Your baby
Your abdomen is now completely filled by your baby. Sometimes you feel the nudges, pushes and kicks in three places at once. He or she is lying ready at the cervix. Your child's bones are still so supple that they adapt easily to the birth canal during labour.
The head passes through easily too, because there are gaps between the bones of the skull, called fontanelles. During the birth these can slide over one another so that the head becomes a little narrower and passes through more easily. For the first while after the birth the head may therefore be slightly oval, but that settles by itself.
There is still about a litre of amniotic fluid around your baby, in the sac, and it is refreshed every two hours. Once your waters break, your baby is no longer protected against infection. You then need to be having good contractions within 24 hours. If it takes longer you must go to hospital, because the risk of your baby picking up an infection is too great.
You must go to hospital straight away if your waters break before you are 37 weeks pregnant, if your baby has passed meconium into the fluid, or if your baby is in a breech position.
You
The end is in sight. You may give birth this week, but it could still be another three weeks. The nursery is ready, everything you need is in the house, and your hospital bag may already be packed.
You do not necessarily have to have decided where you want to give birth — at home or in hospital. You can put that decision off until the very last moment. Only when you are really having contractions can you best judge where you feel most comfortable.
If you definitely want to give birth in hospital, it can be useful to have a look at the delivery room beforehand — though that is no guarantee you will give birth there. If there is no room when your time comes, you will be sent to another hospital.
Stocking up
Get in some rusks, aniseed sprinkles, coffee and tea. Once the baby is born you will certainly have plenty of visitors. And if you want the house decorated, you can buy some bunting.
Buying or making treats
Do you have other children? Then it is nice to make or buy treats, so that all the children at nursery or in the class know a little brother or sister has been born.
One more trip to the hairdresser
You may not have time for it soon, so make an appointment at the hairdresser now. Another good thing to squeeze in: the beautician. And if you would like well-kept nails, a manicure and pedicure. Though it is rather nice to give birth in warm socks.
Third trimester
