✓ Forty week of pregnancy

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Forty week of pregnancy

It is the time of childbirth and the birth of a new life. However, if nothing happens yet, don't worry: some babies in fact wait until the forty-second week to be born. So here's what happens to your body and your baby during XNUMXth week of pregnancy. With the scientific advice from gynecologist Elisabetta Canitano, president of the non-profit association Vita di donna.

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Symptoms in the fortieth week of pregnancy

Now that it's time for childbirth, the expectant mother must be ready at the beginning of labor. Agitation and anxiety are normal moods given by waiting, but it is still good to remain as calm as possible and get some rest.

It should break this week stopper mucus, the substance that is at the entrance to the cervix and protects the fetus from infection, the lamoant signal of the onset of the fateful moment. When this happens, the doctor or midwife will constantly monitor the status of the cervix and gods may be prescribed laxatives to facilitate operations during childbirth.

Finally, maximum attention to contractions keeping in mind, however, that the labor it is heralded by contractions regular It's long (at least 45-50 seconds), with increasing intensity.

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What if the child is late? Over-term pregnancy

If at 40 weeks nothing happens yet, there is no need to be alarmed: pregnancy has a duration ranging from 38 finished weeks to 42 finished weeks, so the time frame in which it is possible for the baby to be born is very large. In fact, only a small percentage of women give birth on the day the gynecologist indicates how "presumed date of delivery", while most give birth to their baby spontaneously within the forty-first week.

It is not yet clear what triggers the mechanism that initiates labor, although it is hypothesized that several factors act in synergy to make this happen. Among them, the aging of the placenta; the decrease in amniotic fluid; the increase in the blood of oxytocin (hormone that promotes contractions) and estrogen, which occurs right at the end of the pregnancy. Pregnancy is considered over-term or, more correctly, "protracted", if it exceeds 42 weeks (294 days calculated from the date of your last menstruation). Protracted pregnancy affects 5-10 percent of women expecting a baby. In Del Paese, when the pregnancy lasts beyond 41 weeks + three or four days, doctors intervene to induce birth through the use of prostaglandins and oxytocin. The duration of pregnancy is influenced by familiarity and has a certain relationship with the duration of the monthly cycle (interval between one menstruation and the next): women who, before becoming pregnant, had cycles of more than 30 days tend to be later than the expected date of delivery more than future mothers who, before pregnancy, had close menses. Read also: Labor room: images

The fetus in the fortieth week of pregnancy

At this point it is ready, indeed very ready to be born and from now on, every moment is really good for the onset of labor. The small organs are in fact fully formed and a greenish substance called meconium, which is the amniotic fluid that the baby swallowed during gestation. This meconium will be expelled with the first stool.

At the end of this last week it weighs on average 3200-3400 grams and is about 50-52 centimeters long.

Gestational age: nine months (DPP CALCULATION - Expected date of delivery)

FONTI: NHS; BabyCenter

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Pregnancy week by week

We follow the growth of the embryo which then becomes the fetus from first week of pregnancy up to the fortieth. We will see the growth of the fetus and how the body of the expectant mother changes, until the due date is expected. All the useful information on the forty weeks of pregnancy, in the articles a lot of information on the development of the baby, on what is happening to the body and useful advice on the tests to be done based on the calculation of the weeks of pregnancy.