Hello everyone! I'm at week 39, Wednesday will be exactly week 40 and …

Hello everyone! I'm at week 39, Wednesday will be exactly week 40 and there will be a scheduled appointment. The doctor said that at week 40 she will look at the cervix and if it is ready, they will do something, but if not, she said you'll come back in week 41. So, I still don't understand what she meant, I couldn't ask her again because they called her somewhere, how did you have it at such a late stage? What do they do at week 40?