32 weeks pregnant: Can THIS massage make labour easier?
Many midwives and mums recommend massaging the perenium in the lead up to labour.
Your body
For the next month, you'll have an antenatal check-up every fortnight until 36 weeks. If you have one this week, when your midwife checks your growth from your belly button to the top of the uterus, it will measure about 12cm.
Pelvic floor exercises
Feeling the need to quickly cross your legs when you sneeze, cough or laugh too much? You may be experiencing pregnancy incontinence, which is caused by the weight of the baby pressing on your pelvic floor muscles. It will only get worse if you don't take action, so tighten things up by sticking to a regular routine of pelvic floor exercises.
Here's the rub
Want to reduce your risk of tearing or having an episiotomy (a cut in the perineum – the area between the vagina and anus) during labour? Some midwives – and many mums – swear by massaging the perineum – which has to stretch massively during labour – with sweet almond oil twice a day to make it suppler.
A neck massage is nice… but it's the other kind that will help during labour.
Vision off?
Is everything going blurry behind your contact lenses? Water retention and the extra blood circulating around your body can make your eyeballs change shape, so beware. Your prescription may need changing, or you may prefer to switch to glasses until after the birth, when your eyes go back to normal.
Your baby
Now fully formed, she weighs 1.8kg, with a crown to rump length of 29cm and total length of 42cm.
Sweet dreams
By now, your baby has already established a sleep rhythm: she may gradually sleep for longer during each 24-hour period as birth approaches. While she's sleeping, chances are that she's dreaming: research shows that during the last trimester, babies spend around 60 per cent of their time in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, aka dreaming. Besides being a pleasant way to while away the hours, this also boosts brain development!
