What Does Full-Term Mean?
At thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy babies are considered full-term, meaning their organs can support them if they are born.1 If labour were to start at any point now, even though your due date is still weeks away, your health care provider would not need to stop it from progressing. Labour would proceed naturally, because your baby’s body is ready to function outside the womb unassisted. Your baby’s growth may start to slow down once they reach full term since they now have most of the fat needed to regulate body temperature once born. Babies born before they are full-term are premature, and may need help medically and developmentally as they may not have had enough time to mature and develop in the uterus.