Chorevia

Day 189 of 280 · 27 weeks

Lungs that could breathe

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 8 sources · Plain-text version

Twenty-seven weeks. Your baby's lungs can now breathe, and the best window for the Tdap vaccine opens. Today you book it.

Size this week
about the size of a head of cauliflower
Length this week
around 36.6 cm from head to heel
A Black woman with a rounded 27-week bump in a striped t-shirt, sitting at a kitchen counter in morning light, phone to her ear, writing a date on a wall calendar.

Twenty-seven weeks. This is the last week of the second trimester, and it opens with two pieces of news about breathing: your baby's, and a vaccine that helps protect it after the birth.

Your baby

One whole head of cauliflower with the leaves trimmed, on a plain pale wooden table, soft window light.

Around now your baby is around 36.6cm long from head to heel, about the size of a head of cauliflower (NHS). The NHS puts this week's change in one sentence: "Your baby's lungs are now capable of breathing, and your baby is also getting plumper by the day" (NHS). Capable is not the same as ready. All the organs are still maturing in preparation for life outside the womb, and that's what the coming weeks are for (NHS).

Your body

The CDC recommends two vaccines during every pregnancy: the flu shot (the injection, not the nasal spray) and Tdap (CDC). Tdap can be given at any time in pregnancy, but it is best given between 27 and 36 weeks of each pregnancy, however long it's been since your last dose (CDC). That window opens this week. The CDC's guidance for clinicians adds that earlier in the window maximizes the antibodies passed to the baby (CDC), and the AAP gives the same 27-to-36-week timing (AAP).

Meanwhile the rest of you is busy: weight gain, bloating and tiredness are all likely around now (NHS).

Try today

  1. The Tdap appointment

    Time: 10 minutes

    1. Write two dates on the calendar: today, when the 27-to-36-week window opens, and the day you turn 36 weeks, when it closes (CDC).

    2. Call your provider's office, or ask at your next visit, and book the shot near the start of that window (CDC).

    3. If it's flu season and you haven't had this year's flu shot, ask for both; the CDC says the flu shot can be given in any trimester (CDC).

    4. Put the appointment in your partner's calendar too.

    Make it work:

    Had Tdap in a previous pregnancy, or recently? The recommendation is a dose during each pregnancy regardless of your history (CDC). Questions about your own situation go to your provider.

Watch for

  • Normal

    feeling hot, which the NHS lists among this week's common symptoms (NHS).

    Call your provider

    for a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher; the CDC lists it as an urgent warning sign (CDC).

  • Normal

    a few tightenings of the bump over a day; some uterine contractions throughout the day are normal (NICHD).

    Call your provider

    or go to the hospital to be checked for contractions every 10 minutes or more often, or six or more in one hour (NICHD).

  • Normal

    feeling damp and not being sure why.

    Call your provider as soon as you can

    if fluid is leaking from your vagina (OWH).

For you

If the window passes and Tdap is never given during the pregnancy, the CDC's advice is to get it immediately after giving birth (CDC). So a missed appointment isn't a closed door. But a booked appointment is one less thing to carry in your head.

Vaccines in pregnancy can bring up questions, and asking them is part of the appointment. The CDC's page also lists the vaccines not given in pregnancy, among them the live nasal flu vaccine and the chickenpox vaccine (CDC), which is why "the injection, not the spray" is worth saying out loud at the pharmacy.

If you're the partner: drive her to the appointment, or go with her.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

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