May 11, 2025 • 13 mins
Welcome to Hello Bump, a podcast about what you’re not expecting when you’re expecting.
In this episode, hosts Jana Pittman and Grace Rouvray discover your baby is around the size of a mini beach ball or a bag of sugar! At week 30, your baby will start looking more plump and will start to grow toe nails. Meanwhile, your ligaments and muscles will continue to stretch and your joints might start to feel looser as your body gets closer to the birth date. Plus, Grace asks Jana about what to do if you need additional growth scans and whether or not your baby can change position as you get closer to term.
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CREDITS:
Hosts: Jana Pittman and Grace Rouvray
Executive Producer: Courtney Ammenhauser
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Mom and Mayor acknowledges the traditional owners of land and
waters that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I am pregnanty.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
more manageable. I'm Gracery Ray. I'm pregnant for the first time.
I'm in the wrong week thirty weeks, thirty weeks, thirty weeks. Sorry,
I'm Gracey Ray. I'm pregnant for the first time and
things are getting uncomfortable. I thought they were uncomfortable, but
now they're uncomfortable and.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
That's gonna get work. Sorry guys listening.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'm young A Pittman. I'm a former sportsperson for Australia.
I'm a mother of six little humans, and I'm training
to be an obstetrician.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Each episode, we will be holding your hand week by
week through the mysterious, perplexing and often uncomfortable but still
miracle that is pregnancy, all the way from a poppy
seed to a pumpkin.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Week thirty five five, Oh hang on, no, that's right,
and in o stetch weeks we see that it's a
big milestone week. So this is often the goal of
people who are unfortunately in preterm labor or concern their
babies coming early to reach that thirty week mark. Babies
have really really good outcomes from this point.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Forward pretty much. What's the percentage of viable? Would you say?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Very close to ninety five and above? So we have
I mean again, it depends on what condition that little
baby is born in. So but if that little one
comes out and has had steroids to mature its lungs
and sometimes what we call some magnesium sulfate for its
brain development, then we have a very good chance that
they'll do well.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Still a prolonged stay in you qugo.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, they're going to be there for a few months,
and things like feeding and whether they get an infection
in the noon. Adult care unities will determine the prognosis.
But like ninety five is pretty quid. Yeah, getting up
there now.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And for their size. I have a little mini beach ball.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I like that, like one of those little red and
white ones. Yeah, yes, I love it, you love it?
Love it?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
A bag of sugar great, and a blackfooted ferret cute?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do we have those in Australia?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It sounds cute?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Right, We'll go with that or a pest or a pest.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Which is both it could be one yeah, yeah, And scientifically,
how big are they.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well, we're getting up to about one point five kilos now,
but again the variation is super kicking in at this point,
so we can have some babies down at seven eight
hundred grams because they're really growth restricted, and we're.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Definitely starting to zee babies now starting to lay on
some of that fat.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Which is one of the biggest things we start seeing
with Bubby now is that though they start looking plumper
on the ultrasounds and they're actually starting to put some
of those fat stores down, different fat from what we've got.
They have brown fat more than we do because that's
where we'll keep them warm when they're actually born. They've
got that Lanugo hair. So if you ever see babies
that are born early that have really fluffy like hair,
that'll start actually moving around and disappearing now and they'll
start growing toenails, which is I think very cute.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's weird. It's weird what's happening to me and what's
happening to us.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So you're continuing to grow as you'll be feeling. I
have to say I'm glad it's not me. I've done
it so many times. But the ligaments and muscles are
certainly stretching around. That uterus is really pushing up under
that ribcage now. So you might find you get some
aches and pains, you're walking along, your knees get a
bit wobbly, your hips start getting a bit looser because
you are around ten weeks away from having your baby.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I haven't a question that I'm hoping is optimistic. If
I haven't got stretched months yet, does that mean I
won't or you're pretty lucky.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
People see their linear albo getting darker. That's big, the
dark line from their pubic bone up towards their belly button.
Most people start feeling stretched earlier than this. You still can,
don't get me wrong. It can happen at any time
if you have a big rapid growth. What we do
find women sometimes started to feel is that separation in
the rectus muscle. So you might find you literally sit
up in night and you feel this big separation and
you do need to watch that, and it is something
(03:42):
that can be worked on with physiotherapy after birth. But
now it's actually important that when you sit up, you
don't actually.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Pull yourself up.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
We want you to roll to your side and then
actually use your hand to help you push yourself up.
And I'll actually protect your abdominal muscles as you move
through the next few weeks of pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And I even from rolling like I'm obviously sleeping on
my side, even going from one side to the other
side is a bit of effort.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It is becoming more and more exactly, and it'll get
even more difficult through the night. And it's actually a
good point to raise at the moment. We definitely want
you to sleep on your side, so we do. At
this point most of your midwives will be encouraging are
you sleeping on your side? But let's burst that bubble
there as well. If you find yourself awake on your
back at night.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It's okay, we haven't, right, we can't.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You haven't. You haven't stopped your baby's growth.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Now. The reason we do it is because you're actually
sitting on your big vessels. So you order you and
your IVC, which is returning the blood flow from your
lower limbs up to your heart so you can get
more demail, which is swelling in the lower legs, and
ultimately you know, we want to have that percent of
being nice and fueled by your blood. But you can't
stop what you do when you sleep, guys, so you
just try your best. Start on your side and if
you roll onto your back and you wake up, just
(04:44):
roll back to your side.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Is this normal?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Normal?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Haven't? Is this normal that I think is quite common
and it's having to be sent for additional growth scans? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Great?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
One.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So they measure in my midwife appointments, they measure is
it called fundl height, Yes, you got it. So they
measured my fund to height every two weeks and it
was like twenty eight point five centimeters, and then two
weeks later it was twenty nine centimeters, and then two
weeks later it was twenty nine centimeters. Again. Interesting, So
they said, you just haven't. They said, look, that could
be the position, like she could have moved from. She
(05:18):
would be transfers right transversely. I don't know any of
the other terms, but one which they said, we're not worried,
but let's just send you for another scan and any
additional tests is just petrifying for people who don't understand.
When I did start sending texts to friends, it turns
out like a lot of women have had to have
additional scans. But then the commentary online is also to
(05:39):
be sent for growth scans is also controversial because it's
hard to.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Interpret them properly.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yes, that's right, So there is a lot of information there.
I mean, the first one is your fundle Height's amazing.
It actually matches your gestation in most cases. So when
you're thirty two weeks, you'll have a thirty two centimeter
fund to height, and we measure it from your pubic
bone to the top of your funders, which is the
very top of your uterus, the highest roundest point. And
so yes, if you're two to three centimeters either way
above your gestation or below, that is warrant for an
(06:07):
ultrasound because it can indicate the baby's in the tubug
too small. Again, as you said, beautifully, ultra sounds u
notoriously wrong. They can be quite a couple of hundred
grams either side wrong. So someone might say, and we
see it all the time. We see a lady being
induced for a big baby and it's supposed to be
four point five kilos and it comes out at three
point eight. So it's not a perfect science, but it's
the best thing we have, and what it does pick
(06:28):
up is those very very small babies and those very
very macrosomic large forgestational aged babies where things need to
be monitored because we don't want someone going to forty
two weeks with a five and a half kilo baby.
That is difficult and leads to things like shouldered destocia
and really bad paraneal tearing. The same goes if you
have a little baby, we don't want to be pushing
her or him to forty weeks if we know that
(06:49):
that placenta is no longer working well. And that's what
those growth scans are for, so if we're concerned, we
check it. We check the dopplers, the flow of blood
to the baby, from the placenta to baby, and how
that baby's distributing the blood around its body. So for example,
if it's struggling from the placental perspective, it'll start sending
more blood to the brain and ensuring that the vital
organs get more and so you might see the baby
has a smaller tummy, which is called its ac so
(07:10):
it's abdominal circumference might get smaller because it's preserving its
energy and its nutrition. For its heart and its brain.
So there's all these amazing signs that we can see
on the ultrasound, but please don't read into it entirely.
The weight is always wrong. And the biggest thing is
the closer you get in gestation to term, the harder
it is to accurately measure the size of your baby.
So if you look at your report, it'll often say
(07:32):
three point two kilos plus or minus four hundred and
fifty grams, So that means your baby's actually either two
point eight or it's three point seven. You know, like
there's a very big difference if your baby's actually three
point two versus much much smaller versus much bigger. So
it's a window that we can look into, which I
think the last thing is important is why that's how
we do we call serial growth scans, because I wh're
not looking at the baby in a split second of time.
(07:52):
We want to see what it was at twenty eight weeks,
what it was at thirty weeks, what was at thirty
four weeks, so you can actually see that change in
growth as the baby develops in utero. Is this normal?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Normal?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So one of the things that my midwife also said
is you know, book in for your thirty four weeks
or your thirty six week scan, And she didn't try
to get me to not book it, but just said,
this can open a can of worms.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, I love this.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
This is going good because of this exact thing that
people can get freaked out about it head correct or
I should induce because of all of these things, which
can then again open another can of worms. So what's
your opinion on it?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Look, it's hard because if you're having an ultrasound for
the right reason, if you've got diabetes, if you're a smoker,
if you've had a previously pre termed baby that was tiny,
they're all very good reasons to have ultrasounds.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I liked having LCOT sounds because I liked looking at
my baby, so I probably had a few more than
I needed. And certainly in my first pregnancy, I was
training full time for the Olympics and there was no
data out there as to how much was okay to train,
so I was having them two weekly because we were
worried that the amount I was training might affect the bubby.
Not a concern at all, Just so we all know now,
because everyone trains in pregnancy, But so I think if
there's a good medical reason to have them, then yes,
(09:02):
because you know, the last thing you want to do
is have and I'm sorry to say this guy's it's
very serious, but it's a baby that passes away inside
because we've missed those early warning signs. And that's what
all this is about. Those fundel how it measurements. Is
your baby doing well where we expect him or her
to be. Does that ultrasound look relatively normal, because remember
it's a percentage of normal, so you know, there has
to be ninety eight centil babies and there has to
be second centil babies, and we just need to know
(09:24):
where your little one sits so that we can make
plans around what's safe for your birth. But the one
I do worry about is the ultra sand at thirty
six weeks, which tells you've got an enormous baby and
you don't have diabetes and you don't have any medical
reason why your baby's huge. That's one I think that
you need to really have a long discussion with your
midwife about because they're the ones where you start making
decisions around birth and induction, which may or may not
(09:45):
be the right decision for you, Amoe with the diabetes
that's not well controlled. With a big baby, that's a
very very different story, and that's when an induction of
labor for a big baby can avoid the very real
risk of should of destocia.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And what can we do this week? What's important at
week thirty I.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Think the big thing we need to watch this week
is to we kind of touch on a little bit
of the funnel height. Actually, is to not worry about what
position your baby is in because you're right, a transverse baby,
which basically means a baby that's lying sideways at thirty weeks,
makes absolutely no difference at all, unless you unfortunately break
your waters today and go into labor, then it does matter.
But most of these little ones are going to either
(10:22):
go kethalic which means head down or breach, which means
bum down, and most of the time bum down is
where you're presenting with their little bottom or their feet. Now, again,
there's lots of complexities around that we don't need to
go into because the bottom line is, at thirty weeks,
it does not matter what position your baby is in,
but what it can do is affect your fundl height
because obviously, if you haven't got a longitudinal baby that's
lying length wise in the uterus, it can misshape in
(10:43):
your uterus a little bit and change what that funnel
hight does.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I have a dumb question, no questions, dube, how much
range of moving around do babies have? Because when I
have gone in for measurements a lot of them, and
when you've also felt my ballet in this record, she's
always been head down in some way, but then maybe
just other times gone slightly transverse, which is great because
(11:08):
I'd love to deliver vaginally, But is there a world
in which she just flips up and is breach? If
she's been quite in this place down position for.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Weeks, it can change, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Obviously, if her baby's been committed to head down, there's
less likely, and the closer towards full term you get,
the less likely babies move because I just don't have
the room to do so. But certainly at thirty weeks
your baby could change four or five times a day
from cathalic as in head down to bum down to
ankle down to foot to shoulder and it's okay. So
as we get closer to birth, if your baby that
(11:38):
actually is what we call an unstable lie. We don't
like it as much, but it even does happen. At
thirty eight and thirty nine weeks in fact, Grace I
was in the middle of doing a cesarean section.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I ultra sounded her before I went in.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
She was definitely Catholic, but it came out bump first,
so that little one turned in labor.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And so it absolutely does happen.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And should you be worried if they're not having a
lot of movement, like there's obviously like I feel like movement,
but if they're not having big position changes or do
babies just get a spot they like and get comfortable.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Again, every baby's different, and it's so it's so funny
because I reckon if I had a dollar for every
question someone asked me how much movement is normal for
my baby, I would not be working at all. Any
might be retired, living in Hamilton Island or something. But
because we can't tell you, every baby is different. So
it's about their own pattern and what they do. But
if you've got absent movements or decreased movements from what
they're normally doing, that's when you need to come in
(12:29):
as you get closer to term. They don't do as
bigger movements because there's not as much room, but the
frequency and the strength should still be there.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump. We
have so many episodes of this series filled with tips
and stories from women and experts who've been through it
all before.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Bump related in this podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Feed, and while you're there, we'd love if you could
give us a flying star rating and maybe leave us
a review, or even share this episode with a friend.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production
by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with Huggies.
Bye Bye
You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Mom and Mayor acknowledges the traditional owners of land and
waters that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I am pregnanty.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
more manageable. I'm Gracery Ray. I'm pregnant for the first time.
I'm in the wrong week thirty weeks, thirty weeks, thirty weeks. Sorry,
I'm Gracey Ray. I'm pregnant for the first time and
things are getting uncomfortable. I thought they were uncomfortable, but
now they're uncomfortable and.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
That's gonna get work. Sorry guys listening.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
I'm young A Pittman. I'm a former sportsperson for Australia.
I'm a mother of six little humans, and I'm training
to be an obstetrician.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Each episode, we will be holding your hand week by
week through the mysterious, perplexing and often uncomfortable but still
miracle that is pregnancy, all the way from a poppy
seed to a pumpkin.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Week thirty five five, Oh hang on, no, that's right,
and in o stetch weeks we see that it's a
big milestone week. So this is often the goal of
people who are unfortunately in preterm labor or concern their
babies coming early to reach that thirty week mark. Babies
have really really good outcomes from this point.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Forward pretty much. What's the percentage of viable? Would you say?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Very close to ninety five and above? So we have
I mean again, it depends on what condition that little
baby is born in. So but if that little one
comes out and has had steroids to mature its lungs
and sometimes what we call some magnesium sulfate for its
brain development, then we have a very good chance that
they'll do well.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Still a prolonged stay in you qugo.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, they're going to be there for a few months,
and things like feeding and whether they get an infection
in the noon. Adult care unities will determine the prognosis.
But like ninety five is pretty quid. Yeah, getting up
there now.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And for their size. I have a little mini beach ball.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I like that, like one of those little red and
white ones. Yeah, yes, I love it, you love it?
Love it?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
A bag of sugar great, and a blackfooted ferret cute?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do we have those in Australia?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It sounds cute?
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Right, We'll go with that or a pest or a pest.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Which is both it could be one yeah, yeah, And scientifically,
how big are they.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Well, we're getting up to about one point five kilos now,
but again the variation is super kicking in at this point,
so we can have some babies down at seven eight
hundred grams because they're really growth restricted, and we're.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Definitely starting to zee babies now starting to lay on
some of that fat.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Which is one of the biggest things we start seeing
with Bubby now is that though they start looking plumper
on the ultrasounds and they're actually starting to put some
of those fat stores down, different fat from what we've got.
They have brown fat more than we do because that's
where we'll keep them warm when they're actually born. They've
got that Lanugo hair. So if you ever see babies
that are born early that have really fluffy like hair,
that'll start actually moving around and disappearing now and they'll
start growing toenails, which is I think very cute.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's weird. It's weird what's happening to me and what's
happening to us.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So you're continuing to grow as you'll be feeling. I
have to say I'm glad it's not me. I've done
it so many times. But the ligaments and muscles are
certainly stretching around. That uterus is really pushing up under
that ribcage now. So you might find you get some
aches and pains, you're walking along, your knees get a
bit wobbly, your hips start getting a bit looser because
you are around ten weeks away from having your baby.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I haven't a question that I'm hoping is optimistic. If
I haven't got stretched months yet, does that mean I
won't or you're pretty lucky.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
People see their linear albo getting darker. That's big, the
dark line from their pubic bone up towards their belly button.
Most people start feeling stretched earlier than this. You still can,
don't get me wrong. It can happen at any time
if you have a big rapid growth. What we do
find women sometimes started to feel is that separation in
the rectus muscle. So you might find you literally sit
up in night and you feel this big separation and
you do need to watch that, and it is something
(03:42):
that can be worked on with physiotherapy after birth. But
now it's actually important that when you sit up, you
don't actually.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Pull yourself up.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
We want you to roll to your side and then
actually use your hand to help you push yourself up.
And I'll actually protect your abdominal muscles as you move
through the next few weeks of pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And I even from rolling like I'm obviously sleeping on
my side, even going from one side to the other
side is a bit of effort.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It is becoming more and more exactly, and it'll get
even more difficult through the night. And it's actually a
good point to raise at the moment. We definitely want
you to sleep on your side, so we do. At
this point most of your midwives will be encouraging are
you sleeping on your side? But let's burst that bubble
there as well. If you find yourself awake on your
back at night.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
It's okay, we haven't, right, we can't.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
You haven't. You haven't stopped your baby's growth.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Now. The reason we do it is because you're actually
sitting on your big vessels. So you order you and
your IVC, which is returning the blood flow from your
lower limbs up to your heart so you can get
more demail, which is swelling in the lower legs, and
ultimately you know, we want to have that percent of
being nice and fueled by your blood. But you can't
stop what you do when you sleep, guys, so you
just try your best. Start on your side and if
you roll onto your back and you wake up, just
(04:44):
roll back to your side.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Is this normal?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Normal?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Haven't? Is this normal that I think is quite common
and it's having to be sent for additional growth scans? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Great?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
One.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So they measure in my midwife appointments, they measure is
it called fundl height, Yes, you got it. So they
measured my fund to height every two weeks and it
was like twenty eight point five centimeters, and then two
weeks later it was twenty nine centimeters, and then two
weeks later it was twenty nine centimeters. Again. Interesting, So
they said, you just haven't. They said, look, that could
be the position, like she could have moved from. She
(05:18):
would be transfers right transversely. I don't know any of
the other terms, but one which they said, we're not worried,
but let's just send you for another scan and any
additional tests is just petrifying for people who don't understand.
When I did start sending texts to friends, it turns
out like a lot of women have had to have
additional scans. But then the commentary online is also to
(05:39):
be sent for growth scans is also controversial because it's
hard to.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Interpret them properly.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yes, that's right, So there is a lot of information there.
I mean, the first one is your fundle Height's amazing.
It actually matches your gestation in most cases. So when
you're thirty two weeks, you'll have a thirty two centimeter
fund to height, and we measure it from your pubic
bone to the top of your funders, which is the
very top of your uterus, the highest roundest point. And
so yes, if you're two to three centimeters either way
above your gestation or below, that is warrant for an
(06:07):
ultrasound because it can indicate the baby's in the tubug
too small. Again, as you said, beautifully, ultra sounds u
notoriously wrong. They can be quite a couple of hundred
grams either side wrong. So someone might say, and we
see it all the time. We see a lady being
induced for a big baby and it's supposed to be
four point five kilos and it comes out at three
point eight. So it's not a perfect science, but it's
the best thing we have, and what it does pick
(06:28):
up is those very very small babies and those very
very macrosomic large forgestational aged babies where things need to
be monitored because we don't want someone going to forty
two weeks with a five and a half kilo baby.
That is difficult and leads to things like shouldered destocia
and really bad paraneal tearing. The same goes if you
have a little baby, we don't want to be pushing
her or him to forty weeks if we know that
(06:49):
that placenta is no longer working well. And that's what
those growth scans are for, so if we're concerned, we
check it. We check the dopplers, the flow of blood
to the baby, from the placenta to baby, and how
that baby's distributing the blood around its body. So for example,
if it's struggling from the placental perspective, it'll start sending
more blood to the brain and ensuring that the vital
organs get more and so you might see the baby
has a smaller tummy, which is called its ac so
(07:10):
it's abdominal circumference might get smaller because it's preserving its
energy and its nutrition. For its heart and its brain.
So there's all these amazing signs that we can see
on the ultrasound, but please don't read into it entirely.
The weight is always wrong. And the biggest thing is
the closer you get in gestation to term, the harder
it is to accurately measure the size of your baby.
So if you look at your report, it'll often say
(07:32):
three point two kilos plus or minus four hundred and
fifty grams, So that means your baby's actually either two
point eight or it's three point seven. You know, like
there's a very big difference if your baby's actually three
point two versus much much smaller versus much bigger. So
it's a window that we can look into, which I
think the last thing is important is why that's how
we do we call serial growth scans, because I wh're
not looking at the baby in a split second of time.
(07:52):
We want to see what it was at twenty eight weeks,
what it was at thirty weeks, what was at thirty
four weeks, so you can actually see that change in
growth as the baby develops in utero. Is this normal?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Normal?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So one of the things that my midwife also said
is you know, book in for your thirty four weeks
or your thirty six week scan, And she didn't try
to get me to not book it, but just said,
this can open a can of worms.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, I love this.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
This is going good because of this exact thing that
people can get freaked out about it head correct or
I should induce because of all of these things, which
can then again open another can of worms. So what's
your opinion on it?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Look, it's hard because if you're having an ultrasound for
the right reason, if you've got diabetes, if you're a smoker,
if you've had a previously pre termed baby that was tiny,
they're all very good reasons to have ultrasounds.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I liked having LCOT sounds because I liked looking at
my baby, so I probably had a few more than
I needed. And certainly in my first pregnancy, I was
training full time for the Olympics and there was no
data out there as to how much was okay to train,
so I was having them two weekly because we were
worried that the amount I was training might affect the bubby.
Not a concern at all, Just so we all know now,
because everyone trains in pregnancy, But so I think if
there's a good medical reason to have them, then yes,
(09:02):
because you know, the last thing you want to do
is have and I'm sorry to say this guy's it's
very serious, but it's a baby that passes away inside
because we've missed those early warning signs. And that's what
all this is about. Those fundel how it measurements. Is
your baby doing well where we expect him or her
to be. Does that ultrasound look relatively normal, because remember
it's a percentage of normal, so you know, there has
to be ninety eight centil babies and there has to
be second centil babies, and we just need to know
(09:24):
where your little one sits so that we can make
plans around what's safe for your birth. But the one
I do worry about is the ultra sand at thirty
six weeks, which tells you've got an enormous baby and
you don't have diabetes and you don't have any medical
reason why your baby's huge. That's one I think that
you need to really have a long discussion with your
midwife about because they're the ones where you start making
decisions around birth and induction, which may or may not
(09:45):
be the right decision for you, Amoe with the diabetes
that's not well controlled. With a big baby, that's a
very very different story, and that's when an induction of
labor for a big baby can avoid the very real
risk of should of destocia.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
And what can we do this week? What's important at
week thirty I.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Think the big thing we need to watch this week
is to we kind of touch on a little bit
of the funnel height. Actually, is to not worry about what
position your baby is in because you're right, a transverse baby,
which basically means a baby that's lying sideways at thirty weeks,
makes absolutely no difference at all, unless you unfortunately break
your waters today and go into labor, then it does matter.
But most of these little ones are going to either
(10:22):
go kethalic which means head down or breach, which means
bum down, and most of the time bum down is
where you're presenting with their little bottom or their feet. Now, again,
there's lots of complexities around that we don't need to
go into because the bottom line is, at thirty weeks,
it does not matter what position your baby is in,
but what it can do is affect your fundl height
because obviously, if you haven't got a longitudinal baby that's
lying length wise in the uterus, it can misshape in
(10:43):
your uterus a little bit and change what that funnel
hight does.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I have a dumb question, no questions, dube, how much
range of moving around do babies have? Because when I
have gone in for measurements a lot of them, and
when you've also felt my ballet in this record, she's
always been head down in some way, but then maybe
just other times gone slightly transverse, which is great because
(11:08):
I'd love to deliver vaginally, But is there a world
in which she just flips up and is breach? If
she's been quite in this place down position for.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Weeks, it can change, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Obviously, if her baby's been committed to head down, there's
less likely, and the closer towards full term you get,
the less likely babies move because I just don't have
the room to do so. But certainly at thirty weeks
your baby could change four or five times a day
from cathalic as in head down to bum down to
ankle down to foot to shoulder and it's okay. So
as we get closer to birth, if your baby that
(11:38):
actually is what we call an unstable lie. We don't
like it as much, but it even does happen. At
thirty eight and thirty nine weeks in fact, Grace I
was in the middle of doing a cesarean section.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I ultra sounded her before I went in.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
She was definitely Catholic, but it came out bump first,
so that little one turned in labor.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
And so it absolutely does happen.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And should you be worried if they're not having a
lot of movement, like there's obviously like I feel like movement,
but if they're not having big position changes or do
babies just get a spot they like and get comfortable.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Again, every baby's different, and it's so it's so funny
because I reckon if I had a dollar for every
question someone asked me how much movement is normal for
my baby, I would not be working at all. Any
might be retired, living in Hamilton Island or something. But
because we can't tell you, every baby is different. So
it's about their own pattern and what they do. But
if you've got absent movements or decreased movements from what
they're normally doing, that's when you need to come in
(12:29):
as you get closer to term. They don't do as
bigger movements because there's not as much room, but the
frequency and the strength should still be there.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump. We
have so many episodes of this series filled with tips
and stories from women and experts who've been through it
all before.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Bump related in this podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Feed, and while you're there, we'd love if you could
give us a flying star rating and maybe leave us
a review, or even share this episode with a friend.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production
by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with Huggies.
Bye Bye
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