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I am pregnanty.
Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and more manageable. I'm Grace Rubray. I am pregnant for the first time, and I'm starting to forget words. In fact, I have to read this intro word for word from my laptop because I may forget it.
I'm you out of Pittman, former olympian. I'm now mother of six and training to be an obstitrician and gynocologist.
Each episode, we're holding your hand week by week through the mysterious, perplexing and sometimes but often exhausting miracle that is pregnancy.
Week twenty seven this.
Is a huge milestone. So how big is our baby?
Massive? The size of a melon or terranium?
Yes, it's certainly feeling melon like like inside.
Absolutely a possum. There's an ossi animal possum. Animal possums are Aussie.
Oh we've said sugar little.
I think about the fact very thing, you know, brush tail possum possm Yeah, okay, good, yeah, all right, they're thirty seven centimeters, so another big jump and nine hundred gram so again approaching that one kilo mark.
What is happening for them and what features have they developed or continued to develop this week?
I think continue to develop is actually the perfect way to sort of phrase it, because baby is growing pretty fast and maturing, but most of the main things are there. It's now just getting bigger, stronger, and more effective, including their immune system which is now becoming more sophisticated. So it's around this time that you start getting the antibody
transfer from your placenta to your baby. So things that you are being coming into contact with you will create antibodies and that'll actually have placential transfer it crosses over to your baby, which I think is very cool.
It's like, so if you have a cold, yes, and then you've fought it off, they're going to have it. And I'm sure we'll talk about the RSV vaccine in later episodes because we're coming up to that. But they're starting to suck those things from you in a good way.
In a good way, yep. And there's the three of them. I know, Grace Son.
I'm going to say now because it actually gives our listeners some time to think about it when we do discuss it down the track. We have three vaccinations we talk about in pregnancy, which is influenza, can be any time in pregnancy, your DTP, which is your potassis. So hooping cough is rampant in Sydney at the moment. We ideally like mums to have it, but at least if you decide not to your family members, okay, so don't let them bring it in the house. It needs to
be every pregnancy. So if grandma's saying I had it last year for your brother's baby, she needs it again. So it's important to know. And then, as you said, RSPE is a new one that we're discussing, and then COVID is optional, but it's you know, we have pretty set guidelines because we want those antibodies to cross to the baby to give them that protection in the first few.
Months of life.
I've actually just had my the hooping cough. Yes I did a week or so ago, and then my partner's going to get it as well. But how do you kind of start that conversation with relatives or friends. So it's not offensive to say you can't touch them. You can't hold them. Is there any advice that you give to your patients about how to start that conversation?
Super tough because obviously there's so much conversation around vaccinations. People feel hard, you know, to vaccinate in pregnancy because they're worried about outcomes.
So it's really tough to make someone you.
Have a discussion around whether they are going to have a vaccination and they're not the pregnant one, particularly if it's your partner.
Boy that would cause some issues.
At home, I'm sure, but again it's everybody's an individual thing, and you have to do what's right for you and your baby in your own vaccination program, but also in those that visit you, and you are absolutely allowed to say, even if it's the person you love most, that I don't want to expose my baby to something that could harm them. So I think that is a responsible parental role rather than being awful and for.
Many, many weeks away.
But that conversation is hard because everyone wants to say hello to your baby. Everybody comes in and it is time for you to bond with them and be your little family. So having some little pre written messages or actually preempt it, like actually send messages to all your families and friends saying we love you, but just letting
you know. This is our quirky prerequisites of what's required before you be able to come hover, Bring a plate of food, be vaccinated, and only come at this time of the day.
You put the kettle on, because they will not be doing anything for you. Exactly what's happening to me? Well, we started to talk about it, what's happening with our body or the things that we might be looking at, but what else is happening for the mother? At twenty seven weeks?
Time to start talking about stretch marks. Now, a lot of the marginetic okay, so don't feel bad if no matter how much cream you're putting on and you're trying really hard, they just appear. So some of us are lucky don't get any, but yet other things and some aren't, and it's hard.
Do they go away? Not really?
They often shrink, you know, like some people find that they have very little, so you know, they might be quite light and then they fade over years to come. There's certainly people that have treatment and you know, laser therapian things I've heard.
I've never tried it because.
I'm lucky one that doesn't have them. But I think it's one of those things they're change the narrative around it. Like if you get stretch marks on your belly, just like a caesarean, you know scar, if you have it, they're the beautiful marks of you growing your baby. And so you know, I have a few friends who are African American descent and they have some of the most wicked stretch marks I've ever seen, and they still run.
They aften athletes, They still run in their two pieces and they just like, look at this, this is me growing my baby and proof that I've done incredible thing and I'm coming out and attacking the world again.
So again.
And a lot of the time it's about our perception of what other people are going to think about our bodies, when actually it should be Wow, I had the privilege to be a woman who carried a baby, and you know, these are the marks I'm left with.
It's a hard conversation to have because a lot of people don't have a great relationship with their body changing beyond their control. And that can be something from like a body dysmorphous situation or bad eating habits or history of any type of eating disorder. So if people haven't found that joy within the change in their body, what are some of the things that they can do to help their mental space around that.
Well, that's a tough one. I think we've sort of touched on it. I think reaching out and talking about it is a big one if it really is playing like I have, I had needing disorder as an athlete, I had quite significant disordered eating regime which almost went away as from a sport when you know, sort of ended. But I think it's really important to acknowledge that that's
the case. Talk to a few people, find out what your triggers are, and you know, that's the time where you've got to be really careful with intoad like we talked about before, where you're not doing that comparisons to others because everybody's so beautiful and so different, and it might be time that you need to check in with a psychologists if it's truly plaguing you in that space, because it's you know, it is a remarkable thing, but so many of us can't see the wood through the trees,
like it's just you're so caught up in the moment and the emotions and the hormones and everything. But I can tell you one lovely thing, is it is true that when that baby arrives, you're very distracted, so you're not.
Going to care. I love that. Is this normal?
Is normal?
Now? Is this normal having another ultrasound? Because some people who told me they have had a thirty week ultrasound while they're booking in around about now for this next ultrasound, But then in other departments they're not booking that in And the last time you're going to see your baby is that twenty week ultrasound and you're only being checked by a doppler. Why are some people getting an ultrasound and some people aren't?
Well, sometimes it's maternal choice. So women decide they don't want any more ultrasounds in pregnancy.
Why would they not want more? Who is there something about? Like is there X ray?
Is it not the safe?
Like?
There's a multitude of things. So, because I ask a lot of women in this space, they don't want to know the position of their baby necessarily. They don't want to know if their babies getting too big for their body because I think it'll dissuade them from a vaginal birth. They want the secret of not knowing what they look like until later. So I guess they're just wanting it as natural as possible, and it's still medical from an
interventional perspective. It might find something that I want to see and then they have to have multiple ultrasounds after that. But the twenty eight week ultrasound in a public hospital is recommended for women with diabetes, for women with hypertension, for women who've had a previous small baby, or any real medical condition that might affect the pregnancy. So even Southeast Asian women, for example, are a higher risk of
smaller babies. So we often say, if you've got that plus for example, you know you smoke or you have a high ber mit. There's plenty of reasons you can sneak in for that ultrasound if you want to see a baby.
Because I love it. I would have would have had.
An auld hunt every week because I you know, watch the baby on the scan. But that's the reason we do that at twenty eight weeks. Why twenty eight weeks because it's around the time we start to see differences in babies growth, and so we use it as a baseline. So unless it's multiple pregnancy because by then you've probably already had lots of ultrasounds because we scan every two to four weeks for twins and multiples. But if it's your first ultrasound after the morphology, it'll be the baseline
we use ongoing. So for many women they have another two ultrasounds if it's the high risk pregnancies, and one at twenty eight weeks, one again at thirty two weeks, and one at thirty six, and we actually look at the growth between the three of them.
Has babies growth dropped off? Has it accelerated?
You know significantly that we need to consider changing the plan for pregnancy, And so it's important to sort of have them if you've been recommended, because it allows us what I guess the grace of the thing is, imagine getting a thirty six weeks You've got a teeny tiny baby, but we have nothing to compare it to, so it gives us that tracking trajectory to say, right, well, baby was already small at twenty eight weeks, they're actually doing great,
They're actually gone up a few centiles. When not as concerned it's going to be less intervention rather than more, and what can we.
Do the last week of our second track mess day. Is there anything we need to be thinking about on our checklist if we are booking in for that ultrasound, or is there anything more holistic we can be doing.
Sure, I think a couple of things.
Just to note this, as you approach twenty eight weeks, if you have that negative blood group, it's about time to have You may have had an insiding event in the past, but you definitely need to have your anti d around this time. You have it again in the third trimester, so book that in. You'll have those blood tests. Remember we talked about the syphilis is going to come up, and you have your OgTs hopefully done, and we'll recheck
your eye and things like that. So it's just kind of time to check back in with your medical team and redo it. It's about fifteen percent of women will need that anti antid vaccination and.
The red flags red flags, red flags, red flags.
If there's any concerns, call your birth unit.
My toolkit this week. You touched on it a little bit last week when we were talking about a bum related clothing Mine is Facebook marketplace for baby items. Great pretty much any if you're in a city and I'm sure if there's regional Facebook ones that exist, there's normally a like pay It Forward group, which is people getting rid of free stuff. I got a co sleeper bassinet for free, fantastic, which I'm stoked about. I got a
pregnancy pillow for free. Some people might think that's weird to get a secondhand pillow, but I don't care, Like who cares? I don't want to pay for it. And I also got a two hundred dollars Bugaboo pram.
Wow.
Yeah, that's amazing from a very rich suburb away from where I live. But you did the drive, but I did the drive. But a two hundred dollars Bugaboo.
Yeah.
And I think for me, the only thing I'm looking to buy new is probably a car seat, okay, everything else.
Because you don't know if it's been in an accident or anything before, so it's probably is the safer thing to buy you. I mean, I bought one secondhand, but you know, I think it's again dependent on how much you trust the person who's owned the seat before. I bought a snoo secondhand. You got a snow for my twins, not for the other pregnancies, but when I had two little babies to try and you know, one's trying to
feed and the other ones trying to sleep. I think the thing to remember with Facebook marketplace too, is if you buy it for something, you can often sell it for the same thing. So it's just having the budget there to buy it and then often I made money on my Snow, I'm going to be honest because I did the same as you. I went and got it from somewhere miles away, and then I sold.
It locally and someone paid it one hundred bucks for it.
I just think about, like, what information have I pushed out of my brain to now know that the snoo is like the Royalty Love cribs And I'm now like, oh, that's impressive.
I know it is. It is very impressive. Have to be honest with you.
But I think the other thing is to write a list now everything you want yep, and then go and speak to someone who's had babies and they'll cross three quarters of it off.
This is time to save money because you're gonna need it down the track. Yes, and you could always buy.
Something from one of the baby bunting stop shops and it'll likely be delivered within forty eight hours, so you don't need to buy everything now, and there's so much stuff that gets unwrapped and not used, and it's just a way of money.
I will say when I went to a baby bunting and another baby store, I got quite overwhelmed in there because they came to me about the prams and said how fast do you think you'll walk? And what type of ground will you be on? Most commonly to talk about the wheels that I would want, and I was like, well, well, too much, yeah, exactly, too many questions. I would just want that thing that has the coffeeholder of the important
things in That's all I want. And then I just spoke to friends and I think you find out the brands, and then I heard that a Bugaboo was a good brand, and then my phone just was like, hey, here's one great Damne.
And you can have more than one PRAM, like I think you have different prams for different things, like I do have a running PRAM because obviously I run regularly. And then your shopping pram things that you're to look at is are you going to shop a lot? Are you going to be able to fit it through shopping aisles? So and just remember you can swap like fokes again. If you buy a second hand, you sell it, you buy something else.
Yeah, that was cheap. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump. We have so many episodes of this series filled with tips and stories from women and experts who've been through it all before.
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This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser with audio production by Tom Lyon.
We'll catch you next time.
This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with Huggies. Bye Bye