29 weeks pregnant

How big is your baby at 29 weeks?

About the size of a butternut squash — around 38.6 cm (15.2 in) long head to heel, according to the NHS, weighing roughly 1,350 g (about 3 lb).

Weight is now climbing by roughly 160 to 180 g a week and will accelerate.

A note on the numbers: from week 20 the NHS measures head to heel, not head to bottom. Weights here are the median of the WHO fetal growth charts — half of babies weigh more, half less, and a scan estimate can be out by 10 to 15 per cent either way. A number below the median is not a diagnosis.

What's developing this week

The NHS describes your baby as perfectly formed from here — the remaining work is maturing organs and gaining fat.

The vernix, the greasy white layer that has been protecting the skin, starts to disappear, along with the soft downy hair that kept your baby warm. The NHS frames the rest simply: your baby is getting ready to make an entrance in about 11 weeks.

What you might feel

Breathless, as your baby pushes up against your lungs, and clumsy, as your centre of gravity shifts. The NHS is reassuring about falls — there is a lot of padding in there — but asks you to tell your midwife or doctor if you do fall.

Leg cramps, night-time trips to the loo as your bladder is squeezed, and a baby who wakes up exactly when you want to sleep. Babies have their own sleep and wake patterns, and the NHS notes you will be lucky if they match yours.

Sleep on your side, with a pillow under your bump and another between your legs. If you feel unable to cope because you are simply too tired, the NHS asks you to say so to your midwife or doctor rather than push through it.

There is no target number of movements: the NHS is explicit that you do not need to count kicks. What matters is your baby's usual pattern, and calling immediately if it reduces, weakens or changes. Our kick counter describes a pattern; it does not score one.

Get to know the pattern rather than the tally. If it changes or stops, contact your midwife or hospital immediately.

Is 29 weeks pregnant 7 months?

Yes — week 29 is the second week of month 7. About 11 weeks to go.

There is no official weeks-to-months map. A calendar month averages about 4.3 weeks, not 4, so 40 weeks is a little over nine months, and two apps can disagree. The most widely used mapping:

• Month 1 — weeks 1 to 4
• Month 2 — weeks 5 to 8
• Month 3 — weeks 9 to 13
• Month 4 — weeks 14 to 17
• Month 5 — weeks 18 to 22
• Month 6 — weeks 23 to 27
• Month 7 — weeks 28 to 31
• Month 8 — weeks 32 to 35
• Month 9 — weeks 36 to 40

Your maternity team will not use months. Everything is booked by week and day — "29 weeks and 3 days" — because a few days change what is offered.

What's happening at your appointments around now

No routine UK appointment falls at 29 weeks. The next is 31 weeks if this is your first baby, and 34 weeks if it is not. That gap is why the vaccine reminders on the NHS week 29 page matter.

Whooping cough: the deadline is close

The NHS advice on this page is specific: you should have the whooping cough vaccine before week 33, and if you have not had it, speak to your midwife or GP this week. The reason is antibody transfer — the vaccine works by your body making antibodies that cross the placenta before your baby is born, and that takes time. The NHS asks for it before 32 weeks to maximise that transfer. Having it late still protects you and reduces the chance you pass whooping cough on, but your baby gets less of the benefit.

Elsewhere the windows differ. RANZCOG recommends dTpa once in each pregnancy, preferably between 20 and 32 weeks. ACOG recommends Tdap between 27 and 36 weeks, as early in that window as possible, in every pregnancy regardless of previous doses. If you are in the US you are in the middle of your window; in the UK you are near the end of yours.

The RSV vaccine is also open in the UK from 28 weeks and can be given up until labour, though earlier is better.

Is it safe to fly at 29 weeks pregnant?

In a straightforward pregnancy the RCOG position is unchanged: occasional air travel is not harmful, with no evidence that cabin pressure or humidity harm you or your baby. But you are now past ACOG's recommended window of 14 to 28 weeks, and ACOG notes that after 28 weeks travel may be riskier — harder to move around, harder to sit still, and a higher chance of going into labour.

Keep two things apart. The medical position is the RCOG's: the safest time to fly is before 37 weeks with one baby and before 32 weeks with uncomplicated twins, because from those points labour becomes likely. The airline position is a commercial rule — most carriers refuse you after 37 weeks, some set an earlier limit, and from 28 weeks most want a letter from your midwife or doctor, which the NHS warns can cost money and take weeks. An airline rule is not medical advice.

The risk that is real: blood clots

ACOG puts it plainly: any travel of four hours or more — car, train, bus or plane — doubles DVT risk, and pregnancy adds to that. Under four hours the RCOG says you are unlikely to need special measures. Over four hours:

• Loose clothing, an aisle seat, regular walks about the cabin
• In-seat exercises roughly every 30 minutes, and water steadily
• Graduated compression stockings sized for you by a midwife or doctor — ACOG warns that stockings which are too tight or worn wrongly increase the risk instead

Practical points

• You will need the fitness-to-fly letter from here. Ask early — the NHS warns it can cost money and take several weeks.
• Check what maternity and neonatal care exists at your destination, and carry your maternity notes.
• Tell your insurer you are pregnant. The NHS says cover should include care in labour, premature birth and the cost of changing your return date.
• Travel to Zika areas is not recommended; some travel vaccines and anti-malarials are unsuitable.

When to call your midwife or doctor

Maternity units are staffed 24 hours a day, and away from home you can walk into any of them.

Get emergency help now

Call your local emergency number (999 in the UK and Ireland, 911 in the US and Canada, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand) or go to an emergency department if you have:

• Heavy vaginal bleeding, or bleeding with severe abdominal pain
• Abdominal pain you cannot concentrate through
• Fainting or collapse, chest pain, or sudden breathlessness
• A severe headache painkillers do not touch, blurred vision or flashing lights, pain below your ribs, vomiting, or sudden swelling of your face, hands or feet — NHS and ACOG both list these as pre-eclampsia symptoms needing immediate assessment
• Pain, swelling or heat in one calf or thigh, which can be a DVT

Call your midwife or maternity unit today, whatever the hour

• Any reduction, weakening or change in your baby's usual pattern of movements. Call immediately, not in the morning, and do not use a home doppler — hearing a heartbeat does not mean your baby is well
• Regular tightenings, period-type pains, or backache that is not usual for you — the NHS list for possible premature labour, meaning labour before 37 weeks, which affects about 8 in every 100 babies
• A gush or a trickle of fluid, which could be your waters breaking
• Any vaginal bleeding, however light
• Itching without a rash, especially at night or on your palms and soles — it can be intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
• A temperature, feeling generally unwell, or burning when you pee

You do not need to be certain something is wrong. That is what the number is for.