Brief Answer:
Fetal movements should be monitored, go to hospital if there is pain.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

Welcome to Ask a Doctor service.


I appreciate your concern regarding your wife, here is a list of certain dos and don'ts in late pregnancy.

1. Your wife should keep a track of fetal movements very carefully, normally babies move around in the womb at least 10 times in 2 hours, so ask your wife to count the number of fetal movements (kicks) over a period of 2 hours once every day.

Whenever she feels a kick, she should enter that in notebook, and once 10 kicks are counted, check the time and see if the number of kicks is within 2 hours from the first kick or longer than 2 hours.

If there is reduction in this number then you should take her to your doctor.

2. Rhythmic pain in the lower abdomen and lower back, that goes on increasing in intensity and duration.

3. Watery discharge (gushing water) from the vagina

4. Bleeding from the vagina

5. Any fever or burning or pain while passing urine.

You should look out for these signs and go to your doctor if you see any of the above mentioned signs.

You should not ignore anything that is out of ordinary.

Ease of delivery process depends on many factors including the size of the baby, size of mother's pelvis, timely hormonal changes that make the birth canal ready for delivery.

We cannot guess what will happen in your wife’s case in advance without knowing all the details.

Think positively and avoid getting stressed over small things. Follow the advise of your treating obstetrician as he/she will have all the required data at their disposal and hence will be the best judge of the situation.

I hope this answers your query.

Wishing your wife a safe delivery.

Best regards.

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