Fifth month of pregnancy

In the fifth month of pregnancy, everything seems beautiful and amazing. Carrying a baby under the heart is not hard, pregnancy does not. The woman feels cheerful and full of strength. At the same time, it is time to choose a dowry for a child, because most couples already know the sex of the child and can safely choose the stroller and the envelope of the desired color.

The fifth month brings a certain result of the first half of pregnancy. With the end of this period, a woman will be able to mark a kind of “equator” - exactly half of the gestation period will be left behind.

Not all future moms have a clear idea of ​​how much this is in weeks. Obviously one thing - is the second trimester of pregnancy, the most calm and easy. Dangerous to the child and the woman, the first one was long gone, the difficult third has not yet begun.

If you count the period of gestation as all doctors and obstetricians do - from the first day of the last menstruation, then obstetric weeks in the fifth month will be exactly four - 17, 18, 19 and 20 inclusive. In the calendar calendar we are used to, one week contains more days than 28, and therefore, if we compare it with the wall calendar, then the fifth month will include 18, 19, 20 and 21 weeks.

Women at this period are less worried, because the risks of miscarriage or missed abortion have already decreased significantly. There comes a certain dimension, smoothness of movements, slowness, which still have nothing to do with the clumsiness that future moms differ in later terms.

Your child is very big and grows very quickly. Now and in the second half of pregnancy he will have to gain the necessary weight. Nothing new inside the child's body will appear, everything is formed and now the organs are working, debugging the interaction. In the womb of a mother, believe me, there is no time to be bored at all - he is actively cognizing the space around him. His bones become stronger, they accumulate, absorb calcium from the mother's body. Mimic muscles are developed - the baby knows several variants of funny faces and makes faces with might and main.

This is what happens in different weeks of this month.

The first week of the fifth month makes the baby more proportionally folded: the growth rate of his head stops slightly, while the rest of the body continues to grow. Because of this, he gradually ceases to look like a big-headed alien with short legs and long arms.

Fruit weight reached 220-250 grams, managed to grow up to an average of 22 centimeters.

The brain is already developed well enough that the crumb began to actively master the conscious voluntary movements. Now, more and more, he catches the umbilical cord, not because it just turned out to be within reach of the hands, but because it is interesting and informative. Baby learned to suck his finger. At this time, the baby can begin to catch hands and legs that have already grown up, but you can’t drag them into your mouth yet.

Heart, stomach, intestines, kidneys, endocrine glands work, blood cells are produced.

Growth rates have reached a peak and now this process will proceed a little slower than before. Now the main task facing the child is not to gain centimeters, but to gain weight. Scarce "has grown" up to 300 grams, has grown to 24 centimeters. The first reserves of subcutaneous fat begin to build up.

The baby is very mobile and active, but not all women are able to feel it. For example, primiparous in the majority still do not notice any perceptible movements, but moms who have experience in pregnancy and childbirth, usually have little babbies.

From this date your the baby starts to hear fully. If earlier he perceived sounds inside of my mother's body and coming from outside as vibration, now the structures of the inner ear have finally taken shape, and he hears exactly the same way as you and I. Not everything comes through the stomach, the amniotic fluid to the small ears, but he already distinguishes the loud sounds of the outside world, and also knows the voice of the mother, the father, he is soothed by the beating of the mother's heart and the rumble of the blood flowing through her vessels.

That is the middle of your term. An important date for you and the child. The "equator" of pregnancy the baby meets with up to 26 centimeters and weighing about 350-370 grams.

His appearance is changing, the crumb does not look more pathologically thin and shriveled. Small cheeks appeared. The skin leaves a new level of development and becomes four-layer. The degree of protection increases - soon the child will no longer need original lubricant and lanugo hairs, which cover his whole body. But for this, all four layers of his skin should become more durable.

Life with tightly closed eyes bored the child. At this time, he will begin to try to open his eyes, but so far it will be only timid attempts. So is the formation of the blinking reflex.

The child is now better protected from outside threats, since from this time he has his own immunity. The defense system is, of course, immature, weak, but the first immune cells are already being produced, a start has been made.

This week, women usually begin to feel a stir. If this does not happen, please be patient and wait a little longer, perhaps you have an inactive “sleepy” or you simply do not have the experience of experiencing such sensations.

The last three days after week 20 complete the fifth month. And the child comes to this stage with an increase in weight - he recovered to 400-420 grams and grew to almost 28 centimeters.

The skin begins to acquire a normal shade, because the epidermis and the dermis are now separated from the blood vessels by a rather impressive layer of subcutaneous fat. To accumulate it is very important - after birth, a child with a lack of subcutaneous fatty tissue (hypotrophy) will have serious problems with preserving the heat of his own body. To prevent this from happening, nature has made sure that the baby gets plump forms in advance.

An active breakthrough was made by the brain and the nervous system - millions of new neural connections allow the child to better control his body and learn new reflexes necessary to survive in a new environment for himself after birth.

In the fifth month, the abdomen begins to grow, and in some of them, a small one yesterday turned into a rather noticeable rounded “ball” in just a few days. It is good if a woman prepared for the rapid changes in her own appearance in advance, otherwise it may turn out that she will have nothing to wear to work or study. It is time to change the wardrobe, because the growth of the abdomen will now be rapid.

The size of the abdomen at this time depends not only on whether the baby is big or small, whether it is one or two children, but also how much the amniotic fluid, where the placenta is fixed, how wide the hips the future mother has. Later, the growth of the abdomen is noticeable in obese women with wide hips. Previously, the stomach begins to be noticeable in thin, with a narrow pelvis, with the location of the placenta on the front wall, as well as with polyhydramnios.

In any case, the stomach in the fifth month looks very neat. If a woman does not want to advertise her position, she may well hide the pregnancy behind loose, well-chosen clothing. If it seems that the stomach is not growing at all, it is worth discussing it with your doctor - every obstetrician has an impressive arsenal of arguments and ways to calm the future mother in this situation.

It is especially worrying to get a fetal doppler - this simple, homely device with an ultrasonic sensor at any time will allow mommy to listen to the fetal heartbeat to make sure that the baby is alive and everything is in order. This purchase will also be useful for ladies who are in a panic about the absence of stirring in the fifth month.

Slightly disturbing pain in the lower abdomen on the sides and in the back. The back does not always hurt, but only sporadically and not much. The reasons should not cause concern: the ligaments holding the uterus are stretched, and the center of gravity also changes.

Changes that can be in the state of health at this stage of carrying a baby.

• Reduced hemoglobin, anemia - The condition develops due to an increase in the amount of circulating blood. Stocks of calcium and iron in the current period are depleted from a woman, everything is taken by the child, who needs these elements for the normal development of the musculoskeletal system and blood formation. Be sure to do a blood test and its results start taking iron supplements. Even those who have hemoglobin is within the normal range, it is recommended to add to the diet more foods with iron content (buckwheat, liver, red meats, apples).

• Discharges may become yellowish.. This is made possible by the action of the hormone progesterone. White or colorless discharges are also considered normal, moderate, not leaving marks on linen. They may have a slight sour smell or no odor at all. Monthly at this time are not, believe the speculation that "the fruit is washed" with the appearance of bleeding is extremely dangerous. This is a threatening sign, so you should immediately consult a doctor. Fears should cause brown, gray, greenish discharge - this can be a sign of infection.

• The chest grows a little more and becomes quite large.. Many pregnant women do not have colostrum for the first time. If it is very disturbing, you should purchase a special bra, in which there are liners (similar to a nursing bra). Squeeze the colostrum can not. But with its appearance, the likelihood of infection in the milk ducts increases, because colostrum is a valuable nutrient medium for bacteria. Now you need to wash your breasts with warm water without soap twice a day, to monitor its cleanliness. In primiparous colostrum usually 4.5-5 months yet.

• Pruritus appears in the area of ​​stretching - on the lateral parts of the mammary glands, abdomen. The more actively the breast increases, the faster the belly grows, the more itchy it can be. A woman is recommended to use fatty children's cream or use special means for stretch marks (stretch marks).

• On the beginning of perturbations, you must inform the doctor. This will help him once again to make sure that the term is set correctly. From the moment of the appearance of the first perversion, it usually takes 20 weeks for the firstborn to give birth, and about 22 weeks for giving birth again. The movements are still very delicate, gentle. They are very easy to confuse with intestinal motility, and therefore women who have no experience in detecting perturbations are advised to try lying on their backs, completely relaxed, eat something sweet or drink a glass of warm milk. Most often, the first stirring is recorded in the evening when the expectant mother is preparing to fall asleep and is completely relaxed.

• Heartburn, constipation - unpleasant symptoms, but for many, alas, quite real. They are caused by the action of the same pregnancy hormone progesterone. It causes relaxation of the smooth muscles of the uterus to reduce its tone. At the same time, the tone of the esophagus and intestines decreases.

Many are beginning to think about how the birth will take place, to experience, to experience fear. At this stage it is worth going through a psycho-prophylactic preparation course for childbirth.. Already, methods of relaxation, mastering proper breathing, which will not only cope with fears, but also help to relieve the ancestral process quite naturally, will be useful.

At this time, it is important to seriously consider the recommendation of the doctor to establish a proper balanced diet. The process of mineralization of the bones of the child damages the body of a woman, because she loses calcium, her teeth can hurt, her nails can break. It is important to add dairy products, cottage cheese, fresh greens to food.

Do not do the following.

• Eat for two and starve. In the first case, you can gain excess weight, which will increase the likelihood of preeclampsia in the later period of pregnancy, in the second case the child will receive less nutrients. The optimal caloric content of the daily diet is 2500-2700 Kcal.

• Drink alcohol, drugs and any medications that are not coordinated with your doctor. Many drugs have a teratogenic effect, can adversely affect the development of the fetus. And although organogenesis has ended and the crumb formed and protected by the placenta, all this should be avoided.

• Lift weights and be nervous.

• Wear tight clothes, flatten the stomach and walk in high heels.

• Long lie on your back - the growing uterus is now in this position putting pressure on the vena cava, which can lead to loss of consciousness and an acute oxygen starvation of the child himself. The best pose for the future mother is on the side. It is time to start to master it, since it will have to sleep in it now until the very birth.

While much more is allowed than forbidden, you can safely go on vacation to the sea, if you want to, it is not forbidden to fly an airplane; transport. There are restrictions on staying in the open sun - Avoid this, but swimming in sea water will be useful.

Sex is not prohibited if a woman has no pregnancy complications. (isthmic-cervical insufficiency, placenta previa, etc.). For all complications that may be aggravated by sexual intercourse, the doctor usually warns about the risks.If in doubt, just ask at the reception if you can have sex.

A couple should now pay attention to the choice of posture for sexual intercourse. The missionary position is already unsuitable due to the fact that it is impossible to press on the stomach. Consider it. It is also undesirable to engage in anal sex (increases the likelihood of hemorrhoids), as well as practice deep penetration.

In the fifth month, the mother is waiting for the usual reception in the antenatal clinic - with weighing and measuring the height of the uterus. Fetal heartbeat is tapped with an obstetric stethoscope. By this method, you need to pass a general urinalysis and blood test (so that you can determine if there is anemia).

At this time, a second prenatal screening is waiting for the woman, which will include "Triple test" (biochemical blood test) and ultrasound. Usually the direction to him is from 16-17 to 20 week. In this case, the blood test is no longer necessary to do on the same day with ultrasound, as it was in the first trimester. Usually a blood test falls on the very beginning of the fifth month - on the 17-18 week, and ultrasound is performed closer to the 20th week.

As in the first case, the probable risks of chromosomal pathologies will be assessed, but by other markers. According to the results of screening, the woman will either be completely reassured or sent to an additional examination if the risks are high.

The remaining tests and examinations for this month are recommended only for individual indications.

You will learn more about the development of the fetus in the fifth month from the video below.