How to dilate your cervix at 40 weeks
40 Weeks Pregnant | How to Induce Labor at Home, and SHOULD You???
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welcome to week 40 of your pregnancy
so you've finally reached your due date
but no baby so in this video we're going
to talk about everything you need to
know about being 40 weeks pregnant
including how the baby is doing things
that you might see different at your
next ob appointments and if you should
be doing anything at home to try to get
this baby here sooner but first if
you're new here my name is diana i'm a
physician assistant i specialize in
women's health and gynecology you are
watching in the pink and if you're new
here in the pink means in good health
and spirit so if you like being healthy
and happy click subscribe because you
are in the right place
[Music]
now if you've been doing the math you
might think to yourself well wait i'm 40
weeks pregnant and at four weeks per
month does that mean you are 10 months
pregnant now now that would be true if
every month were 28 days but months vary
anywhere from 28 to 31 days which makes
it tricky if you want to calculate
pregnancy by months weeks are always the
same amount of days which is one of the
few reasons why pregnancy is measured by
weeks that being said when we say a
pregnancy lasts nine months that means
that unless you deliver early you are
pregnant all the way through your ninth
month at 40 weeks the fat continues to
be added all over the body to keep the
baby warm after birth also your baby's
circulatory system is done developing
their musculoskeletal system their lungs
their brain and their nervous system all
have finished their development they are
ready to come into this world the
question now is
when now you might be wanting to hop
onto google and look up things that you
can do at home to make yourself go into
labor and there are a lot of tricks that
women will swear by and how do they know
this because they will tell you that
that's what they did for example you
might have a sister that swears that she
went into labor after eating spicy food
but that is simply because
they're 39.5 weeks pregnant or the 40
weeks pregnant and they were about to
have a baby do anyways regardless of
what they did or what they ate so let's
talk about that for a second so if you
google the topic how to induce labor
naturally at home you're gonna find
lists filled with things like exercise
sex nipple stimulation
acupuncture acupressure and castor oil
or spicy foods and i could do a video
all about this topic and perhaps down
the road i will because it's really
interesting what women will do to get
themselves to go into labor at this
point and honestly i don't blame you at
all i felt the exact same way when i was
this pregnant so these topics have been
studied and none of these are likely to
cause any harm but i do recommend that
you talk to your ob before you try any
of these things there are some things
that your ob or midwife may not want you
to do for example have sex or be
exercising if you are having specific
medical issues and things like castor
oil which i can honestly say i have
never purchased in my entire life can
you even find that at the grocery store
castor oil and spicy foods can cause
nausea and upset stomach and diarrhea
but if you normally eat spicy food go
ahead and continue to eat spicy food i
love spicy food but it's just not likely
to bring on labor i'm sorry women now
nipple stimulation can cause uterine
contractions but the data isn't
substantial yet to say if those
contractions are actually going to lead
to labor if your sexual partner is a
male the semen contains some
prostaglandins that might help your
cervix to soften or ripen but again does
that mean it will make you go into labor
so far studies do not show that it does
now one thing we do have some research
on is something called membrane
stripping and it has shown to
help to bring on labor this is something
that is done in your obs office or in
the hospital by your midwife membrane
stripping might cause your body to
release something called prostaglandins
and could soften the cervix and cause
you to go into labor
everything is fine okay just don't freak
out i'm not freaking out i was talking
to myself and of course
you don't need to do anything you can
just sit back and let your baby run the
show at least for another week because
most obs and midwives will want you to
have an elective induction if you
haven't already by 41 weeks at this
point studies show that doing an
elective induction might help reduce the
risk of certain complications like
macrosomia which means the baby's head
getting really big maternal
complications like preeclampsia could
decrease your chances of having to have
a cesarean and might decrease the risk
of stillbirth so talk to your ob about
this possibility for you and you too can
make the decision on if doing an
elective induction at this point is
appropriate for you or if you want to
wait just a little bit longer now that
you are 40 weeks your ob is most likely
going to be one of seeing you twice a
week instead of just once a week at
these appointments they're just gonna
monitor you and baby a little bit more
closely so they might be checking
ultrasounds every single time they might
also be checking something called nst or
non-stress test which is just a way to
help keep an eye on the baby but also
remember that you can be doing kick
counting at home this is something that
you can do every single day and it's
very reassuring that the baby is doing
well so just to remind you kick counting
means that you need to fill the baby
move 10 times within two hours this
doesn't mean that the baby's gonna be
kicking ten times every two hours
throughout the day
just once a day they need to be moving
at least that much so many times as you
go out your day you're thinking gosh the
baby's moving 10 times in 10 minutes and
that's totally normal too you just take
note of that that yes baby pass kick
counting for today and you can know that
baby's doing just fine but if you've
gone throughout your day and you're
thinking gosh you know i haven't really
felt the baby move as much what you can
do is get a glass of juice
and go lay down and really focus and pay
attention on how the baby is moving
again the baby needs to move 10 times in
two hours and if they don't give your ob
or midwife a call let them know what's
going on and then they can help you
decide if you need to come in to have
the baby checked out another thing that
you might have done when you go to your
obs office is have your cervix checked
they're going to be checking for
dilation
cervix and maybe even the station of
where the baby is right now and if you
want to know more about that i talked a
lot about that in week 39 last week's
pregnancy video so i'm going to put a
card above me so you can go check that
out also if you know anybody else that
is pregnant especially early on in their
pregnancy and you think that they might
like this week by week series be sure to
share this video with them hopefully it
would help them out as well finally i
just want to tell you
uh thank you from the bottom of my heart
for letting me share this pregnancy
journey with you many of you have been
following this series since week four
five six seven really early and you've
been updating me throughout your
pregnancy and uh also sharing with me
when the baby was born your baby
delivery experience how you and the baby
are doing and it has meant the world to
me so i want to thank you from the
bottom of my heart for letting me be a
part of this but don't worry i'm going
to continue to post videos about
pregnancy and also about postpartum
recovery common problems of new moms
issues with breastfeeding and then
general women's health issues so i'm
still here i'm not going anywhere so i
hope you continue to watch these videos
share them with anybody that you'd like
i'm also going to put right here a link
to my entire pregnancy series click on
that and i will see you over there
now you can be a one or two even three
centimeters dilated and not be in labor
but when you do go into active labor the
cervix will
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