Pregnancy week 31: all five senses reporting for duty
See, hear, taste, smell, touch — all five departments are now open inside. The baby is a complete sensory being, rehearsing the world before joining it.
Five of five
This stretch completes the set: sight (light through the wall), hearing (the household's full soundtrack), taste (the fluid changes with your menu), smell (the same chemistry), touch (its own face, the cord, the walls). The baby is running all five senses — the world is being rehearsed from inside.
The brain behind them is in its fastest growth of the whole pregnancy — connections forming in the billions per week. The head-size growth of these weeks is the skull making room for exactly this.
Your part of the week is quieter: managing the squeeze (lungs, stomach and bladder all pay rent to the uterus now), reading the growth scan if it happened, and letting the colostrum questions get answered before the leaking starts the conversation for you.
Your baby this week
The baby is coconut-with-husk sized — about forty-one centimetres, sixteen hundred grams. The gains keep compounding; a quarter of birth weight arrives in the next month.
The irises now dilate and contract with light — a working aperture. Arms and legs are filling into proportion; the fingernails have reached the fingertips.
The baby can turn its head side to side now, and many settle head-down in these weeks. Room is scarce enough that every roll is a production felt across the whole bump.
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Changes in your body
The diaphragm is at maximum squeeze — stairs are an event, sentences shorten. The lean-forward trick (hands on knees, or arms on a table) uncrowds a breath when needed.
Colostrum may leak more freely now — yellowish, sticky, completely normal, and exactly what the baby will drink first. Breast pads for the laundry; no expressing 'to practise' unless the doctor has specifically advised it.
The pelvic floor is carrying its heaviest load — a sneeze may leak. Kegels are the gym for it: squeeze as if stopping urine, hold five, release, ten times, thrice daily. They pay off at delivery and for years after.
What to do this week
Growth scan done? Take the report through with the doctor line by line — estimated weight, fluid, placenta grade, Doppler. Not done? It should be on this fortnight's calendar.
Add Kegels to the daily set alongside the count — the two-minute habit with the decade-long dividend.
Interview the paediatrician question now: who checks the baby at birth, and who do you call in week two at 2 a.m.? If the hospital has its own newborn team, get the name; if not, choose one nearby now.
Stock the postpartum shelf while errands are easy: maternity pads (many), comfortable cotton underwear, a peri bottle, the nursing pillow if using one. Future-you, one week post-delivery, will send thanks.
Week 31 at a glance
The week's essentials in one place. Your doctor may adjust these for your situation.
| Item | In week 31 |
|---|---|
| Main event | All five senses functioning |
| Baby's size | ~41 cm, 1.6 kg |
| Forming | Iris aperture, head-down settling, fingernails done |
| Possible symptoms | Peak squeeze, colostrum leaks, sneeze leaks |
| New habit | Kegels — 10 holds, thrice daily |
| To choose | The paediatrician — name and number |
| To stock | The postpartum shelf |
When to see a doctor at once
The standing list — movement slump, bleeding, rhythmic tightening, watery discharge, the triad, fever, urinary burning, calf swelling, night itch: same-day.
Breathlessness gets one calibration: gradually worsening with the bump is the squeeze; sudden breathlessness at rest, or with chest pain or a racing heart, is a different machine entirely — that one is an emergency call, not a symptom diary entry.
This article is general information only and no substitute for personal medical advice. The person who can advise you knowing your health, your medicines and your previous pregnancies is your obstetrician, or the doctor at your nearest health centre.
Work out your due date
Enter the first day of your last period and your cycle length — your estimated due date, this week's count and the anomaly scan window all appear right here.
It is only an estimate — most babies aren't born on the exact date. A first-trimester scan dates a pregnancy more accurately; in the end, your doctor's date is the one that counts.
Frequently asked questions
Does the baby taste what I eat
really? — Really: the amniotic fluid carries flavours from your food, and babies are born already preferring tastes they met inside. The family menu is literally the first food education.
I leak a few drops when I sneeze
is this permanent? — Common now, and mostly temporary — but not to be shrugged at: this is exactly what Kegels exist for, and starting now improves both delivery and recovery. Mention it at the visit; persistent leaking after delivery has good treatment too.
The baby is head-down already
will it stay? — Probably: by this stage most stay put, though flips still happen. The position that counts is the one at thirty-six; until then it's information, not a decision.
Should I be expressing colostrum before birth?
Only on medical advice (it's sometimes suggested with diabetes, for example) — and then with taught technique. Unadvised expressing can trigger tightenings. The leak is not a signal to start; it's just the factory testing its pipes.
Sources
Every clinical figure on this page is taken from the guidelines below. Where our numbers and your doctor's differ, ask which guideline they follow.
- WHO. WHO Recommendations on Antenatal Care for a Positive Pregnancy Experience (2016)Backs the recommendation for regular antenatal monitoring including growth assessment, Doppler, and placental evaluation at this stage of pregnancy, and supports the principle that any sudden breathlessness or chest pain warrants emergency assessment rather than routine diary logging.
- NICE. Antenatal Care (NG201) (2021)Supports the advice to review growth scan findings (estimated fetal weight, amniotic fluid, placenta, Doppler) with the clinician, and the identification of warning signs — including bleeding, watery discharge, rhythmic tightening, fever, and calf swelling — as symptoms requiring same-day assessment.
- NICE. Pelvic Floor Dysfunction: Prevention and Non-Surgical Management (NG210) (2021)Supports the advice to perform pelvic floor muscle (Kegel) exercises during pregnancy — specifically the instruction to squeeze, hold, and repeat multiple times daily — to address stress urinary incontinence (leaking on sneezing) and to benefit delivery and long-term recovery.
- WHO. Infant and Young Child Feeding: Model Chapter for Textbooks (2009)Supports the description of colostrum as the first feed for the newborn — yellowish, sticky, and normal — and backs the statement that colostrum expressing before birth should only occur on specific medical advice, as unsupported antenatal expressing is not a standard recommendation.
- ACOG. ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 229: Antepartum Fetal Surveillance (2021)Supports the page's guidance on reviewing growth scan components — estimated fetal weight, amniotic fluid index, placental grading, and Doppler findings — with the treating clinician, and the framing of sudden breathlessness with chest pain or tachycardia as an emergency rather than a routine symptom.
- MoHFW. Pregnancy Care: Ante Natal Care (ANC) — National Health Mission (2023)Supports the recommendation that a growth scan should be scheduled in this fortnight if not yet done, and backs the same-day danger-sign list (bleeding, fever, watery discharge, urinary burning) consistent with India's focused ANC protocol for third-trimester pregnancies.
Reviewed by
- Nakul Phatak — CEO, theAsianparent India & IndonesiaHead of theAsianparent India; father of one
- Roshni Chugani — Head of Marketing, theAsianparent India & Singapore12 years in the mother-and-baby space; mother of two
Published by: theAsianparent editorial team
