Pregnancy Week by Week | Pregnancy Stages

Thirty- four weeks after your LMP, your baby is perfectly formed.  All her proportions are exactly as you would expect them to be at birth.  Still, she has some maturing to do and some weight to gain before she is ready to be born.    

Your Baby’s Progress 

 Her organs are now almost fully mature except for her lungs, which are still not completely developed although they are secreting increasing quantities of surfactant, which will keep them from collapsing once she begins to breather air.  She can make strong movements that can be felt on the surface of your abdomen.  Nearly all of the babies born at this stage survive. 

Her skin, nails, and hair

Her skin is now pink rather than red, owning to the deposits of white fat underneath it. Fat deposits build up under her skin in order to provide energy and regulate her body temperature after she is born.  The protective vernix caseosa that covers her skin is very thick.  Her fingernails reach the ends of her fingers, but her toenails are not yet fully grown.  She may have quite a lot of hair n her head. 

Her eyes 

 Her irises can now dilate and contract.  They already contract in response to bright light and also to enable her to focus, although she will not need to develop this skill until after she is born.  She can close her eyelids, and she has begun to blink.   

 Her position 

Some babies assume the head-downward positon about now, but there is still plenty of time- most engage after 36 weeks.  Although most babies do turn on their own, she may remain in the breech (bottom down) position until birth. 

Her Support System  

This month the placental layers may start to thin.  To make estrogen, the placenta converts a testosterone like hormone that is produced by your baby’s adrenal glands.  By now these glands have reached a size equivalent to those of an adolescent, and every day they produce ten times as much hormone as an adult’s adrenal glands. 

They will shrink rapidly after birth.   The amniotic sac, or bag of water, contains a large amount of fluid, most of which is the baby’s urine; she can void as much as one pint of urine daily.  Excess vernix caseosa, nutrients, and products necessary for lung maturation are also present.  The umbilical

It can be difficult to calculate the exact date of conception although most women have their fertile period about 14 days after the first day of their last menstrual period.  Because of this, doctors set an artificial but convenient time scale of 40 week calculate from the LMP, although a fetus actually reaches “full term,” meaning it is fully developed, after about 38 weeks.  

Your Baby’s Progress 

During this month your baby will usually shed almost all of the lanugo from his body.  There may be some small patches left in odd places and perhaps some in his body creases. 

His skin is smooth and soft, and there is still some vernix caseosa left on it (mostly on his back), which will help his passage down the birth canal.  He may be almost chubby at birth.  His fingernails are long and may have scratched his face; they will need to be trimmed after birth.  He may be almost chubby at birth. 

His fingernails are long and may have scratched his face; they will need to be trimmed after birth.  His eyes are blue, although they may change in the weeks after birth; when he is awake they are open.   In these last weeks, your baby produces increasing amounts of a hormone called cortisone from his adrenal glands.  This helps his lungs to mature in readiness for his first breath. 

Meconium 

His intestine is filled with a dark green, almost black substance called meconium.  It is a mixture of the secretions from his alimentary glands, lanugo, pigment, and cells form the wall of his bowel. It will be the first bowel movement he will pass after birth (or he may pass it during delivery). 

Immune system 

His own system is still immature, so to make up for this he receives antibodies from you via the placenta, which will protect him against anything for which you have antibodies, such as flu, mumps, and German measles.  After he is born, he will continue to receive such antibodies through your breast milk. 

His support system 

The placenta now measures eight to ten inches (20-25cm) in diameter and is just over one inch (3cm) thick, thus creating a wide area for the exchange of nourishment and waste products between yourself and your baby.  There are now more than two pints (1 litre) of water in the amniotic sac. 

The hormones produced by the placenta are stimulating your breasts to swell and fill with milk.  They also cause swelling in your baby’s breast, whether it is a boy or a girl, which will recede after birth.  If your baby is a girl, the cessation of these same hormones following delivery may cause her to have light bleeding from her vagina (like a period) a few days after her birth.