{"id":1850,"date":"2026-02-17T11:14:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/week-40\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:19:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:19:44","slug":"week-40","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/pregnant\/pregnancy-calendar\/week-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 40"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"40\">Week 40<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Ready for the start<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Your baby<\/h3>\n<p>Your baby is now truly completely \u2018finished\u2019, and you are probably ready for it too. You are probably thinking countless times a day right now: \u2018Come on, what are you waiting for?\u2019 Yet, only one in twenty babies is born on their due date.  <\/p>\n<p>So, above all, do not be too disappointed if nothing happens. Moreover, some women really are pregnant for 42 weeks. This probably has to do with the size of the placenta. A large placenta produces a lot of progesterone, a hormone that inhibits uterine contractions.   <\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, it is the baby who determines when labor begins. He or she secretes the stress hormone cortisol. This hormone reaches you via the placenta. Under the influence of cortisol, your entire hormonal system also kicks into gear, triggering contractions and starting labor.   <\/p>\n<h3>You<\/h3>\n<p>Your due date falls this week. That day always has something magical about it, and you tend to be extra alert to every ache you feel. From this day on, you can continue with your usual activities. You don&#8217;t have to stay home either. If you stay relatively close by, you will have plenty of time to get home just as the contractions start.    <\/p>\n<p>Starting this week, you may also receive calls from family and friends on a regular basis. And the first question is probably, \u2018So? Is anything up yet?\u2019 All that attention is nice, but occasionally it can also be quite annoying and tiring. Don\u2019t feel like dealing with it right now? Then turn on your answering machine or voicemail.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Week 40 Ready for the start Your baby Your baby is now truly completely \u2018finished\u2019, and you are probably ready&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1653,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"templates\/flex.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1850","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1850\/revisions\/1851"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/verloskundigenrotterdamwest.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}