Pregnancy Week 23 – Starting Period For Uncomfortable Sleep

Posted on Sep 19, 2008 | Comments 0

week 23 By pregnancy week 23, the issues like stretch marks or skin discoloration become more specific and are the causes of concern for most of the first time mothers.

Along with stretch marks, your body will experience various additional changes when preparing itself for the planned pregnancy.

What are the physical changes that occur in your body during pregnancy week 23?

Now, you will feel very difficult to find adequately comfortable sleep positions. Specially designed pregnancy pillows give you a better chance to sleep through the night.

There are various designs, but you need to buy the one which supports your belly and also a body pillow to place between the legs and under the belly to relieve from the discomfort that you experience throughout the night.

Now, you are able to observe the ripples in your abdomen whenever your baby moves. Your belly acquires the clear round shape and still you experience wild mood swings.

You can feel a squeezing sensation in your abdomen. Not to worry, your baby may be able to feel the contractions as the uterus squeezes.

If you feel the contraction more painful, more intense or frequent, then you need to contact your health care provider. All these are the signs of preterm labor.

Care you need to take during pregnancy week 23:

There will be some swelling in your feet and ankles because of the pressure due to the over-sized uterus on your pelvic veins. This swelling is usually called as pregnancy edema or ankle and foot edema during pregnancy. This slows the circulation of fluid to the lower half of your body.
Don’t sit for longer hours in order to prevent the pregnancy cankles and also staying active is very much important.
Sit with your feet slightly elevated when you can. Edema is severe at the end of the day, particularly if you are standing throughout the day.
Drinking lots of fluids is very much important as dehydration can result in premature birthing.
Drink a glass of milk before going to bed so that you can get some relief from heartburn.
Avoid getting overheated because itchiness even more increases with overheating.

What are the changes that occur in the fetus during pregnancy week 23?

By this week, your baby is more than your foot length and weighs more than a pound.
Your baby’s tiny taste buds start to develop and their bones continue to ossify.
The tiny veins of your child are now visible through their translucent and wrinkly skin.
Your baby’s lungs start to develop surfactant. This is the substance that helps your baby’s lungs to expand following birth.
By this time, your baby’s fingernails will be completely formed.
Now, your baby can hear very clearly as his/her hearing is well developed. The baby can hear your heart beating, your digestive noises and also your voice.
The bones located in the baby’s ear begin to form by pregnancy week 23. Your baby is enduring to fill out and appear more and more proportional.

There are fewer chances for the baby to survive if he/she born during 23-26 weeks of pregnancy. After 26 weeks, the survival rate increases to 80-90%. Various factors affect your baby’s chances of survival if he/she is born prematurely.

Fact for pregnancy week 23:

Most of the women will get a doubt that considering home birth is safe or not. If you don’t have any complications throughout your pregnancy and you have gone through excellent prenatal care, then you can safely consider home birth option. But, once talk with other parents and your health care provider.

If you have any of the below complications, then you are not allowed to consider home birth.