-Your baby may weigh about two pounds now (average is 1.7 pound, 760gm) and is 14 inches (35.6cm) in length.
-To support the fetus's growing body, the spine is getting stronger and more supple. Though no longer than the span of the average adult hand, it is now made up of 150 joints, 33 rings, and some 1,000 ligaments.
-Air sacs in the lungs form now.
-Lungs begin to secrete a greasy substance called surfactant. Without surfactant the fetal lungs would stick together and couldn't expand after the baby is born.
-Although they've been sealed shut for the last few months, your baby's eyes are opening and beginning to blink this week. Depending on ethnicity, some babies will be born with blue or gray-blue eyes (which may change color in the first 6 months of life) and some will be born with brown or dark eyes.
-Retinas begin to form.
-Brain wave activity for hearing and sight begins to be detectable.
-Fetal brain scans show response to touch. If you shine a light on your abdomen, your baby will turn his head, which according to researchers, means his optic nerve is working.
For the most part I have been doing really well the past month or two. The only thing I can complain of is intermittent heartburn, amazing leg cramps that wake me from my sleep at night and the wonderful flux in mood (Ryan is a champ and doing his best to not take my occasional emotional outbursts to heart). Other than that I am still able to keep up with all the wonderful things in my life: work, spin class, yoga, yard / house work, weekend play, and birthing classes. The class Ryan and I are taking is the Bradley Method (http://www.bradleybirth.com/) and we are really getting a lot from it already. The goal is for the expecting parents to be as prepared as possible so their baby’s birth can be drug/c-section free if at all possible. The more I’m learning and experiencing the more I am seeing that hospital births can be very challenging for the parents and baby. Since this is my blog I’m gonna express some things that for some may seem controversial so read at your own discretion :).
I guess I have always known that the medical industry is a first and foremost a business but until now have never seen it for what it really is, a money maker. Ryan first opened my eyes to this when he started working for his current employer selling medical devices/pharmaceuticals. As I would listen to him each night recap his day I heard over and over how frustrating it was working with some of the doctors because many of them would not use his product on their patients, even though the studies showed repeatedly that fewer patients experienced allergic reactions to it, because they could not get as much money for it from the insurance companies. In my mind that is just not right. So, it gets better. Since I became pregnant I have reading, searching the Internet, talking to doctors and most importantly talking to other moms and what I have learned is that the majority of women are either induced, receive petocin to expedite their labor or receive c-sections. What is even better is that this is medically and socially accepted. I myself didn’t know better until I started researching the effects of those things on mother and new baby, not good. It just seems so contradictory that for 9 months you abstain from alcohol (cause will hurt your baby), drugs (cause it will hurt your baby), tobacco smoke (cause it will hurt your baby) but come delivery day it is all of a sudden ok to load the mom’s body up with drugs (that the baby gets too). Then we wonder why the new baby has a hard time breastfeeding, sleeping at night, and so much more. It also makes me wonder if the increase in the past few years of ADHD and Autism is a direct result . . . who really knows.
Anyways, the most frustrating part of it all is the doctor’s and medical professionals role in it all. They are the ones who we look to for help and expect to be able to trust their advice but most seem to do more damage than good. For example, last night at my prenatal yoga class our instructor told us that one of our peers was told by her OB that she would have to be induced. The mom was not happy about this and came to found out it was because her due date was the same time the doctor was going to be on vacation and the doctor didn’t want to lose out on the fees for delivering her patient. The more I ask around the more I stories I hear of women being directed by their doctors or nurses to be induced, take petocin (makes it almost impossible to not have an epidural), have a c-section. This is for perfectly healthy women and babies!!! I understand that there are cases where the medical intervention is absolutely required and can save lives but the majority of women and babies can have healthy births on their own with more physiological support than anything else.
So, as you can see I have very little trust in the hospital and in my current OB (will be switching in the next week or two) because the hospital is a business and if you are taking too long in the delivery room (those are limited and they don’t get paid out the same as the postpartum rooms) then the staff / dr may suggest petocin to hurry you up even though you or your baby may not be in any danger. I know that it is not all bad and that each expecting mother has to do what is comfortable for her and safe for her baby but when 6 out of 7 women in my life group who had babies in the last 2 years have received petocin because the medical staff said they needed it I just don’t see how that is good for our little babies.
So, please keep me and Baby Smith in your prayers, that I can have a healthy pregnancy and delivery without the medical intervention.
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