40 weeks pregnant: what is happening this week

51.2 cm, and this is the week containing the date everybody has been quoting for eight months. Here is the fact that deserves top billing: most babies are not born on their due date. The estimate is the middle of a five-week window that both ACOG and the NHS call term, and arriving in week 41 is as ordinary as arriving in week 39. Treating the date as a deadline turns an unremarkable fortnight into a fortnight of feeling overdue while being nothing of the sort. Room is short and movements are cramped, but the rate should not change, and a reduction is still a same-day phone call. Lungs and everything else are ready. There is an antenatal appointment this week - blood pressure, bump, urine, position, and a conversation about what happens next. Early labour can announce itself as lower backache or a general premenstrual sort of feeling rather than anything dramatic, and waters breaking is frequently a trickle rather than the scene everyone has watched in films.