Week 34

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Size of Baby

45cm

Development of Baby

Your baby’s ear cartilage is now soft, and their ears have finished forming. Your baby is able to hear within the womb and is recognizes different voices.

Maternal Symptoms

You may find that your feet and ankles start to swell around this time, maybe earlier if the weather is particularly warm. To alleviate this you can elevate them above the level of your heart and ask someone to massage them for you. If you have blurry vision, start seeing floaters in your vision, and experience headaches in addition to your feet and ankles swelling then it is important that you let your Midwife know as you may be developing pre-eclampsia.

Things to Consider

From 34 weeks of pregnancy, if you don’t have a planned caesarean section, you may want to start preparing your perineum for birth through perineal massage. This is covered in detail in the course “Preparation for Labour, Birth, and Early Parenthood”. Your body has, and will continue to, change a lot since the start of your pregnancy. Commonly women gain between 10kg and 12.5kg throughout their pregnancy, with the majority putting on the most weight after 20 weeks. Check in with yourself, maybe stand in front of a mirror and name things you like or love about yourself. Having a positive body image is a great tool to have in relation to mental wellness as your body will continue to go through significant changes well into parenthood.

Week 33 Week 35

Positive C-Section Birth Story

My baby boy Adam Gordon was born via a scheduled c-section. He was breech and I feel like I tried everything to flip him, including yoga, handstands in the lake, accupuncture, and chiropractic. I went in for an ECV around 36 weeks and it was unsafe to try as his…

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Founder of The Parent Education Company

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Packing Your Hospital Bag – The Top 3 Things to Consider

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COVID-19, Pregnancy and Birth – What we know so far

The last twelve months have changed life as we know it. From lockdowns and working from home to masks and social distancing, the way we live has been altered and despite the optimistic vaccine drive, will continue to be for far longer than we initially expected at the beginning of…

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Breastfeeding: How different could it be?

I have been fortunate enough to breastfeed both of my boys. When I was pregnant with my eldest, I told myself I would give it a good go, and if it worked for me and the baby, then great. If it didn’t, there were other ways in which I could…

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Eating and Drinking when Pregnant at Christmas

Knowing what is OK to eat and drink during pregnancy is a steep learning curve as it is (anyone else surprised by the potential of raw egg in some homemade chocolate mousse?!) but over Christmas it gets even more challenging. This guide is here to help you feel confident in…

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The Parent Education Company’s Story

This week’s blog post looks a little different, but it still has the same theme. In today’s blog I will be sharing more about how the Parent Education Company came to be, the reason that it was set up, and why I am so passionate about Parent Education as a…

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Dave’s Birth Story

As a male this situation is very passive (in my opinion) as you are there to support your partner as she brings your child into the world that she carried for both of you for so long. During this time, you feel hopeless, useless, wrong, incompetent… Need I go on?…

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Charlotte’s Birth Story

I had the birth I always dreamt of, and this is my story… I made very clear throughout my pregnancy that I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible. After all, this is what my body was made to do; I grew my baby without intervention, why should…

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Size of Baby

Development of Baby

Maternal Symptoms

Things to Consider

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