Your baby may soon drop lower into your pelvis ready for birth, relieving some of the pressure from under your ribs. This is known as ‘engagement’. Although it may be easier to breathe – walking might become a little bit more difficult!
Your baby’s developmentBaby as big as a cos lettuce
Your baby’s development
Your baby now weighs around 2.7kg and measures about 47cm in length.
At the end of the week your baby will be considered term. There is fat on your baby’s cheeks and their powerful sucking muscles will also contribute to their full face.
Your baby is most likely to be in the head-down ‘engaged’ position, and will be continuing to squirm around.
Your Body
With your baby taking up so much room, you may have trouble eating a normal size meal. Snacks and smaller, more frequent meals are easier to digest at this point.
You may have an easier time breathing when your baby starts to drop down into your pelvis. This process is called engagement and often happens a few weeks before the birth.
You may also experience increased pressure in your lower abdomen when your baby drops. This may make walking uncomfortable and you’ll probably find you need to urinate more frequently.
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Please note: These pregnancy week-by-week articles, are meant to give you a general sense of the growth and development going on within you. However, it’s important to remember that every baby develops differently, even during pregnancy.
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