Your week 36 guide

Fuller cheek muscles support feeding after birth. Sucking requires real muscular strength and coordination between the lips, tongue, jaw and throat, and the fat pads in the cheeks help hold the seal. This is the last piece of the feeding mechanism to fall into place.

Circulatory and immune development are well advanced. Antibodies are crossing from your bloodstream to your baby in increasing amounts during these final weeks, giving temporary protection against infections you have encountered. This transfer is one of the concrete reasons the last weeks of pregnancy matter, and it is why vaccination during pregnancy protects the newborn.

Digestion will only begin working fully once feeding starts outside the womb. The gut is structurally complete but has never processed milk, and the bacteria that will populate it arrive during and after birth. This is why the first days of feeding involve very small volumes.

Your baby may drop lower, which eases breathing but increases pelvic and bladder pressure. You may suddenly be able to eat a full meal again while needing the toilet every twenty minutes. In first pregnancies this often happens a few weeks before labour, and in later pregnancies frequently not until labour begins.

Braxton Hicks tightenings, insomnia, swelling and a burst of nesting energy can all increase. The urge to clean and organise is widely reported and can be surprisingly strong. Channel it into things that are actually useful and avoid ladders, heavy lifting and harsh chemicals while you do.

The mucus plug may come away, though this alone does not predict when labour will start. It may appear as a thick, jelly-like discharge, sometimes streaked with blood, and it can happen days or weeks before labour. Bright red bleeding is different and should be reported immediately.

Confirm your baby's position and discuss the options if they are not head-down. Around three to four babies in a hundred remain breech at term, and turning the baby, a planned caesarean and, in some places, a vaginal breech birth may all be discussed. Ask about the risks and benefits of each rather than accepting a single option by default.

Put the final essentials in your hospital bag. Add the things needed at the last moment, such as your maternity notes, identification, phone charger and any medicines you take. Leave it somewhere obvious and tell whoever might need to fetch it.

Leave stepladders and heavy lifting to someone else while you prepare your space. Your changing balance can make reaching high shelves awkward, and you do not need to take that risk to get the room ready. Use cleaning products according to their labels, keep the room ventilated and never mix products. Asking for a hand is a sensible part of preparing, not a test of what you can manage alone. InshaAllah, handing over the heavier work can leave you the gentler parts of getting ready.

Refresh your food-safety habits: Food safety matters just as much in the final weeks. Wash fruit, vegetables and salad carefully, cook foods thoroughly where required, keep raw and ready-to-eat foods apart, and keep chilled foods properly refrigerated.

Keep following your local guidance on dairy, eggs, meat, fish, seafood, leftovers and ready-to-eat foods. Approaching birth does not reduce the importance of these precautions, and an infection at this stage is particularly worth avoiding.