Up to 26 weeks
Your baby is growing taller and stronger; and her movements are becoming more complex. She’s also showing signs of sensitivity, awareness, and intelligence. A baby born after 24 weeks of pregnancy could survive with specialized intensive care in a neonatal unit.
Your Baby’s Progress
She’s still red and skinny, but she’ll soon start to put on weight. Her skin may look very wrinkled, but this is because she doesn’t yet have much fat to plump it out. Her body is growing faster than her head, and by the end of this month her proportions are about the same as those of a newborn. Her arms and legs have their normal amount of muscle, her legs and body are, in proportion, and her bone are beginning to harden in the center. Lines start to appear on the palms of her hands. The brain cells she’ll use for conscious thought now start to mature, and she begins to be able to remember and learn. (In one experiment, babies in the womb were trained to kick in reponse to a particular vibration.)
The genitals of a boy and girl look completely different by this time; if your baby is a boy, testosterone-producing cells in the testes increase in number.
Her hearing Your baby can hear sound frequencies that you can’t hear. She’ll move more in response to high frequencies than to low ones and she’ll move her body in rhythm with your speech. From this month she will begin to respond to drum beats by jumping up and down. Some mothers say they’ve had to leave concerts because their unborn babies wouldn’t keep still.
If she hears a piece of music often, she may realize it’s familiar to her when she grows up – even if she can’t remember ever dat hearing it. Some musicians have said that they “knew” unseen pieces of music, and later found out that their mothers played the these to them while they were in the womb.
She’ll also learn to recognize her father’s voice from this month onward. A baby whose father talks to her while she’s in the womb can pick out her father’s voice in a roomful of people immediately after she is born. She’ll respond to it emotionally. For example, if she’s upset, she’ll stop crying when she hears her father talking and calm down.
Her breathing Inside her lungs, more and more air sacs are forming. They’ll continue to increase in number until she’s about eight years old. Around them, the blood vessels that will help her to absorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide are multiplying. Her pair nostrils have opened, too, and she’s beginning to make breathing movements with her muscles, so that her system has plenty of breathing practice before she’s born.
Up to 22 weeks
By this time your baby has grown enough to have developed a nervous system and muscles that allow him to move around in your womb. Because he’s still so small, he can swim up and down and be in any position at any time.
Your Baby’s Progress
Up until about 19 weeks after your last period, your baby grows very rapidly. Now this growth rate slows down, apart from his weight gain, and he matures in other ways. He begins to build up his defense systems.
A sheath begins to form around the nerves in his spinal cord to protect them from possible damage. He also has his own primitive immune system, which will help to defend him from some infections. To make body heat and keep up his temperature, your baby needs some specialized fatty tissue. This is provided by a substance called “brown fat,” which began to form during the fourth month. Now, deposits of brown fat begin to build up in areas of his body such as his neck, chest, and crotch. This will continue until term. One of the reasons that premature babies are so vulnerable is that they don’t yet have enough brown fat, and so cannot keep themselves warm.
His skin will continue to grow, although it’ll be red and wrinkled because there’s so little fat underneath it. His body begins to get plumper from now on. The sebaceous glands (oil-producing glands in the skin) become active and make a waxy, greasy substance called vernix caseosa. This protects his skin during its long immersion in the amniotic fluid.
Your baby’s body is also covered with fine hair called lanugo. Nobody is quite sure why babies have this hair, but it may help to regulate the body temperature, or it may help hold the protective vernix caseosa in place.
His movements As his nerve fibers become connected and his muscles continue to develop and grow stronger, his movements become more purposeful and coordinated. He embarks on his own gymnastics program-stretching, grasping, turning-to build up his muscles, improve his motor ability, and strengthen his bones. These movements can make your abdomen sore.
Sex organs A boy’s scrotum is solid at this stage. A girl’s vagina starts to become hollow and her ovaries contain about seven million eggs, which will be reduced to about two million at birth. By the time she reaches puberty, she’ll have between 200,000 and 500,000 eggs, and she’ll release only 400-500 of these during her adult life-around one per month until menopause. Nipples and underlying mammary glands develop in both sexes.
Up to 18 weeks
The second trimester starts from the fourteenth week of pregnancy. Your baby is steadily growing, and if you have a scan now, it’ll be possible to tell your baby’s sex. If your doctors think it necessary, they may suggest you have various tests around this time to rule out any abnormalities.The length of your baby’s thighbone will be measured, as well as the diameter of her head. The head measurement will be used to confirm the EDD.
Your Baby’s Progress
She’s looking more human now, with legs longer than her arms and the parts of her legs in proportion. Her skeleton continues to produce more bone, and those parts with sufficient calcium can be seen on X-rays. She now has the same number of nerve cells as an adult. The nerves from her brain begin to be coated in a layer of myelin (protective fat). This is an important step in their maturation because it helps the passage of messages to and from the brain. Connections between nerves and muscles are set up so that your baby’s well-formed limbs can move around their joints when the muscles are stimulated to contract and relax. Now that her arms are long enough, her hands can grasp each other if they touch accidentally, and she can form fists. Her movements aren’t yet under the control of her brain, though. Nor do you notice them yet because she’s not big enough to activate nerve endings on your uterine wall. Second-time mothers tend to feel their baby’s movements sooner.
Your baby’s external genital organs are taking on a more distinctive appearance. A girl’s vaginal plate, the beginnings of her vagina, is clearly developing, and a boy’s testes are well on their way to descending into the scrotum.
Her Support System
The placenta is making the increasing amounts of hormones (chorionic gonadotrophin, estrogen, and progesterone) that are needed throughout pregnancy. It’s also making an assortment of other hormones that keep your uterus healthy and play an essential part in the growth and development of your breasts in preparation for feeding your baby. The placenta forms a barrier against general infection, although not against viruses such as rubella (German measles) and AIDS, and poisons such as alcohol and nicotine. By the end of the sixteenth week, the placenta has grown in thickness to about half an inch (1 cm) and three-and-ahalf inches (7-8 cm) across.
The placenta continues to grow until, at term, it weighs a pound (500 g), and measures an inch and a half (3 cm) thick and 8-10 inches (20-25 cm) across. It’s firmly attached to the uterine wall (usually the upper part).
Up to 14 weeks
By 14 weeks after your last period, all of your baby’s major organs have formed and his intestines are sealed in his abdominal cavity. He now starts to grow and mature.
Your Baby’s Progress
By the eleventh week of pregnancy, your baby is recognizable as a human being, and he’s now called a fetus (offspring) rather than an embryo. His head is very large compared with the rest of his body-by 14 weeks, it’s about one-third of his whole length. His eyes are completely formed, although his eyelids are still developing and remain closed. His face, too, is completely formed. His trunk has straightened out and the first bone tissue and ribs appear. He has nails on his fingers and toes, and he may have some hair. The external genital organs are now growing, and doctors may able to tell your baby’s sex by ultrasound. His heart is beating between 110 and 160 times per minute and his circulatory system is continuing to develop. He swallows amniotic fluid and excretes it as urine.
His sucking reflex is getting established-he purses his lips, turns his head, and wrinkles his forehead. The muscles he’ll use after he’s born for breathing and swallowing are also being exercised. In fact, by the end of this month, your baby will have discovered movement. He now begins to move around vigorously, but you probably won’t be able to feel his movements until the fourth month.
Blood-cell production While your baby will go on relying on the placenta for his nourishment, oxygen, and the clearance of waste until he is born, he has to have a system of blood-cell formation that will eventually support life outside the womb. Toward the end of this month, the yolk sac becomes superfluous as its task of producing blood cells is taken over by your baby’s developing bone marrow, liver, and spleen.
His Support System
The placenta is developing very quickly, making sure that there’s a rich network of blood vessels to provide your baby with vital nourishment. Now the layers thicken and grow until the chorion and membranes cover the entire inner surface area or the uterus. The umbilical cord is now completely mature and is made up of three intertwined blood vessels wrapped in a fatty sheath. The large vein carries nutrients and oxygen-rich blood to your baby, while the two, smaller, arteries carry waste products and oxygen-poor blood from your baby to the placenta. The umbilical cord is coiled like a spring because the sheath is longer than blood vessels. This allows your baby plenty of room to move around without the risk of damaging his lifeline.
Up to 10 weeks
This is a time of very rapid and crucial development-your baby quadruples in size. The embryo is lying in the center of a large placental cocoon, and is still very tiny. As it develops, its cells are constantly changing to make new structures.
Your Baby’s Progress
Inside the tube that will eventually become your baby’s brain and spinal cord, the cells multiply at an amazing rate, then move away to the areas where they will become active. Nerve cells that will form the brain travel along pathways that are being laid down glial (glue) cells. These cells allow the nerve cells to move toward each other, connect, and become active.
Your baby’s head is growing rapidly in order to make room for the enlarging brain, and the body is becoming less curved. A neck begins to develop and the primitive tail disappears.
The skin now starts to develop into its two layers, and the sweat glands and sebaceous (oil-producing) glands begin to form. Hair then starts to grow from the hair follicles so that the skin becomes downy. All the major organs develop. The heart achieves its final form and beats strongly. The stomach, liver, spleen, appendix, and intestine develop. The intestine becomes so long it forms a loop the circulatory system is established, and most muscles begin take on their final form.
Facial features Under the skin on the baby’s face, a primitive bone structure has developed, and these bones are now fusing together. One of these goes down between the eyes and ends on either side of the nostrils, thus forming the nose and the middle of the upper lip. Two others appear under the eyes, forming the cheeks and sides of the upper lip. Two more grow under the mouth, fusing to form the lower lip and chin. All this provides the framework to which the facial muscles become attached, which then allows the face to move.
There’s already some pigment in the eyes, which are covered and very far apart. The inside and outside parts of the ears begin to form and the taste buds start developing. The tooth buds of all nonpermanent teeth are now in place.
Arms and legs Embryonic limbs continue to develop. Wrists and fingers appear on the arm buds, which become longer and project forward. The arms become bent at the elbow. Touch-pads form on the fingertips. Leg buds sprout, then develop three distinct sections-thigh, calf, and foot. Toes start to appear. At this stage, your baby’s arms and hands grow faster than her legs and feet.
This trend will continue after your baby’s been born-she’ll be able to grasp objects long before she’s starts walking.
Bottlefeeding
It’s perfectly safe and healthy to bottlefeed your baby with an infant formula, instead of breastfeeding, but you must follow the manufacturer’s instructions very carefully. When you feed your baby, give him plenty of warm, loving attention and eye contact.
Preparing Formulas
Infant formula products range from relatively inexpensive dried-milk-based powders to ready-to-use but expensive liquid milk products. Infant formulas are enriched with vitamins and iron, and are carefully formulated to make them as close as possible to human milk. They’re usually based on cow’s milk, but there are soy-based formulas for babies who cannot digest, or who have an allergy to, ordinary milk. If you’re unsure which product to choose, ask your health care provider to recommend one. Whichever formula you use, it’s essential to keep all the bottles, spoons, measuring cups, and nipples absolutely clean, because a newborn baby is very vulnerable to infection. It’s also very important always to wash your hands thoroughly before making up formula or bottlefeeding your baby.
Keeping Everything Clean
You’ll quickly develop your own routine for cleaning bottles and nipples. For sterilizing, you can use the hot cycle on your dishwasher, but be aware that rubber nipples will deteriorate quickly in the heat of a dishwasher. You can also sterilize equipment if you put it in a large pot, cover it with water, and boil for 10 minutes. All items must be fully submerged during the boiling period. Use tongs to remove the hot bottles and allow them to cool before filling. Sterilize all feeding equipment until your baby is 12 months old.
Before sterilizing, wash the feeding equipment in hot, soapy water or, if you have one, in a dishwasher. Scrub inside the bottles with a bottle brush. Clean nipples carefully, and rinse everything thoroughly
Measuring And Mixing
Follow the instructions on the can or package exactly when preparing a feeding. Never make the formula “more nourishing” by adding more powder than specified your baby will get too much fat and protein and too little water. And if you always add extra water to the powder, because you want to make the formula more thirst-quenching, you run the risk of undernourishing your baby.
Birth Plan
Making your own plan for your baby’s birth will help you make sure you have an active involvement in the way he’s born and what happens immediately after the birth. Think about all the options and what you’d prefer, and talk everything over with your birth attendants and your partner. In this way, you’ll build a bond of trust with everyone concerned and create a happier, more comfortable labor.
A Consensus Plan
Think about what’s important to you and then find out as much as you can to see if what you want is feasible. There’s no point in making an unrealistic plan that can’t be used once you are in labor. Talk to your care provider about your birth plan early in your pregnancy. If you’re having a hospital birth, ask your doctor to refer you to the hospital that’s most in tune with your wishes if possible. It also helps to talk about what you want with your midwife, childbirth teacher, and other members of your prenatal team-they’ll able to give you advice and tell you about the kinds of experiences other mothers have had in your local hospitals.
Hospital response Your hospital team will welcome the preparation you’ve done for the labor and will encourage you to get involved. Some mothers used to get bad reactions to birth plans from hospital staff because they might interfere with standard practices. That’s unlikely now-in fact, there’ll be space in your hospital notes for your preferences to be recorded.
Working together Cooperation is an important part of a birth plan. Working everything out in detail with all your attendants, including your partner, should ease anxieties and help you feel more in control of your baby’s birth. Make sure staff are aware of any alternative plans you’ve made and stay friendly with your caregivers-they’ll want to follow your wishes as far as they can, provided you and your baby are not at risk. Once you’ve talked about what’s important to you, give a copy of the plan that’s kept with your hospital notes to each of your birth partners or caregivers. This could be important if someone who doesn’t know your wishes has to attend your labor. If you refuse any routine hospital procedures, you’ll probably be asked to sign a refusal of treatment form. This protects the hospital from liability and give you more freedom of choice.
Special considerations Make a note on your birth plan of any particular needs you may have while you’re in the hospital-for example, if you’re a vegetarian or you need any other special diet.