Pregnancy Week 29

PREGNANCY WEEK 29

 

By now all the baby organs have developed and are functioning (apart from the lungs, which are not yet needed to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream). The organs will continue to mature in the coming weeks and months before birth. His head increases in size to accommodate his rapidly growing brain, which has develop and his pupils can now contact and dilate in response to light, which he can see through the wall of your womb and the increasingly stretched skin of our tummy.

For boys, the testicles begin to move from the abdomen into the groin to the end up in the scrotum; in girls, the ovaries are already in the pelvis. The external genitals in girls continue to develop as the labia begin to grow to cover the clitoris.

By this stage your baby and womb will have grown so much that they will be putting pressure on your bladder. The bladder no longer has room to expand and therefore hold as much urine as it used to before pregnancy, so you will need to urinate much more frequently.

Toward the end of your pregnancy as your baby’s head engages into your pelvis, there is less room for your bladder to expand and you may find yourself going to the toilet even more often! You might have noticed that you leak small amounts of urine when you laugh, cough or jump. This leakage is called stress incontinence, and in pregnancy is due to the weight of your baby pushing down on your pelvic floor.

You can help prevent stress incontinence from worsening and improve your symptoms by doing pelvic floor exercises daily.

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