29 weeks and 1 day pregnant

The image shows the eyes are open once more for a brief look around. It’s not completely dark within the uterus and the more advanced your pregnancy, the more light can penetrate inside. Your baby will gradually be assimilating this information.

Be prepared to spend more time in waiting rooms from now on, as your care providers ask to see you more often.

It’s important to remember that your pregnancy is a natural, healthy process, but with more regular antenatal appointments, and a lot of time spent sitting in a waiting room at the hospital or midwives’ clinic or your doctor’s surgery, surrounded by people with various illnesses, you may start to feel that you have a medical problem. Even though you’re visiting the hospital so often, you are fit and well; you just also happen to be pregnant.

At every antenatal appointment you will be asked for a urine sample, which is checked for protein. If you find it’s getting increasingly difficult to catch your sample in the tiny, fiddly bottle you’re given, don’t worry. Only a small amount of urine is needed, so if you can’t see anything just start to urinate and then move the bottle underneath the flow to catch some. Urine is sterile (unless you have a urinary tract infection) so don’t worry about getting some on your hands – just wash them thoroughly afterwards.

Regular appointments with your midwife take time out of your day, but they offer reassurance that all is well with your baby.

We know our baby has Down’s syndrome. How can we prepare ourselves?

Knowing now will give you time to come to terms with the fact that your baby will have Down’s syndrome. You won’t need any special equipment or toys when your baby is born, but you will need emotional support, so turn to the people now who you think will best give you this.

Contact the Down’s Syndrome Association for information and support, including getting in touch with parents of children with Down’s syndrome through your local support group.

Giving birth without any medical assistance from a midwife or doctor might seem a little crazy, but a small minority of women believe that so-called freebirthing is the ultimate way to welcome their baby into the world. Some mums-to-be plan an unassisted home birth after having a negative experience during a previous labour; others want their birth to be “natural”, “private”, and devoid of medical intervention.

• Freebirthing is not against the law, but it is radical. It’s also potentially very risky, because an apparently textbook delivery can swiftly turn into a medical emergency that can only be resolved by trained medical professionals. Complications such as the baby needing oxygen can and do happen.

• Some women have an unplanned DIY delivery – usually because of a short labour – and in these instances the mothers and babies are usually fine. But actually choosing to go it alone is definitely not something that should be considered lightly.