Now that you're 40 weeks pregnant, you're all the same technically in month nine of pregnancy (even if information technology feels similar longer).

Your little one is fully prepped for life outside the womb, with all systems (including organs and reflexes) a go.

You're in good company if you've passed your due date: Well-nigh i in 3 pregnancies will striking the 41-week mark!

Your Baby at Week 40

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Congratulations…your baby is officially full-term! She's now between half-dozen and 9 pounds, and anywhere between xix and 22 inches long — a wide range, truthful, but that's because babies, like their parents, come up in all sizes…taller, shorter, chubbier, slimmer. What package volition your baby come in? Information technology's hard to say for certain until she arrives — ven your practitioner's guesstimates can exist way off the final mark.

You know what else is around twenty inches long? Your baby's umbilical cord — her connection to you during her nine-month stint in your uterus. Information technology could be floating free in whatever space there's left in your uterus, coiled around her ankle or wrist, gripped betwixt her chubby fingers, or wrapped around her cervix. Not to worry if it is…it's not dangerous now and at birth your practitioner will simply sideslip information technology over her caput earlier clamping information technology tight. The remnants will dry upwards and get…her sweet little umbilicus.

Your niggling miracle is at present fully loaded with fully functioning organs, bodily systems, and reflexes, and she's ready to start her new life outside your uterus. When you do meet your new arrival, be sure to say hello — and more. Though it'll be your first face-to-face up, your babe will recognize the sound of your vox — and that of dad's.

Though your sweetie is fully broiled and set to gyre, she's still putting in a total day's work. Her hormones are revving upwardly, sending signals throughout her trunk to prepare for life on the exterior. Hopefully one of those hormones volition point to the placenta that information technology'south time to initiate labor.

Even during labor and delivery, your petty one will be hard at work alongside you, producing her own stress hormones that'll enable her to adapt immediately to the new surroundings outside your womb and boot-start the survival instincts she needs also as help her take her start big breath of air.

And if she doesn't arrive on time, opting instead for a late checkout, you're in skillful — though anxious — visitor. Nigh half of all pregnancies go on by the 40-calendar week mark, though thankfully, your practitioner will probably non let yours proceed across 42 weeks.

At a Glance

Dry pare alert

Since your baby has already shed nearly of her vernix, the waxy blanket that acted as a moisturizer, some dry spots may appear on the skin.

Past your due appointment?

If baby hasn't arrived this week, you're in good company: An estimated 30 percent of pregnancies keep past the 40-week mark.

Talk to baby

Exist sure that you and your partner talk to your petty parcel a lot subsequently baby makes her m entrance. She'll likely recognize the audio of your voices!

40 weeks pregnant is how many months?

If you're 40 weeks significant, you're in month 9 of your pregnancy. It's almost time! Withal take questions? Here'south some more information on how weeks, months and trimesters are broken down in pregnancy.

How big is my baby at forty weeks?

Correct at present, your infant probably weighs anywhere from half-dozen to ix pounds and measures between nineteen and 22 inches — though tons of perfectly salubrious babies are built-in smaller or bigger.

The end of pregnancy

At 40 weeks pregnant, yous're at the official end of your pregnancy. Yous, or actually the placenta, are notwithstanding providing the antibodies she'll need to fight off infections for the starting time six months of her life.

But if yous programme on breastfeeding, your milk will provide more antibodies to boost the allowed system — especially colostrum, a thin, yellowish precursor to chest milk that's super rich in antibodies and feeds your baby for the first few days postpartum.

Meeting your baby

The offset matter y'all're likely to await for when your new inflow makes that dramatic — and possibly fashionably tardily — entrance: proof positive that your baby is actually a boy or a girl.

That major mystery solved once and for all, yous'll also discover that baby, besides being cute every bit can exist, is wearing a little leftover travel dust consisting of blood, vernix, lanugo and amniotic fluid.

From your baby'southward perspective, you lot'll expect a flake blurry — at birth, babies' cardinal vision is however developing — only that'due south okay. Just be certain to say hello to your new arrival, since your infant volition very likely recognize the audio of your voice and your partner'southward.

Your newborn may honey existence swaddled

You lot'll notice your little 1 is still curled in the fetal position, although her artillery and legs may flail a scrap. That's because afterwards 9 months in such cramped quarters, it'll take a while before your infant realizes she has room to spread out.

And because information technology'due south the merely position she has really known, information technology's a comforting one to exist in. That's also why and so many newborns (though not all!) similar to be swaddled — it reminds them of your uterus.

Your Body at Calendar week 40

baby size at 40 weeks pregnant

Will you become by your due date?

When will your body know information technology's time to deliver this baby? Just because your due date is marked with pen on your practitioner'southward chart and red marker on your calendar doesn't mean that Mother Nature's gotten the memo.

About 30 percentage of all pregnancies last longer than 40 weeks, and information technology's anyone's guess when yours might end. Thankfully, your practitioner probably won't let it go longer than 41 weeks.

When (and if) your water will intermission

One event that'southward not guaranteed before the onset of labor is your h2o breaking — the rupture of the amniotic sac surrounding your baby the last nine months.

By now, you've no doubt lost a night or two'south sleep over when and where it will happen. You lot've probably heard or seen horror stories near an inconvenient — no, make that humiliating — time and place where someone's water broke, similar in the heart of a busy sidewalk at luncheon 60 minutes or at a jam-packed mall on a Sat morning. But your reality evidence will probably be a trivial different.

First, fewer than 15 percent of women experience a rupture of the membranes before labor begins, and second, if your water does break in public, it'south less probable to come as a torrential tidal wave and more likely to come as a slow leak, trickle or small gush.

One thing y'all can be pretty sure of if your water breaks before your contractions have started: Labor will likely begin in earnest within 24 hours. Either that or your practitioner will start information technology for you lot within 24 hours.

How can you tell if your amniotic sac has ruptured? Amniotic fluid is usually colorless and odorless. If you notice fluid that looks yellowish and smells of ammonia, you lot're probably leaking urine. Some other test: Yous tin can try to stem the menstruation of the fluid by squeezing your pelvic muscles (Kegel exercises). If the menstruum stops, information technology's urine. If it doesn't, it's amniotic fluid.

If your h2o breaks and the fluid is green or brown, be sure to call your practitioner right abroad. Information technology could mean that your baby has had a bowel movement (meconium) in utero.

Pelvis size

Many women share an unfounded fearfulness of non being able to really birth their infant. Information technology does seem implausible that something so big — a vi- or 7-plus-pound watermelon — could squeeze through such a little infinite, but that'due south exactly what happens most of the time.

Whether you're plus-size, petite or whatever size in between, information technology's how big your pelvis is — not your frame — that matters. Mother Nature knows the drill, and the majority of newborns are pretty well-matched to the size of their moms. So if yous're small-scale-boned, chances are you're not carrying sumo infant in there.

And your vagina knows what to do, too — it stretches considerably during childbirth then, miraculously, tightens upwardly again. Yous can help that procedure forth by doing your Kegels faithfully both earlier and after y'all deliver. Even your baby knows what to do — past molding that still-pliable head to fit through that tight squeeze. And so don't worry!

Pregnancy Symptoms Calendar week xl

Braxton Hicks contractions

Wondering if those contractions you lot're feeling this week are the practise Braxton Hicks contractions or the real thing? If they don't increase in frequency or severity or if they subside when you walk around or modify position, and so they are probably only practice contractions. Read More

Changes in fetal activity

Fifty-fifty though your baby'due south movements may have changed or even slowed down a bit, she all the same should exist moving effectually in there. How much movement is normal? You should be able to count 10 flutters, wiggles or rolls an hr. Read More

Cervical dilation or effacement

Although y'all won't experience your cervix opening or thinning out, information technology is probably happening this week. Dilation is measured in centimeters and effacement in percentages; after an internal exam, your practitioner will probably requite yous the measurements. The cervix volition continue to dilate and efface through early and agile labor. Read More

Diarrhea

Your bowels take a beating during pregnancy — and it seems as if they become from sluggish to loose. This week, loose bowel movements may be a sign that your labor is imminent. Read More

Pelvic hurting

If your baby has dropped this calendar week, the uncomfortable feeling in your pelvis may exist traced to a certain someone'due south little head bumping upwards against your hips and bladder. If you take the time, schedule a massage with a certified prenatal massage therapist; it'll soothe the discomfort. Read More than

Leg cramps

While no one really knows what causes those painful spasms in your legs, information technology'due south a good bet that conveying around all that pregnancy weight — especially this week! — is a pain in the legs. When a spasm hits, gently flexing your ankle and toes back toward your shin can help. Read More

Indisposition

As tempting as it is to endeavor herbal supplements or other over-the-counter sleep aids, don't. Instead, ask your partner for a relaxing massage. Read More

Nesting instinct

Changes in energy levels are pretty common this calendar week. Peradventure you've been hit past the nesting instinct or maybe you just take an urge to slump in front of the TV and veg out. Don't worry — both are completely normal, as is alternating between the two states. Read More than

Tips for You This Week

Ask nearly inducing labor

Talk to your wellness intendance provider about when, why and how yous might be induced. Unless there are health or medical reasons to induce, it'southward not typically recommended before week 39 of pregnancy. Many doctors induce around calendar week 41.

Have a backup plan for a home nascence

Home births tin be rubber for those with low-risk pregnancies, simply if y'all need to be induced — or if yous or your babe need more medical assist — you lot may need to become to a infirmary afterward all.

If yous exercise desire a home birth, talk to your practitioner well-nigh when y'all might need to be transferred to a medical setting, and how the delivery will keep from there.

Shave safely

Feeling a little actress hirsuite these days? Shave those legs with caution — and a lot of nick-protecting shaving gel — since A, your rest may be off, and B, you probably can't encounter beyond your belly. Brand sure the razor you use is new so you'll be less probable to draw blood.

A definite no-no: shaving in the shower, where a slip-up could exist serious.

Think about hydrotherapy

Like hypnobirthing and massage, hydrotherapy is a complementary or alternative pain reliever that'south used to relieve pregnancy aches and pains and tin can as well come in handy during labor.

When the contractions are upon you lot, y'all may want to soak in a warm bath or shower, or take warm or cold compresses placed on your lower back or pelvis. Or yous may choose to labor in an actual tub and allow the warm water soften your contractions.

Once it'south time to start pushing, however, you'll want to climb out of the bath. Babies born underwater are at risk of several potentially serious complications.

Do a mini workout

Don't accept the energy for a full sweat session? Do a mini workout.

Plow from side to side, slowly twisting at the waist, letting your artillery swing freely. You tin can also clench your butt and concur for a count of two, and then release. Endeavor doing 15 or 20 arm swings and barrel clenches — it'll make the time pass and tone your muscles in the process.

Proceed busy

Infant on the encephalon? It's hard to call up of anything else when your due date has come and gone — a week ago. But yous know what they say well-nigh a watched pot — and so in an endeavor to keep your mind off your tardy baby and go on you busy, try to take something planned every twenty-four hour period (annotation: watching the clock tick doesn't count!).

Take a walk (which might even help get your contractions going), spend some time focusing on self care (you may non have the take chances once baby's on board), lookout a movie or two, make sure your fridge and freezer are stocked with fix-made meals. Oh, and tell your friends and family unit to finish calling every day. Remind them that no news is…no news.

Try to relax when the contractions come

Of course you're as excited and nervous as tin be, simply information technology'southward important to try to relax as much as you can during the showtime phase of labor — you lot'll demand to save your strength for later.

If it's nighttime, do what yous can to get some slumber, since you won't be able to when your contractions get more insistent. If information technology's daytime, keep yourself busy. Endeavour taking a walk, which might even kick up the contractions a notch. Just don't stray too far from abode, and don't go anywhere without a cellphone.

Don't worry about obsessively timing contractions at this betoken — you may merely become frustrated if you endeavour — but do cheque periodically to run across whether they're getting closer together. Nigh people head to the infirmary as the first phase of labor ends and the second phase begins.

From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author ofWhat to Look When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses merely credible sources, such equally peer-reviewed studies, academic inquiry institutions and highly respected wellness organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

  • What to Wait Before You're Expecting, 5th edition, Heidi Murkoff.
  • What to Expect the First Twelvemonth, 3rd edition, Heidi Murkoff.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Labor Contractions: What Exercise Contractions Experience Like?, December 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Hydrotherapy During Pregnancy and Labor, May 2021.
  • WhatToExpect.com, What to Practice If Your Water Breaks During Pregnancy, April 2021.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Childbirth Stage 1: The Three Phases of Labor, August 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, How to Remove Hair During Pregnancy Safely, March 2021.
  • WhatToExpect.com, What to Know Before Having a Planned Home Birth, Nov 2020.
  • WhatToExpect.com, Inducing Labor: What Happens When You're Induced?, June 2021.
  • American University of Ophthalmology, Babe's Vision Development: Newborn to 12 Months, July 2020.
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  • American Higher of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Labor Consecration, June 2018.
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