Many women experience lightening or the baby's dropping into your pelvis later in pregnancy and for women who have had a baby already, this might happen shortly before the baby comes. But for women who haven't had a baby before, on their first it can happen weeks before they actually deliver the baby. You mentioned that you're 36 weeks and feeling like your baby is pushing harder on your cervix and that could definitely be the case. If your baby's starting to descend in your pelvis, you may notice that you can take a deeper breath but you're feeling more pressure down low so it may not be a great trade off. But when it comes time for you to have contractions and for the baby to come, it's going to be helpful if the baby's well applied against the cervix. You're 36 weeks, like you said. 37 weeks is considered full term so obviously we don't want your baby to come too soon. But the good news is that babies who were born after 34 weeks have the same long-term effects as full term babies. So if this vaginal pressure that you're feeling starts to turn into contractions, like 4-5 an hour, if you feel lower abdominal cramping, lower back ache, or feel like you're leaking fluid, these are all reasons to get checked out until you're 37 weeks. But once you're 37 weeks though, the story's entirely different. You can wait until your contractions are 3-5 minutes apart and intense enough that it's hard for you to kind of breathe and talk through them. But other things to watch out for in spite of contractions or no contractions is vaginal bleeding, leaking of fluid, or feeling your baby move---if you're feeling your baby move less than 6 times an hour, that's not enough and you should go to the hospital to be checked out. So just to clarify, if your contractions are only ever 10 minutes and you're past 37 weeks, you should still get checked out if you're leaking fluid, bleeding, or if you're not feeling your baby move as much. But just a little bit of pressure in and of itself usually isn't something to be too concerned about at 36 weeks but it would be good to bring it up with your OB provider. They can talk to you more about the symptoms that you're feeling and decide if it warrants further investigation. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and if you have any other questions for me, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at facebook.com/intermountainmoms and recommend us to your friends and family, too.
