Weeks 37 to Term

Once you reach 37 weeks of pregnancy you are considered to be at full term, though delivery may not occur for several more weeks. Your due date is assigned at 40 weeks, although very few women give birth on the exact date. By 40 weeks, the average birth weight of babies in the United States is almost 7.5 pounds. The baby will measure about 20 inches in length.

During this time, your baby continues to put on weight and his organ function will continue to improve. Ultrasound may be used if your doctor is uncertain as to which way the baby is positioned–head down or breech. If you don't go into labor on your own, you will be induced between 41 and 42 weeks.

38-week 3D ultrasound. The baby is smiling–perhaps he knows he’ll soon get to see the outside world.

 

Meet our experts:

Peter Doubilet, MD, PhD and Carol B. Benson, MD are professors of radiology at Harvard Medical School and obstetrical ultrasound specialists at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. You can learn much more about pregnancy through the “eyes” of ultrasound in Peter and Carol’s new book Your Developing Baby (McGraw-Hill, 2008). It offers an illuminating “tour” of life in-utero using remarkable 2D and 3D ultrasound images, original explanatory diagrams and reader-friendly prose. 

 

 

 

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