There are only a few weeks left before the future parents meet their baby. The baby will be born in less than a month. This article will talk about the features of fetal development at 37 weeks.
What does it look like?
In appearance, a child at 37 weeks is completely similar to an ordinary newborn baby. The fetus has already, like a small person, formed all the basic facial features. Moreover, the face of the fetus has a number of unique features inherent only to him. On the face of the baby, you can quite clearly define the nose and forehead. These anatomical formations already look quite voluminous, and not flat, as before. The ears are located on the sides of the face. The shape and size of the ears is individual for each child. The child already has quite chubby cheeks. This feature is due to the fact that there is adipose tissue under the skin of the cheek zones on the face. Its quantity determines the individual plumpness of the cheeks.
By 37 weeks, a baby has quite a lot of hair on his head. Eyebrows and eyelashes also continue to grow. But on the baby's torso, the hairline decreases every day. Delicate vellus hairs easily fall off on their own. This contributes to the fact that the skin gradually becomes smoother. Smooth skin cannot yet be called. There are quite a few wrinkles on it. They appear on the skin of the fetus because it is in the amniotic fluid all the time.
These wrinkles will disappear completely after the baby is born. The skin of the fetus is still quite thin and delicate.
The color of the skin is pink. A special gray tint to the skin is given by the original lubricant, which covers the outside of the baby's body.
The proportions of the body of the fetus at 37 weeks differ significantly from the proportions of the body in the first half of pregnancy. The baby's head is already quite large, but does not seem gigantic in relation to other parts of the body. The baby's arms and legs have grown quite well.
An interesting feature of this period is the structure of the bones of the skull. They are still quite soft. This feature is necessary for the fetus. It is thanks to the special "softness" of the bones of the skull that a child can be born. If the fetal skull was too hard, then the movement of the head along the birth canal would be impossible or accompanied by massive damage. But nature has provided for a more physiologically favorable option. The density of the fetal skull bones will change. So, after the crumbs are born, they will become denser.
Movement
By 36-37 weeks, the baby has already grown quite a lot. It is quite difficult for a kid who weighs more than two and a half kilograms to make any frequent and active movements. With each subsequent week of pregnancy, the baby will change its position and move towards the small pelvis of its mother. The closer the onset of labor, the lower the baby's head will be located to the birth canal.
The larger the fetus, the harder it is for him to move in the already cramped mother's womb. However, it can also move its arms and legs. These movements are usually quite intensely felt by his mother. At such moments, a woman usually feels that her baby is pushing hard.
The fruit is usually very active during the daytime. At night he calms down and even sleeps. Often at night, the expectant mother simply feels that her baby is “quiet” and practically does not move. However, it is not uncommon for a baby to simply "confuse" day and night. In this situation, he can wake up his mother, who will feel the sudden movement of the baby in her stomach.
If the child is calm and no factors bother him, then at 37 weeks he is usually not as active as before.
If the baby is in constant "motion" and is trying in every possible way to roll over, then this is a reason for consulting a doctor. Such active movements can be dangerous for a rather large baby by the development of certain pathologies.
Anatomical features
Until 36-37 weeks of pregnancy, the baby grew quite quickly in length and gained weight. Now he does it much more slowly. This stage of pregnancy is not a strategically important period for increasing the baby's body size. It is more important that the body of the crumbs prepare for the imminent birth and change of the habitat.
It is also possible to measure the size of the fetus at 37 weeks. This is easy to do, since the baby already has a rather large body size. Accurate measurements of the main anatomical structures of the fetus are carried out using ultrasound techniques. Each week of pregnancy is characterized by certain normal values of the determined indicators. The table below shows the rates of such determinable parameters.
How is it developing?
For an independent life of a baby in the external environment, it is very important that all his internal organs are formed and functioning. A baby born at 37 weeks is viable if he has adequate breathing and blood circulation. The child's heart and blood vessels are already formed, but the blood supply to the internal organs of the fetus is still going on through the uteroplacental blood flow system common with his mother. Truly, the baby's heart and blood vessels will begin to function only after his birth.
An important clinical criterion that allows you to assess the work of cardiac activity in the fetus is the heart rate. This simple diagnostic test allows you to assess not only the work of the cardiovascular system in the fetus, but also indirectly understand what is happening with the baby.
If the baby experiences any discomfort while in the womb, this will lead to the fact that his heart rate (HR) will change.
Doctors identify several options for heartbeat disorders:
tachycardia (this condition is characterized by a rapid heart rate);
bradycardia (in this state, the heart rate is below normal).
Normocardia is a clinical variant, when the baby's heart beats within the age norm. This condition indicates that the child feels good in the mother's womb and does not experience any pronounced discomfort. The child's heart rate at this time is shown in the table below.
Spontaneous breathing is impossible without full lung function. To prevent pulmonary alveoli from "sticking together" when breathing, a special substance is needed - a surfactant. It begins to appear in the lung tissue at the end of pregnancy. A sufficient amount of surfactant is necessary so that after birth, the child can take his first breath on his own.
Every day, the baby's reflexes increase. This is largely due to the good development of the cerebral cortex. The ability to respond to external stimuli is the most important criterion for adapting a baby to new living conditions. The swallowing reflex is very important. It was formed in the baby a few weeks ago, but every day it continues to improve, So, the baby already swallows amniotic fluid quite easily. After that, he usually hiccups often. Hiccups are a completely physiological phenomenon and even part of a stepwise complex process of intrauterine development.
Another important reflex that has recently developed in the fetus is sucking. It manifests itself in the fact that the child, while still in the womb, begins to suck his thumb almost all the time. The sucking reflex is necessary so that in the future the baby on its own at the level of instincts could suck breast milk.
The development of the baby's sense organs contributes to the fact that the fetus has quite a lot of sensations. He can already react to bright light and sound, distinguish between certain tastes, gradually the baby's tactile and pain sensitivity increases. The end of pregnancy is very important. At this time, the expectant mother should definitely monitor any symptoms in her body.
It is important to remember that the onset of labor for a variety of reasons can be much earlier than the due date. So, a strong leakage of amniotic fluid or intense pain in the abdomen should be the reasons for consulting a doctor. It is better to play it safe in such a situation than to receive medical assistance on time.
Each pregnancy has its own characteristics. So, in some cases, the process of intrauterine development of the fetus is somewhat disturbed. In this case, the child has a developmental delay. This pathology can be determined by a doctor who has followed the course of pregnancy and knows its features.
How is it located in the womb?
The doctor necessarily evaluates the presentation of the fetus. This clinical criterion is very important. It provides professionals with information on how the large parts of the baby are located in the womb. The choice of tactics for further obstetrics depends on the location of the head, arms and legs, as well as the buttocks of the child.
The most favorable presentation from a physiological point of view is the head presentation. The passage of the baby through the birth canal in this case is quite normal. At the same time, the head first enters the birth canal during childbirth. It is she who is the first to be born, followed by all other parts of the body. With cephalic presentation, the risk of developing birth trauma and damage is usually minimal.
Pelvic presentation is considered less favorable. In this situation, it is not the head of the fetus, but its pelvis, which is located closer to the birth canal. This "reverse" position of the baby can contribute to the appearance of various dangerous complications during natural childbirth.
With a breech presentation, the baby's buttocks are closer to the birth canal. In everyday life they say that the child "sits on the priest." In breech presentation, the development of birth injuries and injuries is also quite high. Independent natural childbirth in this case can be dangerous by the development of a number of complications for both the mother and her baby.
The choice of obstetric tactics is individual. For this, a doctor who monitors the course of a particular pregnancy evaluates a combination of different factors.
If the potential risk of birth trauma and injuries is quite high, then the surgical method of obstetric assistance - caesarean section - will be used as the choice of obstetric benefit.
See what happens at 37 weeks of pregnancy in the next video.
