32 weeks pregnant: what is happening this week

42.4 cm - a bunch of celery, by the NHS's reckoning, which is a comparison that says more about length than shape. Fat is being added steadily, and it is what will hold body temperature after birth. Most babies are head down by now, which obstetric notes call cephalic presentation, though a proportion are not and there is still time. Waddling has probably arrived, because the pelvis is doing something structurally awkward and the gait compensates. Tiredness is heavier. Here is the thing worth being clear about, because it causes needless anxiety: space in the uterus is reducing, but the rate of movement should not. The NHS is explicit that movements continue at the same rate right up to birth, and that a reduction is a reason to ring the maternity unit the same day - not to lie down with a cold drink and count for an hour first. The pattern may change in character as room runs out. The frequency should not. This is also the last week of the whooping cough window, which closes at 32 weeks in the standard schedule.