With only a week or so to go until you meet your baby, the excitement and nerves are sure to be building. Do keep in mind that only 5% of births occur on the due date though – so don’t be too disappointed if your date comes and passes by!

Your baby’s development

Your baby could be due any time now. By now, your baby is around 3.4kg in weight and measures around 51cm from head to toe.

There’s no spare room inside your uterus, so your baby can only move from side to side. Over the last 9 months, your baby has developed from one cell, to a small human made up of over 200 million cells and weighing over 6 billion times more.

Throughout this amazing journey, your placenta has been supplying your baby with the nutrients and antibodies they’ll need to support their immune system. This will help your baby fight infection for the next 6-12 months.

Your Body

During this time, varicose veins, if you have them, might get more pronounced. This is because the hormone progesterone relaxes the blood vessels. There’s also more weight on your legs and more blood circulating in your body.

The good news is, once your baby’s head has engaged, you’ll feel less breathless because there will be less pressure on your lungs from your baby’s body.

At this stage, you might notice a ‘show’ – this is when the plug of mucus sealing your womb comes away. This is a sign that your body is getting ready for labour. It might not happen immediately, but it’s a sign it will happen soon.

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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.