The perinatal period is the period that begins with the twenty-eighth week of fetal development and ends with the first week of a child's life.
It is characteristic that from the twenty-eighth week the development of the child becomes so perfect that he feels his mother’s heart beating and discerns the shades of her voice. Therefore, it is very important to constantly contact the child in the most gentle and calm voice possible. You need to constantly gently stroke your stomach, because he also feels any touch and very often reacts to it in his own way, smiling or frowning at the same time. The baby’s lungs are still underdeveloped, but if he wants to be born, then there will be no big problems for him, because experienced specialists will always help him cope with difficulties.
The perinatal period of the development of the child is characterized by its activity at the twenty-ninth and thirtieth week. He already freely moves his arms and legs, knows how to stretch and even frown. If a child is worried about something, he reacts to it with stronger shocks, and this should alert mom.
The baby’s body begins to grow very fast, and by the end of the thirty-first week it begins to build up muscle mass. But still, some organs are not yet fully developed. The navel is still low. In boys, the testicles do not descend into the scrotum, and in girls the labia is not completely closed. Due to the appearance of a layer of epithelial cells in the alveolar sacs, the child's lungs are straightened, and he can already breathe quite independently. Mother's blood has a unique feature. Despite the very thin placenta, it never enters the baby’s blood and does not mix with it, although nutrients, water and waste freely penetrate the placenta.
The perinatal development of the fetus at the thirty-second week is noteworthy in that it is positioned head down, that is, in this position, he prepared to be born. This posture for completing labor activities is considered correct, and this is called head presentation. But it also happens that a child can turn his buttocks down. This is already fraught with certain difficulties and is considered a pathology, therefore, special assistance of obstetricians is already required here.
The thirty-third and thirty-fourth weeks are characterized by the fact that the child is already getting ready for his birth. Its weight reaches about two kilograms. The hair on the head is getting thicker. If the baby was born now, then he would not be considered premature, he would breathe on his own and would not cause much concern.
The thirty-fifth week perinatal period is characterized by the fact that the baby has already fully grown its nails, and they are so long that they can even scratch themselves before they are born. Fatty fiber is constantly deposited, due to which the child's shoulders acquire roundness and softness. The color of the eyes of all newborns is the same - blue. But after some time it changes.
Thirty-sixth week is due to the fact that the face already has all the forms of a real baby. The cheeks are chubby and smooth, the muscles of the lips are quite developed, since the child is still sucking fingers intensively in the womb. His skull is soft and at birth tends to flatten a little, but there is nothing wrong with that.
And the birth of a baby is rapidly approaching. It grows, as they say, "not by the day, but by the hour." The thirty-seventh week comes, during which the fat cells intensively continue to accumulate and the deposition of fat is about fourteen grams per day. The child is constantly increasing in volume and falls lower and lower into the hip area of the mother’s body. During this period, she feels that it becomes easier to breathe. The uterus presses on the bladder with great force, so it is necessary to empty it much more often.
The most intensive development in the perinatal period is observed at the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth week. The weight of the fetus reaches approximately three kilograms.
Childbirth can come at any time. The cervix may begin to open, and the fetus may be born at any moment. Therefore, you must constantly respond to any, even the slightest, changes in the body.
So, the long-awaited fortieth week comes, the pregnancy comes to its final stage. The fetus is finally ready for birth.
A newborn usually has a length of forty-eight to fifty-one centimeters and a weight of about three and a half kilograms.
At the first breath of a child, the lungs are filled with air, the blood is gradually enriched with oxygen. Basic life support systems are completely rebuilt. The main source of nutrients is breast milk. The body weight of the baby in the first days after birth may slightly decrease. This is due to the fact that the body is not ready to immediately adapt to new environmental conditions.
Temperature differences also adversely affect the condition of the baby's body. But very soon, the body adapts to the outside world, the perinatal period ends there.