Week 40
Your baby is now about 50.7 cm (20 in) long and weighs around 3.3 kg (7.3 lb). The average birth weight is about 3.4 kg (7.5 lb), with a wide normal range on either side, and babies vary. Your baby is fully developed. Fat is still going on, and the brain is still growing quickly, as it will for years.
From the start of this week, your baby is full term. Your due date falls the day after this week ends, though very few babies arrive exactly then. This week is about the last stretch: what full term means, why due dates are only estimates, how to spend early labour at home, and how to hold your plans lightly. On day 280 the daily entries end, and the closing chapters take over.
Day 274 · 39 weeks 0 days
Your baby is full term today
At 39 weeks your pregnancy reaches full term. This is the window, from 39 weeks 0 days to 40 weeks 6 days, when babies tend to do best. Their lungs, brain and other organs have had the most time to mature, and they are least likely to need extra help with breathing or feeding. That does not mean anything has to happen today. Many first babies arrive after their due date, and that is normal. Labour tends to start when both your body and your baby are ready, and the signals between you are not fully understood.
What it does mean is that you can relax about timing. If labour starts tonight, your baby is ready. If it starts in a week, your baby is still in a good place. Your care provider will keep checking on you both at your appointments.
If you have been holding your breath since 37 weeks, you can let it out now. Each day from here is simply time for your baby to grow a little more, in the place that has kept them safe all along.
Try this: Mark today on your calendar, or take one more bump photo, to remember the day your baby reached full term.
Day 275 · 39 weeks 1 day
Your due date is a best guess, not a deadline
Your due date was worked out as 40 weeks from the first day of your last period, or adjusted by an early scan, as you read in the first weeks. It is a useful marker for planning care. It is not a prediction of the day your baby will come.
Only about 1 in 20 babies is born on the due date itself. Most arrive in the two weeks before or the one to two weeks after. First babies are a little more likely to come later. If you have had a baby before, this one may follow a similar pattern, but not always.
Some people find it helpful to think of a "due month" instead of a due date. It takes the pressure off one day on the calendar, and it is closer to how birth actually works.
If your due date passes, your care provider will talk with you about extra checks and your options. That is covered in the chapter that follows the daily entries, so there is no need to worry about it now.
Try this: If friends and family know your due date, try telling them "sometime in the next few weeks" from now on.
Day 276 · 39 weeks 2 days
Early labour is usually best spent at home
When labour starts, the early phase can last many hours, sometimes a day or more in a first labour. Contractions may be irregular and manageable. Your cervix is softening and starting to open. For most people with a straightforward pregnancy, home is the most comfortable place to be. How you spend this time matters. If it is night, try to rest or sleep between contractions. If it is daytime, keep doing ordinary, gentle things: a short walk, a film, baking, a bath or shower if your waters have not broken. Eat light food and keep sipping water. Pee often, since a full bladder can get in the way.
Use the comfort measures you practised: slow breathing, leaning forward, rocking on a birth ball, warmth on your lower back. Save your energy. Try not to time every contraction from the very first one.
Stay in touch with your care provider and follow the advice they gave you about when to call. Remember the reasons to go in right away from week 37, such as bleeding, green or brown fluid, or a change in your baby's movements.
Try this: Make a short "early labour" playlist or list of films, so you have something to settle into when the time comes.
Day 277 · 39 weeks 3 days
Hold your birth plan with an open hand
You may have spent weeks thinking about how you would like the birth to go. A birth plan, as you read about when you started yours, is a valuable way to share your wishes. It helps your care team know you, and it helps you think through your choices.
Birth is also unpredictable. Labour might be faster or slower than you expect. You might change your mind about pain relief. Your care provider might recommend an induction, an assisted birth or a caesarean for your safety or your baby's. None of these is a failure on your part. It can help to think of your plan as a set of preferences rather than rules. What matters most to you? Perhaps being informed and asked before anything is done, having your support person with you, or skin-to-skin after birth. Many of these can be kept, whatever kind of birth you have. You always have the right to ask questions. Useful ones include: What are the benefits? What are the risks? What are the alternatives? What happens if we wait?
Try this: Circle the three things in your birth plan that matter most to you, and make sure your support person knows them.
Day 278 · 39 weeks 4 days
Your body is quietly getting ready
Even if nothing seems to be happening, your body may be preparing for labour behind the scenes. In the last weeks, the cervix usually softens, shortens and moves forward. This is called ripening. It can happen gradually over days or weeks before labour, often without you noticing. Hormones are shifting too. Your body is becoming more sensitive to oxytocin, the hormone that drives contractions. Relaxin has been loosening your joints and ligaments, so your pelvis can open a little more during birth.
Some people notice small signs in these days. You might have more Braxton Hicks, stronger pelvic pressure, more vaginal discharge, or loose bowels. Some feel a burst of energy, others a strong need to rest. None of these on its own tells you when labour will begin.
At your appointment, your care provider may offer an internal exam to see how your cervix is changing. You can choose whether to have one. The findings can help with decisions such as a sweep, but they cannot predict the day.
Call your care provider if you have bleeding, fluid leaking, a fever, or any change in your baby's movements.
Try this: Take a warm shower tonight and let the water run over your lower back for a few minutes.
Day 279 · 39 weeks 5 days
Write a few words to your baby
You have carried this baby for about nine months. You have felt the first flutters, the hiccups, the rolls under your ribs. Soon you will meet face to face, and these months will start to blur.
Writing a short letter to your baby is a simple way to hold on to this time. It does not need to be polished. You could write about how you found out you were pregnant, what you felt at the first scan, the foods you craved, the name you nearly chose, or what you hope for them. Some people write about their fears too, and find it eases them.
You might keep the letter for your child to read when they are older. Or you might keep it just for yourself. Either way, it gives you a pause to notice how far you have come.
If writing is not for you, record a voice note, or sit quietly with a hand on your bump and talk to your baby out loud. Your baby has been hearing your voice for months now.
For your partner: Write your own letter to the baby, separately, and swap them if you both want to.
Day 280 · 39 weeks 6 days
Tomorrow is your due date, and you are ready
This is the last daily entry in the book. You have come a long way since day 1, before your baby was even conceived. Through nausea and fatigue, scans and blood tests, worry and wonder, you have grown a whole person. Tomorrow is your due date. Your baby may come tonight, tomorrow, or in a week or two, and all of that is normal. Whatever happens next, you have done the preparation. You know the signs of labour, when to call, your options for pain relief, and what you want for the first hour with your baby. Keep your bag by the door and your phone charged. Keep an eye on your baby's movements. Rest, eat, and let the people around you help. From here, the book changes shape. The chapters that follow walk you through what happens if you go past your due date, labour and birth, the first hours and days with your baby, and the fourth trimester, the weeks of recovery that come after. Turn to them whenever you are ready. Your baby will soon be in your arms. Until then, be gentle with yourself. Try this: Read the opening pages of the next chapter tonight, then put the book down and get some rest.