Third Trimester Pregnancy: The Grand Curtain Call

Third trimester pregnancy is the final stage of pregnancy, short of labour. It seems futile to even say it out loud, but the finality of it all can and will creep up like there’s no tomorrow. These are the final days where your child will be with you – inside you – all the time. And then it all goes out with a bang, a seemingly traumatic bang that revolves around blood and pain.

But let us begin at the beginning. At the onset of third trimester pregnancy, you will be focusing on your expanding abdomen above all else. It’s not going to burst, but there are times when you will genuinely believe in that due to all the breathlessness, nausea, and heartburn. The weight on your pelvis may lead to unbearable pain unless you maintain a certain, often awkward, position.

Sensible Eating Is the Way

All this digestion-related business is simply due to a lack of space, and the best solution is to limit yourself to small and frequent meal portions as if your stomach has just been stapled shut. Despite your newly compressed bladder, do not, even once, refrain from taking fluids. They stave off that continual hankering for food, prevent early contractions, and subdue limb swelling due to water retention. Since swelling is also caused by sodium in your diet, throw away your salt bottle.

Exercise? U Must Be Kidding Me!

In this final stage of pregnancy, the last thing on your mind is probably exercise, since it seems downright superhuman for someone the size of a house to walk for extended periods of time, let alone swim or do yoga. But if you’re feeling all sorts of pain and numbness, it could be due to insufficient blood circulation and continual pressure on your stomach that is indirectly caused by inactivity. If you experience vaginal bleeding in your third trimester pregnancy as a result of exercise, inform your doctor immediately and take all the rest you need.