Week 24

What Is Happening To Your Body

Between weeks 24 and 28 you will have an important prenatal test called the glucose tolerance test (GTT). This test checks for gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that can cause problems for the baby and for you. If you do have gestational diabetes, it is important to control it through diet and exercise.

Continue to eat healthfully, take prenatal vitamins, drink plenty of fluids and get lots of rest. You should also be able to feel the movements of your little one and even sense its sleep cycles.

What Is Happening To Your Baby

Your baby now measures about 11.8 inches (30.5 cm) long from head to heel, or roughly the length of an ear of corn. At this point, your baby weighs about 1.3 pounds (around 567 grams).

In the womb, your baby’s growing lungs continue to practice breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid into his or her lungs. The lungs begin to produce surfactant, a substance that keeps the air sacs in the lungs from collapsing. This is essential for proper breathing once your baby leaves the womb and begins to breathe air.

If your baby were to be born at this point, its lungs have developed enough to give it a chance of surviving beyond birth with very special care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Your baby’s face and body are beginning to fill out and look more and more like how he or she will look at birth. His or her muscles are growing, bones are strengthening and organs are continuing to develop.

 What Is Happening This Week?

Ultrasound images courtesy of GE Healthcare

The clinical images and information presented in this application represent normal fetal growth during a typical pregnancy.  The images and information are to be used for educational purposes only  and not for diagnostic purposes.  Please consult a licensed physician regarding any specific questions pertaining to your pregnancy.