37 Weeks Pregnant

Pregnancy week by week

Everyone worries about whether they will know they are in labour. This week, our checklist will help you decide whether it’s the real thing. We look at

• How you will know you are in labour
• What you may notice when you go into labour
• What happens when your waters break
• When to call your midwife or doctor
• Why some labours need to be induced
• Coping with backache in early labour

You may find walking more uncomfortable now if your baby’s head presses on your pelvic floor, and may have more frequent Braxton Hicks contractions. Your baby now weighs about 2.9kg or 6 ½ lbs.

How will I know I am in labour?
If this is your first baby, it’s easy to think ‘this is it’, only to find you are just getting ready for labour. In the week or so before labour you may notice:

• An increase in vaginal discharge.
• The appearance of the ‘show’, the jelly like plug of mucus that seals the cervix during pregnancy.
• A need to get things finished and ready – the so-called ‘nesting instinct’.
• Feeling quite emotional; crying for no real reason as your hormones get to you.
• A sense that you don’t want to be far from home.
• A mild dose of diarrhoea. This is nature’s way of clearing out your lower bowel before labour begins.
• Braxton Hicks contractions that feel like tightening or period pains.

When you go into labour you may notice:

• The ‘show’ (if it has not come away earlier).
• Low back pain as the baby settles well down, which may turn into...
• regular contractions that could feel like period pains or tightening pains across your bump
• The waters breaking, either in a gush or a gradual trickle.

The waters
Your unborn baby floats in amniotic fluid, a straw-coloured liquid, mainly consisting of water. Labour begins, for some women, with the waters breaking. If the waters go with a gush, contact your midwife or hospital. You may be asked to go into hospital so that they can check that the baby is well. It will help your midwife if you can remember when the waters broke, roughly how much fluid there was (an egg cup full, a coffee cup full?) and what colour it was. Amniotic fluid is usually pale. If it is green or has black bits in it, this may show that the baby is, or has been, in distress. If the waters trickle out, it can be hard to decide if they have gone. Put a sanitary pad on and, if it is wet after an hour, it’s probably the waters leaking. Smell the pad; urine smells, amniotic fluid doesn’t. If you are still not sure, contact your midwife or the hospital. Your midwife can do a vaginal examination and test the fluid.

Call your midwife or doctor if you have:

• Bleeding like a period (this would be heavier than a ‘show’, which may be lightly bloodstained; heavy bleeding is a cause for concern).
• Constant abdominal pain (contractions tend to come and go; a constant pain needs checking out).
• Sudden severe headaches or vision disturbances as this could be a sign of dangerously high blood pressure.
• Reason to think your baby has not moved recently or the movements are much less than usual.
• Any concerns that you might be in labour; your midwife will have spoken to lots of women in labour and will be able to tell a great deal from how you sound and what you describe to her.

Induction
For some women, labour is started artificially. If there are signs of a serious problem for you or your baby, your baby may be safer being born, rather than staying in the womb. This may happen if you have high blood pressure or a condition such as diabetes.

If you have backache in early labour, try these self-help tips

• Hold a covered hot water bottle against your lower back, or try an ice pack to numb the area.
• Get in the bath or shower and direct the shower head over the painful area.
• Ask your partner to massage your back with firm steady movements.
• Kneel on all fours, lean over the seat of a chair or sit cowboy-style on a chair, using pillows to make yourself comfortable.
• Use a TENS machine (see week 28).

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