Week 42: your baby is the size of a coati

The final frame. At about 3.7 kg your fetus now weighs about as much as a small coati, a raccoon relative from the Americas with a long, upturned, endlessly wiggling snout and a tall ringed tail it holds straight up like a flag. It feels like a fitting, inquisitive note to end on.

That rubbery snout is extraordinarily mobile, swivelling far enough to sweep sideways under the leaf litter, and is packed with a superb sense of smell, which the coati uses to root through leaf litter for insects and fruit. Females and young travel in noisy, cooperative bands, grooming and foraging together, while adult males mostly go it alone.

Very few pregnancies reach week 42, and most care teams recommend delivery by around now to keep everyone safe. So this is almost certainly the last animal on the list, and a fittingly curious, hands-on one to greet the world.

Meanwhile, inside you

Your baby is fully cooked and ready to meet you. From stardust to a curious little mammal with grasping hands and a fast-beating heart, the whole animal kingdom has been leading up to this.