32 Weeks Pregnant with Twins or Multiples

32 Weeks Pregnant with Twins or Multiples

If you are 32 weeks pregnant with twins, it is important for you to realise that this indeed is a moment of celebration, albeit in a toned down manner to suit your babies. When compared with a woman carrying a single child, the 32 weeks of twin pregnancy can easily be considered as 40 weeks of a single one. With the tummy and uterus sizes being pretty similar to each other, the growth of the babies within your wombs would have been the same up until now as well. However, things are going to change quite a bit now, with the space inside your womb reducing for the babies, and the little ones getting eager to be outside and live on their own as well.

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The Growth of the Babies At 32 Weeks

Your children that have been thriving inside your body all this while will continue to do so for some more time. Their rate of growth will tend to slow down a bit if compared with the growth of a single child, but there’s still quite substantial development processes that will occur during it.

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Primarily, the bodies of the babies will continue to put on fat and increase in size everywhere. The limbs and the body, which was skeletal for quite some time, will now fill out properly and resemble something close to a newborn child as it progresses. This is what will make it comparable to the large head of the babies.

If you’ve been tracking the movement of your babies, there might be instances when you begin to worry since their amount of kicks or their usual movements might not be as earlier. This is completely normal and most twins or triplets slow down their activities as the due date approaches. The restrictions placed by the tiny space within the uterus leaves them barely any space to carry out their antics anymore. However, you will continue to feel small flutters and squirms as they continue to change their orientation once in a while.

The maturity of their internal core organs continues to proceed speedily in this week as well. Most importantly, their bladders are carrying out the procedure of processing the bodily fluids and passing out plain water as urine. Their brains are being stimulated by numerous signals, from inside the body as well as outside, causing them to dream quite often inside the womb, too. All of these functionalities are extremely crucial in ensuring that the body functions in the right manner once it starts surviving on its own.

Most babies have usually shed the light hair covering their bodies before this week arrives. Similarly, your little ones would have a nice thick head of hair, while some babies have tiny portions. Hair development can be genetic, too. Apart from the hair, the skull development has nearly completed for its stage, although it has not fully hardened. The bone portions that constitute a complete skull are yet to fuse together and stay malleable on purpose, to facilitate the child’s emergence from the birth canal. As for the remaining skeletal structure, it is reaching its required degree of ossification and hardening.

What Is the Size of the Babies?

Imagine yourself holding a large turnip or a sweet potato or even a squash for that matter. That’s exactly how large your little ones are inside that uterus. When reaching the 32nd week of pregnancy, twins or other multiples are already close to resembling their final look when they are born. Their height, when measured from head to toe, is roughly 40-41 centimetres, with a weight that hovers close to 1.4-1.5 kilograms for each baby. If that already seems heavy to you, your babies will still put on roughly half a kilogram each by the time you deliver them.

Twin Pregnancy at 32 weeks - the size of the babies

Common Bodily Changes

All the changes that take place in your body, whether inside or outside, are all signs that indicate to you that your body is nearly ready to take care of the babies through the delivery as well as after it.

  • For women who might be thinking that all the readiness and preparation for delivering the babies need to be done by the mother, they are half right in that matter. Your babies are making their own attempts to facilitate the process for you as well. A definite sign of noticing this change is by observing your tummy carefully. If you’ve had photos from the previous months, you can hold them and compare it with your current one. Most babies begin to adjust their position around this week and adopt one that puts their head down, facing the birth canal. This will cause your uterus to be heavier on its lower end, giving your stomach a more pear-like shape, rounded on the lower end. Combined with an increased ease in breathing deeply and quickly, this is one of the most significant changes that take place inside you, which is visible on the outside.
  • A lot of skin darkening tends to occur through the pregnancy. Right from dark spots on the skin in random places, to the dark line running over your stomach, the breasts also have to deal with darkening through the second trimester. This pigmentation of the nipples and the areola tends to hit yet another degree around the 32nd week, as they get even more dark to assist the baby in spotting them easily when breastfeeding. The leaking of breasts would continue as it used to, without any further increase in their size.
  • Anything emerging out of the vagina might get your attention almost instantly. And it is of no further help that the discharge that used to occur previously in pregnancy would make a return yet again. This thick and milky coloured discharge does clean up the vagina and populate it with good bacteria, keeping it conducive for the baby’s passage. However, any presence of a thin watery liquid might be a sign of your water breaking.

Symptoms Of Twin Pregnancy At 32 Weeks

Quite same as before, your twin pregnancy symptoms will continue to be similar to that of a previous couple of weeks, without abating one bit.

  • Be prepared for an increased tendency of random contractions that occur out of nowhere, and causing you to constantly feel that you might deliver your babies any second now. As the size of the babies begins to increase, the body goes into overdrive in preparing itself for the labour process. The tell-tale sign of Braxton Hicks contractions is their fading away once you change your body position. If they continue to persist even after that and continue to occur regularly with increasing intensity of pain, that, indeed, could be a sign of premature labour.
  • The pressure that the uterus and the babies are putting on the stomach and the digestive system, already causes indigestion and the chances of acid reflux to be strong. This tends to elevate to yet another level when the babies change their position and push into the stomach even more strongly.

Twin Pregnancy – Belly At 32 Weeks

Your uterus now begins to have a lower amount of amniotic fluid than before. This reduces the amount of cushioning it used to provide to the movement of the children, causing you to feel them in much more detail than before.

Your stomach would also seem to sink a bit lower as the babies change their position within the womb.

Twin Pregnancy At 32 Weeks – Ultrasound

Most doctors begin to conduct ultrasound scans every other week. The chances of breech twins at 32 weeks are substantial, and these need to be detected as much in advance as possible. If the due date is closer and the scan tends to reveal a non-ideal position for the delivery, then your doctor might undertake methods to coerce the babies into changing their position. This might have to repeat again if they change and then return back to the previous one.

What To Eat

Although your weight gain would be substantial around this time, it is necessary that you don’t skimp on any food or nutrition to keep your weight in control. Certain dietary restrictions might be advised if you are overweight, but it is best if you can opt to include meat in your diet, at least for this week.

Twin Pregnancy at 32 weeks - what to eat

Pregnancy Care Tips

Taking care of your pregnancy in the 32nd week requires only a few important tips to be remembered.

Dos

  • Connect to your insurance provider and double check the terms
  • Engage in talking to your babies in a high-pitched baby voice

Dont’s

  • Avoid gorging on heavy meals as you approach your due date
  • Stay away from herbal remedies for your pains unless recommended by your doctor

Twins Delivered At 32 Weeks

There have been instances where a woman has given birth to her babies prematurely. Thankfully, the survival rate of twins born at 32 weeks is pretty good, given the fact that they have nearly completed eight months of pregnancy. There is a risk of further complications developing, which is why neo-natal care units are advised for such babies. Some doctors might go ahead and carry out a caesarean delivery if your labour cramps begin and the babies are not in an ideal position for delivery.

What You Need To Shop For

Your pregnancy will be a thing of the past in a few weeks now. So make sure you remember it by:

  • Getting a picture frame to house an ultrasound photo of the babies
  • A digital camera to document the last stages of your pregnancy

Preterm labour with twins at 32 weeks is not anything out of the ordinary for many women. Since doctors are already prepared for it, you ought to be ready mentally and physically as well, keeping the well-being of the children as your priority.