Pregnancy Week 42
"By allowing your baby to choose their own birth date, you're helping insure your baby's lungs are mature and baby is completely ready for life outside the womb. Good for you for being patient!"
More About Week 42:
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85% of all mothers will deliver their babies spontaneously by the end of the 42nd week.
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Your baby may have spotty, splotchy skin at birth. Look for baby to lose some of the stork bites and angel kisses of birth around the sixth week postpartum.
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Babies born well into the 41st or 42nd week of pregnancy are usually wide awake, aware, and ready to breastfeed..a benefit of being mature.
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Your baby may have longer nails and hair at birth and will be born a little more alert than if she were born earlier. Bonus!
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Your baby may be a little bigger if it's born after the 41st week. However, it's baby's position for birth rather than size that contributes most to an efficient, easy labor.
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Most babies are born perfectly healthy at 42 weeks. Not every apple on the tree ripens at the same time. Careful monitoring of baby's health during these last days of pregnancy are important to insure baby remains healthy.
Healthy Pregnancy Tips for Week 42
Recommended Reading:
Caring for Your Baby and Young Child
This is a great, if somewhat factual and dryly written, basic guide for parents who want a comprehensive, "it has everything" guide to baby care. If Sears' "Baby Book" is to0 lefty for you, you'll like this guide.
See More Recommendations For the Third Trimester from BirthWatch