Pregnancy Week 26: Edema, Preeclampsia, and Surfactant

You may start to notice some water weight gain or edema around your twenty-sixth week of pregnancy. Edema is common in pregnancy but edema along with other factors may be a condition called preeclampsia that can be dangerous. Your baby's lungs are starting to make surfactant during pregnancy week twenty-six.

Pregnancy Week 26: Baby's Development

Your baby weighs just less than two pounds and is now about 9 inches long. His lungs are starting to make surfactant. Surfactant is essential for breathing because it reduces the friction in the lungs and lubricates the alveoli to prevent them from collapsing when your baby exhales and sticking together when your baby inhales. Once your baby makes surfactant then he will able to breathe air.

Pregnancy week twenty-six is also the week that your baby's eyelids start to open revealing his baby blues or browns or greens.

Pregnancy Week 26: Mom's Water Weight Gain

You may notice that your rings are cutting into your fingers and your shoes are not fitting you comfortably. What happened to your ankles? You may be retaining water.

The puffiness is called edema and it appears in up to 75% of pregnant women. Water retention and puffiness usually starts in the feet, ankles, and legs but you may also notice it in your hands and face. Edema is caused by your increased blood volume and the pressure of your baby and your uterus on the blood vessels going to and from your legs.

To alleviate this extra water weight you can try to make sure you're not staying in one position for too long. Get up and take short walks every hour. This will help your blood flow from your legs back to your heart. You can also reduce your sodium intake to help minimize water retention. The good news is that you will rapidly lose this water weight as soon as your baby is born.

Pregnancy Week 26: Edema or Preeclampsia?

Edema or water weight gain during pregnancy is normal. However, if you have puffiness and water weight gain along with high blood pressure and protein in your urine then this may signal a pregnancy complication called preeclampsia.

Other symptoms of preeclampsia include headaches, dizziness, vision changes, and nausea and vomiting. Since most of these symptoms are normal during pregnancy doctors use the elevated blood pressure and proteinuria along with a blood test to diagnose preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia occurs in about 5% of pregnant women. The only cure for it is delivering the baby. Preeclampsia can happen anytime after the twentieth week of pregnancy and that is too early to deliver a baby. There are several treatments that your healthcare provider will try as long as your preeclampsia is not severe.

All the risks that go with preeclampsia are very scary. Preeclampsia decreases the blood flow to your placenta so the baby is not getting enough oxygenated blood. When preeclampsia becomes eclampsia then the pregnant mom and baby are at risk for seizures, placental abruption, and stroke.

If you are diagnosed with preeclampsia then it can be treated and monitored if it is too early to deliver the baby. You might be put on medication to lower your blood pressure. Bed rest is a common solution to alleviate the problems of high blood pressure and the decreased blood flow to the placenta.

In severe cases, or in cases where preeclampsia occurs late in pregnancy, your doctor may decide to deliver your baby immediately. Depending on things like cervical readiness, your blood pressure, and how many weeks pregnant you are will determine if your doctor will induce labor or perform a c-section.

After delivery, your blood pressure will return to normal. You will have an increased risk of developing preeclampsia with subsequent pregnancies. If you change healthcare providers then you will need to inform any new doctor of your previous complication.

For more pregnancy weeks and fetal development you can read:

Pregnancy Week 22

Pregnancy Week 23

Pregnancy Week 24

Pregnancy Week 25

Click here to find more information on your pregnancy and baby's development.

Sources:

Personal Experience

Fit Pregnancy (2009). Pregnancy Calendar. Retrieved: April 8, 9, 2009. Web Site: fitpregnancy.com/calendar/40251887.html

Myers-Gorrie, Trula, Slone-McKinney, Emily, & Smith-Murray, Sharon (1998). Foundations of Maternal-Newborn Nursing (2^nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Sau