By 39th week of pregnancy it may happen that you may experience early signs of labor. At the time of labor and delivery of the baby, baby’s heartbeat should be monitored as it becomes helpful to your physician during the time of labor to make sure that the things are going as per the plan.
In normal condition, the contraction of the uterus restricts the oxygenated blood flow to the placenta, and this won’t raise any problem to your baby as it is a natural thing. But in some of the cases this thing can cause the fetal distress and at this time monitoring of fetal heart rate helps the physician about the condition of the baby. Fetal heart rate can be monitored by means of external fetal monitoring or the internal fetal monitoring. The use of external fetal monitoring can be done any time during the period of labor. A receiver will be attached with a belt will be tied on your belly and it detects a fetal heart rate, it also gives a small strip with the tracks such as echo cardiogram that shows fetal heart rate during the time of the contractions and also in interval of contractions. And in the internal fetal monitor, an electrode is used; it is inserted inside and is placed on the vertex of your baby. But it can be only used when your os is dilated for at least for one cm and also the membrane must be ruptured so that this monitor can be used monitoring the fetal heart rate.
These all things are important to know at this period of 39th week of the pregnancy. Generally, all the newborn babies are looking same with a big head, short or absence of neck, and with the distended belly. Babies with ill-shaped head such as cone shape are commonly seen, especially when mother has an extended labor. Baby’s head is having the soft spots and is called as fontanels, and these are the openings into the skull and this fontanel allows compressing the bones of your baby during the time of delivery, as this process is useful for the fitting of your baby's head into the birth canal.
Even the genitals and breasts of the baby are seen swollen. This happens due to transfer of female hormone in a higher dose than normal one from you to your baby. These all seen abnormities will be disappear within few days after the delivery.
If your find that the skin of your baby is having acne like or other red spots then there is no any need to worry because it is normal. But some of babies are having congenital pustular melanosis, in this condition little pustules or bumps are seen on the skin of filled with puss. Many of them are born with some kind of birthmarks of different types. The commonest are the angel kisses and the stork bites. It may also happen that some birthmarks may not be seen immediately after the birth but are seen with in the first few weeks after the birth. Baby may have either red or blond hair, it may happen even when the parents are having dark hair.
By this time of 39th week of your pregnancy you are almost near to delivery. It may happen that you may be tired, worry, excite, or anxious feeling and many different types of emotions after the birth of baby.
