Birth at 36 weeks gestation

Births at 36 weeks gestation, that is, one month before the fixed obstetric period, raise many questions for women. Popular rumor, saying that eight-month-old children survive worse, stirs the alarm, and therefore women are very afraid to give birth to this term.

In this article we will talk about what kind of birth can actually be at this time and what consequences they may entail.

The last month of pregnancy is extremely important for the baby. Despite the fact that the child is fully formed by the age of 35-36 and 36-37 weeks of pregnancy, he needs these last weeks to gain the necessary weight, which will allow him to easily maintain body heat after birth, and also accumulate more surfactant. This is a special active substance that is necessary for self-respiration after birth. It is produced by the alveoli and accumulates in the lung tissue. It does not allow the vesicles-alveoli to stick together after the newborn takes the first breath.

A child is considered fully mature and ready for independent life without resuscitation care for a period of 37 complete obstetric weeks.. Births will be considered urgent when they take place from 38 to 42 weeks.

Thus, the generic activity that starts at 36 weeks of gestation will be considered premature. This period is considered one of the most "popular" in the statistics of preterm birth. Up to 45% of all cases of early childbirth occur in the period from 34 to 37 weeks. But strong fears of this fact should not cause.

The term of 36 obstetric weeks is quite solid and sufficient so that the condition of the child at birth is neither critical nor difficult, although it will be difficult to call him normal. Forecasts are quite favorable both for the mother and for her child.

At week 36, labor activity spontaneously (independently) can develop for a variety of reasons. To be fair, it should be noted that it is far from all cases that it is possible to establish the causes of early labor. Most often, they are caused at 36 weeks of gestation by negatively influencing factors that are directly related to the state of health of the woman, with the peculiarities of pregnancy and external influence.

Among the women's ailments that create increased risks to give birth ahead of time, it can be noted such as:

• diseases of the kidneys and adrenal glands;

• diabetes mellitus (including gestational diabetes);

• inflammatory diseases of the reproductive system, abortions, miscarriages in history;

• previous operations on the ovaries, body of the uterus and cervix;

• metabolic disorders, especially the production of sex hormones and thyroid hormones;

• diseases of the urogenital system, genital infections, including "winged" (chlamydia, etc.);

• weak cervix;

• any chronic diseases of the internal organs of the mother;

• early childbirth in history.

The peculiarities of the current pregnancy, which can also affect the term of labor, include:

• high water and low water;

• large child;

• systematic leakage of water in small quantities, as well as complete discharge of water;

• multiplicity;

• low location of the placenta or its presentation.

External factors include severe stresses to which a woman could be exposed, hard physical labor, alcohol and drug use, smoking while carrying a child, difficult financial situation, lack of full-fledged and vitamin-rich nutrition.

Also, premature births occur more frequently in women under the age of 18 years and in those over 37 years of age. If negative factors are already present, the presence of a male fetus, as well as congenital and genetic anomalies of its development, increase.

Births at this time can be a vital necessity. There are situations in which doctors have to make an urgent decision - to prolong the pregnancy or give birth to a woman as soon as possible in order to save her and the child.

At 36 weeks, labor is not stimulated. If there are grounds for delivery, caesarean section will be more benign and correct, because at 36 weeks the cervix is ​​usually not ready for labor, and stimulation can lead to severe injuries to the mother and fetus. In addition, the testimony itself, on which childbirth will be recommended right now, is usually urgent, in which independent labor activity is undesirable and dangerous.

Childbirth (usually surgical) this week will be recommended for women who have suddenly exacerbated chronic severe diseases and their course threatens the fetus and life of the mother. Acute renal failure, liver failure, severe preeclampsia with pressure that does not diminish under the action of medications - this is only a small list of reasons for urgent delivery.

To save the life of the fetus, an operation at this time is carried out in the presence of a serious and severe Rhesus conflict, during which hemolytic disease of the fetus in severe form, the state of decompensated hypoxia, has already begun in utero. With such pathologies, the life of the child and his health are in real danger, and the sooner he leaves the mother's womb, the better for him.

If the gestation period is only 36 weeks, and the woman felt that the contractions began or the water departed, you do not need to follow the recommendations, which in this case are given during a full-term pregnancy - count the contractions at home up to a certain interval of five minutes there is no reason. It is necessary as soon as possible after determining the beginning of labor activity to go to the maternity hospital so that all processes take place under the supervision of doctors.

The tactics of such childbirth at this time may be different:

• observant;

• active:

• operational.

In the first case, doctors note the regularity of contractions, the degree of cervical dilatation, assess the condition of the fetus through CTG sensors. If nothing causes significant concerns, then the medical staff tries to carry out the delivery, as usual, urgent.

In the second case, there is usually a weakness of the tribal forces or a tendency towards fast deliveries. The lethargy dull, irregular, discoordinated. Disclosure is slow, painful, painful. With a fast delivery, the disclosure is too fast, the contractions are frequent and intense, in frequency and strength not corresponding to the period of birth. In these situations, the tactics of active obstetric intervention are chosen..

Alas, almost a third of births for a period of 36 weeks (plus or minus a few days) occur with certain deviations from the norm. This is due to the woman’s incomplete readiness for childbirth - at the physiological, hormonal, or other levels. Also, women in labor are hard on early childbirth, psychologically they do not want them, and therefore the process goes with pronounced difficulties.

Modern medicine has sufficient capacity to strengthen insufficiently strong contractions, to reduce the intensity of too fast labor, to provide a woman and her child with any help and support, including anesthesia at certain stages of labor using epidural anesthesia.Resuscitation care is also on a high level, which will give your baby a chance to survive, even if he shows signs of prematurity after birth.

By the third tactic - Caesarean section, resorted only if the complications arising during the spontaneous birth, could not be resolved active obstetric activities.

Premature babies are primarily threatened by respiratory acute distress syndrome. This is a condition in which, due to an insufficient amount of surfactant, the child is unable to breathe on his own. For any preterm birth, this possibility exists. It can be somewhat reduced by the timely identification of the risk of such birth, in which a woman is hospitalized. With the understanding of the inevitability of what labor should begin, doctors will conduct a special therapy in which the surfactant will be injected into a woman, the baby will receive the missing substance through the uteroplacental blood flow.

Distress syndrome is very dangerous. But the degree of danger is proportional to the term of gestation. At 23-24 weeks of pregnancy, the birth of a baby is most likely to end in the death of a child or severe disability precisely because of oxygen starvation of the brain and other organs, resulting from the inability to breathe. But at 36 weeks, the child already has its own surfactant reserves, and therefore the risks of serious consequences are not so greatlike two weeks earlier.

With distress syndrome, a child is given intensive care. He will be helped by a ventilator. While he is in intensive care, he will be fed with mixtures or expressed milk, and in the absence of the swallowing reflex - through a probe.

Children who are born a month before the desired period, increased the risk of cerebral circulation. There may be strokes. Hemorrhages develop in and after childbirth. How reversible the consequences will be depends not so much on how much time the baby spent in the womb, but on what part of the brain and how deep it was damaged by the hematoma.

The risk of birth injury at birth at 36 weeks is also slightly increased, especially if the delivery was fast.

Most often, children at this time well adapt and quickly catch up in the development of their peers. The weight of babies at birth at 36 weeks of gestation is usually from 2500 to 2900 grams, although exceptions are possible.

Externally born on this term are no different from full-term babies, except for weight and height. Some babies have lanugo on their skin, or rather its remains. The rest of the child is quite viable - reflexes are present, the senses are working, the brain structures, although not mature, are not so critical that the central nervous system is totally disturbed.

However, the first day or two such children are usually still carried out in the intensive care unit in a special heated bed, in which he will be provided with the optimum temperature. If necessary, install the ventilator, monitoring the condition of the baby is carried out around the clock.

A woman whose birth will take place at 36 weeks, it is possible, will have to face postpartum complications. Their likelihood is always somewhat higher after preterm labor.

The higher the probability of rupture, injury to the cervix, a slightly higher probability of an infectious or inflammatory disease, insufficient contractility of the uterus during its reverse development.

The reviews on the birth at this time are rather optimistic. Most of the women who happened to be mothers a month before the PDR had perfectly healthy and normal children., somewhat weakened, but rather quickly caught up in the development of their peers.

After the birth, according to reviews, the maternity hospital has to be longer, they are usually written out on the 7th or 10th day. Mothers of twins report that most often they are transferred from the maternity hospital immediately to a children's hospital, where premature babies receive the right care and treatment.

There are almost no problems with breast milk after delivery at this time. Milk comes for 2-3 days. Its amount is ample.

For birth at week 36, see the next video.