We continue to advance with the pregnancy week by week and we are already in the 36th week of pregnancy . We are almost finishing our trip, there is very little left to finally see your baby’s face.
This will be the last week in which it is considered a premature baby, since from week 37 it will already be a full-term baby.
Your baby’s skin is turning pinker due to the accumulation of fat and in most cases he will already be upside down and wedged in. She is also losing the hair that covered her, and her skin is covered in vernix caseosa, which is a creamy, whitish substance that babies are born with. All this will be swallowed and this is what will form the meconium, a sticky black paste that will be the baby’s first stools.
Changes in the mother
If your baby has wedged in, you will have noticed that now it presses more on your pelvis but nevertheless the pressure on the stomach and the diaphragm has been released, allowing you to better digest light meals and a relief when it comes to breathing.
Most commonly, Braxton Hicks contractions appear randomly and painlessly. These help to tone the uterine muscle, softening the cervix and facilitating the flow of blood to the placenta. They intensify more as the time of delivery approaches, so they also help to dilate and erase the cervix, even by 3-4 centimeters.
The frequency of medical consultations will be weekly to carry out a more exhaustive control. The doctor will measure the thickness of the cervix and check if the dilation has started. It may be that women who have given birth before have a dilation of a few centimeters at this height. For its part, fetal monitoring also measures the frequency of the baby’s heartbeat.
If you haven’t done it before, it’s time to talk to your doctor about your delivery care and your preferences regarding epidural, episiotomy, birthing position, etc.
Diagnostic tests this week
If it has not already been done, you will have the streptococcus agalactiae test and third trimester analysis.
Although each pregnant woman and each baby are different, these are the main changes that occur in the mother and the baby during the 36th week of pregnancy . Do not stop following your pregnancy week by week.
Next week: 37th week of pregnancy
Photo of Andre Furtado in Pexels
