Fetus at 23 to 40 weeks

Fetus at 23 to 30 weeks: Your baby is now moving about vigorously, and responds to touch and sound. A very loud noise close by may make them jump and kick. They are also swallowing small amounts of the amniotic fluid in which they are floating, and are passing tiny amounts of urine back into the fluid. Sometimes your baby may get hiccups, and you can feel the jerk of each hiccup. Your baby may also begin to follow a pattern for waking and sleeping. Very often this is a different pattern from yours. So when you go to bed at night, your baby may wake up and start kicking.

Your baby’s heartbeat can be heard through a stethoscope. Later, your partner may be able to hear the heartbeat by putting their ear to your abdomen, but it can be difficult to find the right place.

Your baby is now covered in a white, greasy substance called vernix. It is thought that this may be to protect its skin as it floats in the amniotic fluid. The vernix mostly disappears before the birth.

From 24 weeks, your baby has a chance of survival if it is born. Most babies born before this time cannot live because their lungs and other vital organs are not developed well enough. The care that can now be given in neonatal units means that more and more babies born this early do survive. Babies born at around this time have increased risks of disability.

30 weeks fetus

The actual size from head to bottom is about 33cm.  At around 26 weeks your baby’s eyelids open for the first time. Babies’ eyes are almost always blue or dark blue, although some babies do have brown eyes at birth.

It is not until some weeks after they are born that your baby’s eyes will become the color that they will stay.

Fetus at 31– 40 weeks  

Your baby continues to grow. Their skin, which was quite wrinkled before, becomes smoother, and both the vernix and the lanugo begin to disappear.

By about 32 weeks, the baby is usually lying with its head pointing downwards, ready for birth. The baby’s head can ‘engage’, or move down into the pelvis, before birth. Sometimes the head doesn’t engage until labor has started.

Talking to your fetus

Regularly talking, reading and singing to your bump while you are pregnant will help you to bond with your baby before birth.