Welcome to your week 32 pregnancy update where we outline the changes you and your baby are experiencing.

Your Baby

At week 32 baby is 42.4 cm long and weighs 1.7kg. All five senses within your baby are now working. She can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. While it doesn’t seem like there is much to stimulate any of the senses, there certainly is. Your baby can taste what you had for dinner a few hours after you eat. She can hear sounds inside and outside of your body. She can tell the difference between light and dark. Her fingers are coordinated to reach for things to touch in utero. The one thing she hasn’t available to her is anything to smell. There is amniotic fluid, but there isn’t much scent to it, really. Once your baby is born, she will begin to understand smells.

Your baby has now put on enough weight to make them look a little chubby! The fine hair that covered their entire body (called lanugo) now disappears from their face, but remains on their torso. Most babies sleep about 90% of the time at this stage, in between having shorts bursts of movement when awake (every 1 to 2 hours). Many unborn babies like to be active during the evenings when their mother is trying to sleep, between 9pm and 1am!

Your baby’s lungs continue to mature, producing increasing amounts of ‘surfactant’. This is a fatty liquid (called phospholipid) that lines their lungs, keeping them moist and helping the sacs within them (called alveoli) to expand efficiently for breathing. Your baby’s sucking and swallowing action (required to drink milk) fully coordinates between 32 to 34 weeks. However, if your baby is born during this time they may require fluids and glucose through a drip in their vein and/or be fed with a fine tube inserted through their mouth or nose, because suckling tires them quickly

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

Until now your visits to your LMC have probably been on a monthly basis, unless you’ve had complications or problems. Around now your visits will increase to fortnightly until you reach your last month of pregnancy; at the time, you’ll probably switch to weekly visits.

Although your baby isn’t born yet, your body is getting ready for her. Don’t be surprised if you discover you have leaky breasts before your baby is born!

third trimester questions