How much maternal growth occurs between 20 weeks pregnant to full term?

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How much maternal growth occurs between 20 weeks pregnant to full term?

A woman with an average BMI can expect to gain 1 to 2 pounds per week from 20 weeks to birth, and a total of 25 to 35 pounds over the course of the pregnancy. Below, please find the complete information belly button and hips circumference change on pregnant women.

Average Growth and Fundal Height

On average, a woman will grow about 1 centimeter (0.39 inches) per week between the pubic bone and the top of the uterus. This measurement is called fundal height. Doctors tend to start measuring to track growth around 20 weeks. In general, fundal height averages within 2 centimeters of your gestational week. So, during week 20, your fundal height will be, on average, 18-22 centimeters (around 7-8.5 inches).

Fundal height is what doctors tend to measure, since waist size can vary greatly based on the size of the woman before pregnancy and how a woman carries her weight. Fundal height is a more accurate way to measure the size of the baby, which is what matters most to doctors.

Waist size varies depending on several factors including the mother's pre-pregnancy height and weight, whether this is a first or subsequent baby, the position of the baby, and how many babies the mother is carrying. One source did mention that the changes can be drastic, with a woman who has a 24-inch waist possibly growing to a 48-inch waist over the course of the pregnancy.

Waist and Hip Measurements

Unfortunately, after extensive research, there is no data available on the average waist or hip increases a woman can expect during pregnancy, likely because this information just isn't relevant for doctors to measure. Individuals vary so greatly that these changes are not similar across all women.

However, since we do know is that fundal height grows by about 1 centimeter per week. So, we can estimate that at maximum a woman's waist will likely grow by 1 centimeter (0.39 inches) per week, on average. This gives us an average maximum waist growth of 20 centimeters or around 8 inches (rounded) from week 20 to week 40. This is a very rough estimation.

Very little information is available about how much the hips widen on average during pregnancy, again because this is generally not a data point that matters to doctors. I was able to find once course that mentioned that most widening usually takes places around 36 weeks.

Although the information you want specifically is not available, I do hope that the information for fundal height and expected growth does prove useful to you.

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