Your Pregnancy Week by Week: 25 Weeks

The following information -- and much more -- can also be found in the free weekly email Lamaze Pregnancy Week by Week. Sign up now to receive helpful information for your stage of pregnancy. Subscribers will be given the opportunity to complete a Lamaze Parent Satisfaction Survey after their pregnancy and receive a Lamaze Toys coupon. We want to hear about your birth experience and the impact that childbirth education may have had so that we can continue to make sure parents have the information they need for the safest, healthiest birth possible.

You're in week 25 of your pregnancy!

Breastfeeding is nature's most powerful way of helping mothers recover from birth, learn mothering skills and fall in love with their babies. It also ensures that babies are well-nourished, protected against disease and allowed to develop the best they can. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively (no water, juice, formula, other fluids or solids) for six months and continue breastfeeding until they're at least one year old. Discover ways you can get your breastfeeding relationship off to a good start.

What's New with Baby

Want to have some fun with your little one? Point a flashlight at an area of your abdomen and note any changes or movements that you can feel. Researchers have found that babies at this point in gestation will often turn their heads when a light is pointed towards the mother's abdomen. Don't worry if you don't detect any movement during this activity. Sometimes a forward-lying placenta can block the light from reaching your little one. Your playful little one now weighs in at about 650-700 grams (a little over one and a half pounds), and is 13 and a half inches long - roughly the size of a cucumber.

What's New with You

Have you noticed something leaking from one or both breasts? Not all women experience leaking, others notice it near the end of pregnancy, and others notice it very early on in pregnancy. The substance leaking from your breasts is colostrum, which is another name for the first milk your baby receives after birth. If you find the leaking bothersome, try wearing some breast pads in your bra. Do not worry if you haven't noticed any colostrum coming from your breasts as of yet. Your baby will still receive the colostrum that he needs after the birth.

A Touch of Inspiration

'Woman is the First Environment. In pregnancy, our bodies sustain life. At the breast of women, the generations are nourished. From the bodies of women flows the relationship of those generations both to society and the natural world. In this way is the earth our mother, the old people said. In this way, we as women are earth.'
- Katsi Cook, Mohawk healer, midwife and environmental health researcher

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