Week 36: More Than A Feeling

Welcome to month 9! You’re only four weeks from your due date! Congratulations! As you progress closer to the end, you may get anxious about when labour will start. If it is your first pregnancy, you may be nervous about what labour will feel like. Trust your body to know what you are feeling! Signs of active labour are contractions that come progressively closer together, become more intense, and don’t go away with rest. As for when labour will start, unfortunately, no one can predict what day labour will begin. What may help is listening to the birth stories of a variety of women. Hearing how labour started and progressed for them, what their labour was like. The more you become familiar with the labour process and hear other people’s stories, the less fear becomes a factor. Be prepared by knowing about labour, pain management options, and coping strategies. Stay relaxed by distracting your mind from continually thinking about when labour will start. And be flexible, let your body tell you when it is ready!

Your baby is 36 weeks! Your baby is still preterm but has finished all the developmental changes needed for birth. Over the next four weeks, all the focus is on strengthening the muscles and reinforcing the reflexes required for feeding well. Additionally, accumulating more fatty tissue over the next week will drastically improve your baby’s ability to regulate temperature outside the womb.