21st week of pregnancy: The 21st week of pregnancy at a glance
Your child’s hair grows in the 21st week of pregnancy, the first beginnings of the eyelashes can be seen. The kidneys Your babies can now take over the amniotic fluid production themselves. The fingernails and toenails also become firmer and firmer from the 21st week of pregnancy.
Your baby is growing splendidly. You can convince yourself of this between the 19th and 22nd week of pregnancy during thesecond ultrasound examination. If you have decided to givebirth in the clinic, you should start talking to in-patient midwivesnow.
Index
ToggleYour baby’s development in the 21st week of pregnancy
Inthe 6th month of your pregnancy,everything is growing! In the 21st week of pregnancy, your child is about 25 centimeters tall and weighs 300 grams. However, it is not yet viable, here the probability increases only with the beginning of the 22nd week of pregnancy. The first beginnings of eyelashes can be seen. The new hairs differ in strength from the fluffylanugo hairsand are called terminal hairs. These are firm, bristly hairs, which include eyelashes and eyebrows.
Your baby’s kidneys are now mature enough to take over the amniotic fluid production themselves. Before that, the placenta was mainly responsible for this. Your baby is getting closer and closer to your abdominal wall and so you feel his kicks and cuddles in the 21st week of pregnancy more clearly than before. As fast as the baby grows, it also gains weight. The skeleton, fingers and toenails are also becoming firmer.
Your body in the 21st week of pregnancy
You have already completed half of the pregnancy in the 21st week of pregnancy and your round belly as well as the noticeable child movements make the idea of soon being able to hold your baby in your arms more and more clear. You are happy, your fears and insecurities disappear almost completely. This is the beginning of the so-called concretization phase of pregnancy.
Your breasts begin to form colostrum. To the astonishment of some women, the foremilk sometimes shoots out in a jet or it dribbles. The first food until themilk is injected, three to five days after birth, is available to your baby in time – evenif the baby comes earlier. From the 21st week of pregnancy,water retention (edema) can lead to swelling of the feet, legs, hands and face. Ask your doctor whether the oedema needs to be treated.
What does a baby look like in the 21st week of pregnancy?
Questions about the 21st week of pregnancy
What happens during the second ultrasound?
Between the 19th and 22nd week of pregnancy, the gynecologist has to undergo the second check-up. Using ultrasound, he measures your baby’s head diameter, chest circumference and thigh length to reliably determine his age. Perhaps the date of birth will now be corrected again. In addition, during organ screening, he examines all childhood organs, checks the location and structure of the placenta and the amount of amniotic fluid.
What to do in case of a vaginal infection?
Not every germ colonization in the vagina is pathological. However, there are some infections that definitely need to be treated, especially during pregnancy. Special attention is paid to a possiblestreptococcal infectionof group B, chlamydia, bacterial vaginosisor fungal infections.
Tips and hints for the 21st week of pregnancy
Quality of ultrasound examination
Not all gynecologists can offer ultrasound examinations of the same quality. You should therefore check with your doctor how completely he can perform the examinations. Counselling for pregnant women is also of particular importance. According to the requirements, the German Society for Ultrasound specifies a division into a three-stage concept. Stage I doctors (DEGUM Level I) perform the basic examinations. Stage II and III physicians (DEGUM levels II and III) carry out special examinations.
No more heavy lifting
If you have not already made it your principle, then from now on you should make sure as consistently as possible that you do not lift or carry anything heavier than five kilos. If it has to be, make sure when lifting heavy objects not to bend down, but rather to go to your knees. So you continue to protect your back.
Contact an attending midwife
If you do not want the midwife who is on duty in the clinic at the time to be present at the birth, you should contact possible in-patient midwives by now. If you have had the preventive care carried out by a midwife, she will explain your options to you. But of course, your gynecologist can also advise you on this. Good points of contact are otherwise also the maternity clinics that you have included in the closer selection. They often offer midwife lists. As a rule, you can also get to know some midwives at information events at the clinic. Midwifery networks can also provide you with contacts to possible in-patient midwives. The difficult thing is that most in-patient midwives only cooperate with one or two clinics. So it makes sense to take care of it now.