Josa’s pregnancy diary – week 30–32

Remember I insisted on seeing the consultant?

It was a bit of an anticlimax in the end. Very brisk and NHS. From now on, my visits are every two weeks and mostly with him rather than my midwife. I asked anxiously about being induced at 38 weeks. It seems this is not his policy at all, thank goodness, although he won’t let me go beyond 40 weeks. This is fine. As my mother died seven years ago, one of my oldest friends has offered to come and stay after the birth. It will help her to organise herself if I know when this is to be.

They sucked off huge syringes full of my blood to look at my haemoglobin levels and examined my pee sample as usual. All normal, as usual. No swelling anywhere. Even my cheekbones are still evident. It always feels rather exciting to go to the hospital. As you spend your days thinking about trying to be as normal as possible, it is nice to be a specifically pregnant person for a change.

In a gesture of startling intimacy, the professor presses the end of the measuring tape firmly into my pubic bone and pulls it up to the fundus, or top of the womb – 30cm. The curious thing is that the number of centimetres corresponds approximately to the number of weeks. Those who see synchronicity in the world might believe that this means we are meant to be metric after all.

The baby is lying with his back upwards instead of his bottom. His head is lodged about half way down my left side. Sometimes it feels as if he is stretching out from side to side, as small hard bumps appear which I try to identify. I can’t even work out if it’s his back or his head I’m feeling. This is a better position than true transverse lay – which means the baby is back down and impossible to give birth to. If he doesn’t move head down by week 34, the obstetrician will do something called cephalic inversion, which means manipulating him from the outside to make him go downwards. This can be quite risky, as the placenta is vulnerable to damage. I hope it won’t be necessary.