Fetal development - 37 weeks pregnant

 

 

Your baby weighs close to 6.5 pounds / 2.8 kilograms and may be about 20 inches / 50 centimetres long from head to toe. Your baby's head is now cradled in your pelvic cavity - surrounded and protected by your pelvic bones. This position clears some much-needed space for her growing legs and buttocks.

Many babies now have a full head of hair, with locks maybe around one inch / 2.5 centimetres long. Of course, some babies don't have any hair at all.

Speaking of hair, most of the downy coat of lanugo that covered your baby from 26 weeks has disappeared, and so has most of the vernix caseosa, the whitish substance that also covers her. Your baby will swallow her lanugo and exterior coating, along with other secretions, and store them in her bowels. These will become your infant's first bowel movement, a blackish waste called meconium.

Around now many women start worrying about whether they will know if they are in labour. Look no further than our labour and birth section.

• Note: Experts say every baby develops differently - even in utero. These fetal development pages are designed to give a general idea of how a fetus grows in the womb.

36 weeks pregnant 〈•• Fetal Development ••〉 38 weeks pregnant