7 months and 1 week
3rd Trimester
11 more weeks to go
Your uterus is now around 3.5 to 4 inches above your navel. The baby is getting more and more viable for existence outside the womb but hang in there, mum, since he needs to remain inside for a few more weeks. If you are still constipated, irregular bowel movements, hard stools and abdominal pain may be bothering you. Keep eating fibre-rich food, drinking water and exercising! Right now, having iron and calcium is so important. Iron helps your body maintain and replenish red blood cells, which transport oxygen throughout the body and prevent anemia. You might want to take your rings off now before your fingers get more swollen!
सप्तमे मासि गर्भः सर्वैर्भावैराप्याय्यते , तस्मात्तदा गर्भिणी सर्वाकारैः क्लान्ततमा भवति । (चरक शारीरस्थान)
Ayurveda says growth and development of all aspects of garbha take place so pregnant women become exceedingly deficient in all aspects of her health.
You can spot them from the top of your belly.. They feel like light, rhythmic taps to you. Don’t worry, they aren’t uncomfortable for the baby.
Nice quantities of fat are getting deposited under the skin surface making his wrinkled skin smoother. This white fat, as it's called, is different from the earlier brown fat your developing baby accumulated. Brown fat is necessary for body temperature regulation, while white fat — similar to mum’s — is a good source of energy.
In the third trimester, your baby's brain triples in weight, and deep grooves develop to allow more surface area for neurons. Are you talking to baby, reading her stories?
All that kicking has peaked during weeks 26-30. This week, the baby can still move her entire body inside the uterus. As space decreases in the coming week, this will stop. It may be difficult for your or even your doctor to determine in what position your baby is this week. The head can easily be confused with the little bottom and all that turning around makes it almost impossible to predict.
The good news is that only 20 percent of mums-to-be develop varicose veins. If you are noticing swollen blood vessels, don’t worry: they are harmless. They appear because your blood volume increases during pregnancy, your growing uterus is putting pressure on the pelvic veins and hormones are making your veins relax. They can also occur in your rectum (as hemorrhoids) or even your vulva, but don't confuse them with purplish-red spider veins.
To prevent or manage them, please keep your circulation going by avoiding standing or sitting for a long time. They will recede within a few months after delivery.
Painful cramps in your calves can sometimes strike at night, interrupting your sleep. Do some stretching exercises or asanas before sleep. If a cramp does strike, flex your foot upward and then point it back down a few times. A gentle calf massage can also help.
This is a blinding kind of headache that may make you cry out in pain. Lie down in a quiet, dark room with a cold compress on your neck or forehead. If unbearable, ask your doctor for safe medication.
Your pregnancy hormones will be messing with your memory. Did you know that your brain cell volume actually decreases during the third trimester? The relief is that it's totally normal and will go away.
Your nails may be growing faster and not only that, pregnancy hormones may also be making them dry and brittle. Trim them regularly.
Some women experience heartburn in this trimester, and it strikes at night. Stay away from spicy foods and chocolate in the evening and make Yog Nidra a habit.
If you’re feeling wiped out lately, know that this is not uncommon at this stage of your pregnancy. Your body is continuously working to nourish and support your baby at 29 weeks pregnant, which takes quite a bit of energy. You might also be finding it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Take advantage of any opportunity to rest, even if it’s just 15 minutes of shut-eye here and there. At 29 weeks pregnant, you may want to try sleeping with a pillow under your belly for support. Keep exercising, if you can, because this will help keep your energy levels up.
Pregnancy hormones relax your muscles, including those in your bowels, which can cause slower digestion. If it is getting worse, know that this is normal in the final stages of pregnancy. Have 10-12 glasses of water and 2-3 servings of fiber-rich foods daily. Exercise for 1 hour everyday. It sets the intestines into motion. If constipated, do not strain to pass motion. This only exerts unnecessary pressure on your uterus and rectal veins, leading to piles.
The tailbone, or coccyx, sits at the bottom of your spine, above your bottom and behind your uterus. It helps stabilize you when sitting and serves as an attachment point for the pelvic floor muscles that support your bladder, bowel, and uterus. Tailbone pain is caused because of the pelvic ligaments getting looser because of the hormone, Relaxin. Also, since your centre of gravity has shifted because of your expanding belly, there is more pressure on this bone which isn’t really meant to bear all this extra load.
While approximately 70% of women experience low-back pain at some point in their lives, 50% - 80% report back pain in pregnancy. For nearly 10% of them, the pain can be very bad.
Here are some tips to manage it.
*Put a soft and folded quilt beneath your buttocks whenever you sit.
*Avoid sitting on hard surfaces.
*Use donut shaped pillows.
*Ask daddy to give you a warm massage on your lower back. Take a hot shower after that or just apply local hot fomentation.
* Do Yoga Asanas like cat pose, child pose, back and side stretches .
*Put a pillow between your thighs while sleeping.
.png)
At 29 weeks, an NST(Foetal Non-Stress Test) may be performed if:
The test is named “non-stress” because no stress is placed on the fetus during the test.
The nurse will strap a belt around your abdomen to measure foetal heart rate and another belt to measure contractions. Movement, heart rate and “reactivity” of heart rate to movement will be measured for 20-30 minutes. If movement is slow because the baby is being lazy, she may use a small “buzzer” to wake him for the remainder of the test. A cup of chilled water and moving the belly may help.
A ‘reactive’ non-stress result indicates that blood flow (and oxygen) to the foetus is adequate. A ‘nonreactive’ non-stress result requires additional testing to determine whether the result is truly due to poor oxygenation, or whether there are other reasons for foetal non-reactivity (i.e. sleep patterns, any medication that mum is taking).
Sugar! A craving that may get more intense for some in pregnancy! But, consuming too much of it isn’t good, as we know. One study found that too much sugar-consumption can affect the child's cognition later in life. Then, there are risks of gestational diabetes, tooth decay and cavities. If you are overweight, or are tending towards it, you also carry a risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida for the baby. Let’s look at a sweet treat for this week that skips processed sugar.
Gur Papdi or Gol Papdi is a popular dessert from Gujarat and is made especially in winters to increase the body heat. It is an easy dessert to make in under 20 minutes.
While, traditionally, it is made with just ghee, wheat flour and jaggery, for this pregnancy treat, we suggest adding two more flours: Ragi (Red millet) and Soya flour.
Ingredients
Method
iMumz provides micro nutrients week by week for your daily dose of nutrition. Diet charts and recipes are made by mothers to give your daily dose of health for your baby and you.
It is quite normal for fatigue, even extreme fatigue, coming back in the third trimester. It affects an estimated 60 percent of all pregnant women. If you're feeling especially tired, especially after a day of activity, don't worry. Your body has been taxed with the job of preparing your womb for the growing baby and this is the price to pay!
Since your baby is growing fast, and you're carrying more weight than you were earlier on in pregnancy, it adds to the fatigue. Not to mention, pregnancy insomnia and other symptoms like heartburn, backache and restless leg syndrome.
If you feel that it is something that you just can’t handle, so see the doctor and get your blood iron levels checked.
Abdominal pain in the third trimester could be practice contractions, called 'Braxton Hicks'. These do not happen at regular intervals. They tend to be short. It can also be because the uterus is beginning to push the other organs into smaller spaces. Some women experience heartburn or a sensation that the skin of the stomach is stretching.
Some women report pain in the upper stomach or upper abdomen during their third trimester. It may be sharp and shooting or a dull ache. Mostly upper abdominal pain is harmless, but if it is intense, do go to the hospital.
Pain in the abdomen in the third trimester should not be ignored it:
Pain in the upper right part of the abdomen, under or near the ribs, may indicate a problem with the liver or gallbladder.
If there is nausea or vomiting, or if the pain comes in waves or attacks, it may be a sign of gallstones. Left untreated, gallstones can block the bile duct and cause liver problems.
Pregnancy-related hormone changes can cause a condition called intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (IHP), or cholestasis. For most women, the first symptom is itching. Some also experience pain in the upper abdomen, nausea, vomiting, or yellowing eyes or skin. A doctor must carefully monitor liver health in a person with IHP.
Pain in the upper abdomen, especially the left side, may mean that there is a problem with the spleen.
True labour contractions typically start at the top of the uterus, causing an intense tightening sensation that becomes progressively more painful. A woman who feels contractions beginning in the top of the abdomen may be going into labour.
During pregnancy, the mother always develops a perfect facial glow.
Not always! Some women develop blotchy spots of darker skin, a condition called melasma or chloasma, while some may also get acne.
The baby is growing bigger and can hear you well! So, make it a daily habit to talk and play music to her.
If the baby movements are less on a given day, give yourself the iMumz musical ragas treat! Sometimes, the movements in themselves are fine but mum cannot feel them because of anxiety or fear.
Indian classical Ragas have this amazing potential of bringing a beautiful synchronicity between mum’s body and mnd. It gets her breaths into a nice rhythm, as well.
Watch yourself relaxing and feel a connection with the baby immediately! Rub your belly and feel the baby movements.
We have mind and body wellness tips, music and sessions to help mums to connect with babies for their all-round development.
The award-winning iMumz App is helping 350,000 + women make their pregnancies healthier and happier.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
