Welcome to your week 29 pregnancy update where we outline the changes you and your baby are experiencing.

Your Baby

Baby’s brain, organs and body fat continue to develop during week 29, and he probably weighs around 1.25kg or so and will around the length of a school ruler.

The brain of a developing foetus is usually soft and smooth in the early weeks of pregnancy – nothing like the grey and loopy walnut that adult human brains look like – but from this week on, baby’s brain will become more wrinkled and complex as it becomes more powerful. In fact, his brain is growing so fast that the soft skull bones around the brain are being pressed and pushed into different shapes as he wriggles around.

Baby’s bone marrow has also become a major construction site for blood cells and the growing sophistication of baby’s organs mean his adrenal glands are actually producing androgen and estrogen — which will stimulate your body to begin milk production.

As baby grows fatter, it means his wrinkled skin is being ironed out and all that extra brown fat could be contributing to around 3.5% of baby’s overall body weight. This is important because despite baby’s brain power, his brain won’t be strong enough to regulate basal temperature once baby is in the big wide world outside of your womb.

Just like adults, all babies are different and develop at varying rates in the womb. This information gives a general idea of your baby’s development and progress.

The Mum Update

With any amount of luck, your baby will begin thinking about making a turn down. What that means is the head is down and ready to enter the birth canal. The majority of babies will turn on their own before birth, but a few will require assistance. Those that don’t turn are considered breach, and may need to be delivered via a C-section. Your doctor will monitor your baby’s position, and can tell just by feeling if your baby is head up or head down.

Your baby is moving and gaining strength and coordination. The movements are becoming less reflexive and more determined as she grows. It won’t be long, however, before she is too cramped to be able to move much at all. The kicks and pokes will become less pronounced and a little less frequent.

For many mums the excitement of pregnancy can be replaced by anxiety as they face the great unknown – labour, birth and motherhood. Your crazy hormones can turn your laughter into tears with the blink of an eye. Anxiety often goes hand-in-hand with depression during pregnancy and the postnatal period. Worrying thoughts around the progress of the pregnancy or the health of the mother or baby are normal and usually settle in response to reassurance.

Read more on pregnancy anxiety

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Tiredness in pregnancy
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