Future mom

During the late pregnancy, the level of cholesterol rises in the woman’s blood; but it should not bother you. Cholesterol is an important building material for the placenta with the help of which, it develops various kinds of hormones including progesterone which is responsible for development of mammary glands, removal of the pressure from the uterus and other smooth muscles.

Welcome to the third trimester. Now you will start to really gain weight, and it will approximately last till the 36th week. However, many agree that the weight gained during pregnancy is necessary for a healthy pregnancy and the child. The weight will be distributed evenly all over the body. In the beginning of pregnancy, you have probably noticed, that breasts grew larger. Part of the weight will be due to amniotic fluids and due to increase of the blood in the body. Remember, that the volume of blood may increase by 30-50 % during pregnancy. That includes the baby’s weight and the placenta. And as a result it turns out that you have not added too much. Remember the pregnancy is not the time for diets and starvations. Even if you were initially overweight, reducing food in your diet can do much harm to the child because by burning fat your body releases toxins, which certainly would not do any good to the baby.

From this week, the baby’s chance to survive in case of premature birth is about 85 %. So from now on, the child already possesses a perfectly realistic growing power.

However, there are still 13 weeks left for the full maturity of the baby; the baby is not completely developed yet, therefore in case of premature birth, a number of problems would arise that would have to be solved. Due to limited fat accumulation, this baby will have difficulty keeping his body temperature; therefore it is necessary to hold him in a special box, connected to the artificial respirator unit since the lungs are not completely developed and are not ready for independent breathing. The liver at this time does not function well yet; the brain is insufficiently developed, and the immune system is very weak which would make the child susceptible to infections from which a maturely born baby would manage easily. Even though the baby is still small and thin in the womb, externally he will look almost the same as when he is born.

The baby’s skin is very wrinkly due to being in the amniotic fluid. This is how he is going to be for several weeks after birth. The baby now looks the same way how he would look at birth.

Length from crown to sacrum - approximately 13.39 inches.

Weight - approximately 1.9 lbs