At 35 weeks pregnant, you are almost to the finish line. Only five weeks left until you reach your due date! But keep in mind that only about five percent of babies are actually born on their due date. Some arrive earlier than expected, others later. From this point in your pregnancy week by week onward, you need to be prepared for labor and delivery at any second.
Are your hospital bags packed and ready to go? Have you finished decorating your baby's nursery? Are you stocked up on diapers, baby wipes, and other newborn nursery essentials? If you haven't, you should use these final weeks of your pregnancy week by week to do so.
Nesting During Pregnancy
During pregnancy week 35, if you have been putting off many of these chores, you may get an irresistible urge to "nest" or prepare for your new baby. This "nesting instinct" is common after the fifth month of pregnancy and in your third trimester.
Every woman experiences "nesting" differently than the next. You may have an uncontrollable need to clean and organize your house, or you may try to tackle projects you haven't had the energy to do - such as organizing your baby's closet, or re-organizing your entire house! Some women at 35 weeks pregnant also go above and beyond with buying nursery accessories and products for their baby.
Weight Gain During Pregnancy Week 35
You are bigger than ever now! Your pregnancy weight gain at 35 weeks pregnant may be anywhere between 25 and 30 pounds. With all that weight that you are carrying around, it's no wonder that you probably feel moodier and more irritable than normal. You're also very physically uncomfortable, and may find that falling asleep is a challenge.
Take Practice Runs to the Hospital
At 35 weeks pregnant, your baby's due date is only a month away. If you haven't already, you and your partner need to take practice runs to the hospital or the birthing center where you plan to deliver. Learn the best (and fastest) routes to the hospital. Find out where to park. (Remember that you will be leaving your car for at least 24 hours when you deliver).
You and your partner should also go on a hospital tour during pregnancy week 35 (though it's a good idea to do this earlier in the third trimester!). Many hospitals offer tours of their labor and delivery areas. Taking a tour will help you understand your rooming options and give you an idea of where you will be staying during labor, delivery, and postpartum.
In most hospitals in the United States, you will most likely labor in a LDR (labor, delivery, and recovery) room. You will stay in this room throughout your labor and delivery. After your baby is delivered, you will be moved to a postpartum room, where you'll stay for the rest of your stay.
Start Thinking about Breastfeeding
As you and your partner are preparing for your baby’s arrival at pregnancy week 35, this is a wonderful time to start thinking about breastfeeding. While bottle feeding has become more popular in recent years as the method of feeding your newborn, breastfeeding is absolutely the preferred method of pediatricians and other doctors.
In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you breastfeed your baby. Breast milk is the perfect baby food. It’s easier for your baby to digest, compared to formula. It does not need to be prepared, and it is always available. Plus, it contains all the nutrients, calories, and fluids that your baby requires to be healthy. Breast milk also contains antibodies that protect your little one from many diseases and infections.
Breastfed infants are less likely to suffer from ear infections, diarrhea, obesity, pneumonia, and research has indicated that it might even protect your baby from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Another perk of breastfeeding is that it helps your uterus to return to its pre-pregnancy size more quickly. You will burn calories when you breastfeed, which might just help you lose your pregnancy weight! With all these perks, breastfeeding is definitely something you will want to consider, if you care about your baby.
However, in the event that you have a STD or disease, or you are taking a medication, you will not want to breastfeed.
Fetal Development at 35 Weeks Pregnant At 35 weeks pregnant, your baby continues to grow larger. He or she may weigh 5 to 5.5 pounds (and more in some cases). Your little one is around 18.2 inches long, or longer!
If your baby was born this week, he or she has over a 99 percent chance of survival with very mild health problems. He or she would only require a short hospital stay to monitor his or her oxygen intake and growth.
Because your baby is so large at pregnancy week 35, he or she will no longer be doing any somersaults, flips, or flops in your womb. The level of amniotic fluid in your womb already reached its maximum a few weeks ago, so space is becoming limited for your little one.
Your baby's lungs are maturing at 35 weeks pregnant. Since 32 weeks of pregnancy, your baby's lungs have been producing a substance called "surfactant," which coats the surface of the air sacs and keeps them open. Surfactant helps your baby breathe after birth.
Premature babies tend to lack enough surfactant, so they are at higher risk of respiratory distress syndrome. If you were to go into preterm labor at pregnancy week 35, your doctor would probably give you an injection of a corticosteroid, which would accelerate the production of surfactant in your baby's lungs and reduce your baby's risk of respiratory distress syndrome.
Interestingly, some research suggests that a baby girl's lungs mature more quickly than a boy's lungs. Perhaps that's why little girls born premature at 35 weeks pregnant typically have less trouble with breathing than little boys of the same gestational age.
At pregnancy week 35, your baby is practicing sucking movements, often sucking on his thumb. This will help your baby with feeding after birth.
Group B Strep Test at 35 Weeks Pregnant Between 35 weeks pregnant and 37 weeks, you will be screened for a Group B streptococcus (GBS) infection. Group B strep is a bacterium that lives in your digestive, urinary, and reproductive tract. It can also be found in your vagina and rectum, and it is different from Group A strep (the bacteria that causes "strep throat").
Group B strep is normally harmless to you, and you will often show no signs of sickness. However, it can cause dangerous, and even life-threatening, problems in your baby.
Group B Strep Infection During Labor and Delivery
Your baby can become infected with Group B strep during a vaginal delivery if the birth canal is colonized with the bacteria. If your baby develops a GBS infection within seven days after birth (this is called "early-onset" infection), he or she can develop lung infections (such as pneumonia), blood infections, and meningitis (inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain or spinal cord).
Group B Strep Infection in Babies
Most babies with early-onset infection will show signs of illness in the first 24 hours after delivery. Signs include feeding problems, a baby that's hard to wake up, difficulty breathing, stiffness or limpness, and seizures. If the doctors or nurses monitoring your baby are concerned that your baby may be infected with Group B strep, your baby will be treated with antibiotics.
Late onset infections (which occur after the first week of life) typically cause meningitis only.
Pregnancy Complications from Group B Strep
Between 10 and 30 percent of all pregnant women carry GBS in their bodies. Having a GBS infection puts you at risk for preterm labor and delivery, infection of your amniotic fluid ("bag of water") and infection of your uterus after delivery. However, most women have no complications.
Group B Strep Screening at 35 Weeks Pregnant
During pregnancy week 35, many healthcare providers will screen you for a Group B strep infection to protect your baby from infection. During this test, your vagina and rectum will be swabbed. The samples will be sent to the lab for testing, and you will get results within a day or two.
If the results come back positive, you will receive antibiotics during labor to kill some of the strep bacteria. Unfortunately, you cannot take antibiotics prior to your labor because of how fast the bacteria can grow back. (You will not need to be treated if you have a planned c-section that is performed before your labor starts, or before your water breaks.)
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