Your baby
Your baby now looks ready and finished, with lovely pink skin and a nicely solid body. But if your baby were born now, he or she would still need to spend a while in an incubator. The temperature system is not yet properly developed, so your child would not be able to keep warm. On top of that your child has not built up enough resistance yet and is therefore still very prone to infection.
Because it is getting more and more cramped inside you, your child can no longer move about very freely. Merry somersaults are long over. You still feel the nudges and kicks, and they are sometimes quite forceful. Do you see a bump sticking out? That will be a foot or a shoulder. This week your child may take up its final position, though he or she may still turn later. Once your child has dropped down, the position no longer changes.
You
Your pregnancy has changed the flow in your blood vessels. You now have more blood: seven litres instead of five. That increase is mostly extra fluid, which makes your blood thinner so that it flows more easily and quickly. All that blood has to be pumped round by your heart, which therefore has to work harder.
The walls of your vessels are slacker as well. Because of these changes, blood can pool in your lower body, which can leave you with piles and/or varicose veins. Try to prevent this by moving regularly and not sitting or standing in one position for too long.
A moment's relaxation: lie on your back on the floor and rest your lower legs on a chair, with your knees at a right angle. Wonderful.
Health insurance
In the Netherlands you are obliged to insure your child from birth, by adding it to one parent's policy. All children are accepted automatically. Call your insurer during your pregnancy, or look on their website, to find out how to arrange it and to which parent's policy the baby can be added.
It is handy to know that in advance so it can be arranged straight after the birth. And do not forget to add your baby to other personal insurance later, such as your liability insurance.
Wrapping up at work
The period before your leave is often hectic. There are all sorts of jobs to finish and things to hand over, which makes you busier than ever. So try to start preparing for your leave in good time.
Make a plan of what you have to finish yourself, who will take over your work and how you will hand it over. For the colleagues taking over, it helps if you put everything on paper. Then, with any luck, no one will ring you during your leave to ask where 'those important phone numbers' are.
Third trimester
