Only one more week to go! You have successfully completed the 39 weeks of your pregnancy, congrats! Your family would get bigger and better now. Having a child would add exuberance, joy, and fear, all together to your life. Your priorities would change and you would realize the true meaning of life after you have created one.
Now that you are already 39 weeks pregnant, you should mentally prepare yourself fully for the changes that would take place. All the added responsibilities with the existing ones should not take a toll on your health. Once you finally deliver your baby, you would be into your postpartum period and completely on bed rest for some time.
Hence, it would be wise to hire help or seek favors from your family and friends to lessen the burden of these responsibilities. Also, communicate about all these things with your partner as well.
Pregnancy Week: 39
The size of the baby at 39 weeks is similar to that of a watermelon. Your little munchkin or rather melon would have grown 19 3/4 (50.5 centimeters) in height and 7 1/2 pounds (3,403 grams) in weight, approximately. The weight your baby would have this week would be its birth weight. It would stop gaining weight till it is born.
Pregnancy Week 39At 39 weeks pregnant you are carrying a full-term baby inside you. The third trimester is about to get over within a matter of a few days. Although, your baby’s weight would not grow any more until its birth, however, the brain of your baby is growing and developing at full pace. This fast pace development of the brain would continue to happen until the next few years. In fact, the weight of your baby’s head would be one-third of its total weight during birth.
Along with your baby’s brain, its lungs are also at the developing stage. The lungs would also continue to develop even after the birth of your child. Meanwhile, all the organs of your baby are ready to function in the outside world.
Fun fact– babies can’t really cry until they are at least one month old. This might sound absurd but it is actually true. Their tear ducts are not fully formed at the time of their birth. So all the crying they do is tear-less. You will have to wait a month to wipe tears flowing from your dear baby’s starry eyes to its chubby cheeks.
Besides that, your baby’s skin has finally become white from pink-tinted. This week your baby’s skin would be embedded with a thick layer of fat, covering the blood vessels, making your adorable baby’s cheek supple and kissable. Soon after birth, your baby’s skin color would develop due to pigmentation.
When you are 39 weeks pregnant, it doesn’t at all mean that this week isn’t crucial for your baby. In fact, your baby is developing its very important skills that she/he would require for its entire lifetime; it is developing its immune system. You have been passing anti-bodies to your baby through the placenta since week 13.
These anti-bodies gives your baby the strength to fight off germs and diseases with a well developed immune system. In the last few weeks of your pregnancy, this development of the immune is system takes place in full-fledged.
39 Weeks Pregnant Symptoms
You would still be experiencing some pregnancy symptoms or discomforts that began with your third trimester. The symptoms that you have been suffering throughout these pregnancy days would continue to linger until the baby is born. The good thing is that your body is preparing itself for the big debut you have been eagerly waiting for all this time.
1. Effacement
At 39 weeks pregnant, your baby’s head is directed downwards, pointing towards your cervix. It is located low in your pelvis. Slowly but eventually, the head of your baby would move a few inches lower, nearing towards your cervix. This pressure would cause your cervix to soften, shorten, and become thinner, to prepare for the baby’s birth. This process of movement and preparation is called ripening or effacement.
2. Dilation
Effacement is the most important step during labor. Following that, your cervix would dilate or open up. In some cases, women experience effacement and dilation over weeks in a really slow and steady manner. While others experience it in a snap of seconds during labor.
3. Diarrhea
Your baby will come out in about a week’s time, meanwhile, a lot of loose stool would be excreted out of your body. This would mainly happen due to the changes in the cervix. Also, at 39 weeks pregnant, you are experiencing a surge in hormones called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins are a hormone that prepares your cervix to get ready for labor and birth. Consequently, they may also cause diarrhea.
39 Weeks Pregnant Ultrasound
Your 39-week baby bump has a lot going on inside it, at this point in time. Your baby is ready to take on the world and has nearly completed all his fetal development by the time you are 39 weeks pregnant. It is important that your baby is positioned with its head downwards inside your womb.
Pregnancy Week 39An ultrasound scan this week would ensure the same. In case, if your baby is resting in a breech position, your health provider might try to move it into the right position, from the outside. But, if she/ he fails to do so and the baby remain’s in the breech position at the time of delivery, they might suggest you get a C-section done.
Some Self-Care Tips for Pregnancy
Below are some self-care pregnancy tips :
Take walks
It is believed that doing some physical activities at home can help you with your labor by making it a slight gentle experience for you. Walking is supposed to be one of such physical activities. It is believed that moving upright would slide the baby a little downwards, given the gravitational pressure on your cervix.
Stimulate your nipples
Stimulating your nipples would release oxytocin and help you stimulating contractions consequentially. There are only a few days left before you have a new member of your family. So pull things together to push out the most important thing in your life!
Also read; Superfoods Checklist For All The New Mothers
