prepare for the delivery.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
You can start to feel discomfort. 95% of babies are delivered in 2 weeks to the delivery date.
Thirty-ninth Week
The Baby’s Growth
The baby’s leg & hand becomes firm while its nails fix to their position. Now, its head has fallen to the pelvis.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
You can feel heavy & discomfort. The uterus now takes a full span of the pelvic bone, with a large part of your stomach.
Suggestions: You need to pay attention more to symptoms for labor. Misleading labor pains often focus on pains in the lower part of the stomach & genitals, whereas real labor pains start by the lower spine & can extend to the whole stomach.
Fortieth Week
The Baby’s Growth
Usually, Males add more weight compared to girls.
Pregnancy carrier’s experience
The D-day is approaching. Anytime from now, expect your baby to be delivered. About 5% of babies are delivered precisely the forecasted delivery date.
Suggestions: Do not eat anything, perhaps you imagine you are about to put to bed, no matter how little it is, the food can lead to general weakness, sickness, etc.
Observe the following during the Third trimester
Watch over your baby moves. Starting from week 28, you need to record the baby’s movements always & observe if there are any changes, particularly in the ninth month.
Observe your weight. From the start of the third trimester (Week 25), the pace at which your pregnancy weight increase is significant & it decreases while the delivery date draws closer. Perhaps your weight is not increasing as it ought to, or it’s in excess, consult your medical practitioner to balance your diet.
Continue! Keep up with your preventive health measure; you are safe to carry on with your exercises till the delivery day.
Plan medical examinations for your third trimester. You need to confirm your blood sugar level, blood deficiency & group B strep while it reaches seventh & eight-month. Once the pregnancy gets to the ninth month, the doctor carries out an inner check on the cervix. This cervix test confirms whether the annihilation & dilation (dilution & split of the cervix) have started. Other diagnosis includes nonstress test.
Have a visit to a Maternity center. The seventh month is a good period to explore any maternity center of your choice that you desire to have children.
Select your baby’s podiatrist. You can do this close to week 32 & make your choice.
Purchase your baby kits. Try as much to purchase your basic baby kits— particularly a box, pushchair, etc.
Be Enlightened. Aside from training on labor, you can consider child CPR.
Seek out information on breastfeeding. Before your child comes out, look for information on the need to breastfeed & how to go about it.
Antenatal support during the Third trimester
Within this (Week 25 to 36), antenatal care entails a test on the vaginal to confirm your baby’s position.
Antenatal care is very crucial for a well-conditioned pregnancy, particularly while your delivery date draws near. The doctor can request to fix a date for your antenatal care meetings in the third trimester for like 2 to 4 weeks interval, based on your past performance on your health. Beginning from 36 weeks, you must have a medical test every week till the due date.
- Perform regular medical examination on your health, like group B strep test, group B streptococcus (GBS)
- Confirm the position of your baby
When your due date approaches, the doctor will confirm whether your baby positions appropriately, i.e., headfirst.
Peradventure, the baby, takes its feet or rump to the uterus’s path, after the thirty-sixth week, it’s not likely for the baby to change to a headfirst post before delivery.
Ahem …
Now that you have a complete guide to your third pregnancy trimester, you can be sure of the steps to take towards a healthy pregnancy experience.