42 week pregnancy - advice!

wannabedebtfreebeth

Hi
Haven't read all the thread so this may have been mentioned before - I always heard that swallowing semen was great cause of all the hormones it contains. Sure your OH will be happy to oblige!! Best of luck - be sure to let us know the outcome.

Ted_Hutchinson

The article about Determining the beginning of pregnancy and predicting date of birth Wikipeadia is really quite interesting Counting from the beginning of the woman's last menstrual cycle, the norm is 40 weeks (the basis for Naegele's rule). Also, less than 10% of births occur on the due date, 50% of births are within a week of the due date, and almost 90% within two weeks. so between 37 and 43 weeks from the beginning of the last menstruation is really quite standard and nothing to get concerned about.

Compared to routine induction at 42 weeks, induction at 41 weeks is associated with a significantly higher risk of use of medical interventions and associated complications, with no observable benefits.

Jay-Jay_4

The problem is Ted that many it is many hospitals 'policy' to induce at 41 -42 weeks and the vast majority of women A, Trust the midwife/doctor/consultant implicitly. B, Have no idea that they have a choice and C, Want their baby out as soon as possible as they're fed up of waiting.

Personally I wouldn't wish to embark on the cascade of intervention to fit in with a hospitals policy but many people really don't think along those lines.

SpanielsGalore

Go for reflexology, I went to nearly 42 weeks with my 3rd son and couldn't bear the thought of being induced. A lady near me offered me reflexology and it worked !
Baby was born within 12 hours of reflexology.

Good Luck

jellyhead

i started reading this thread thinking 'she's bound to have given birth before i get to the end' :rotfl:

42+1, wow

i ovulate early and have a long cycle, the docs give me an initial due date based on my LMP then the 12 week scan says i'm 10 days more pregnant than that, so my date is changed. it's happened twice, both due dates initially 27th july changed to 17th at scan.

my babies seem to take longer to cook though, the first was induced at 39 weeks and was nowhere near ripe (but he had to come out because i had pre-eclampsia), they said he would have stayed in for another 3 weeks at least. the second was induced over 3 days because the gel didn't work, born 12 days late in the end and again they said he wasn't late, didn't seem overcooked at all and placenta was very healthy.

i appreciate that my first induction was needed and they put the drip up straight away to get him out quickly, broke my waters and the epidural went in against my wishes because it lowers blood pressure. it didn't work, but that's besides the point. it was 8 hours long. i was told that epidural is standard when the drip is used anyhow, and i laboured flat on my back but i was tied to machines, catheter etc. and wasn't well so maybe i would have lain on my back anyway

anyway, second time around it was the same story, lots of extra scans after 20 weeks because baby wasn't growing, baby had a massive growth spurt in the final fortnight and was born an average weight but by 6 weeks old had leapt up the chart to the very top. i reckon he just wasn't ready, he hadn't laid down all the fat he wanted.

there was a point to this somewhere, i've wandered off it. anyway, with my second induction the gels didn't work, they broke my waters because they had a free slot in the timetable. i wasn't dilated and it took about an hour with various doctors fiddling around :eek: and they didn't give me gas and air for that, very naughty lol! they allowed me 2 hours to go into labour before the drip, but changed it to 4 hours after i stamped my feet. after 4 hours the drip went up. there were 4 women in labour to each midwife, i'd have got more attention if i'd been at home lol! they just cranked the drip up and left me to scream, saying they'd be back in 4 hours. and as has been said you do need to make a fuss after 2 hours when the baby is coming out and nobody believes you and they don't have time to examine you, just think you're making a fiss and it's their tea break, they're missing eastenders.

but anyway, i'm a big fan of gas and air, and being on a drip is very painful (but what would i know, i've had it both times and don't know what it's like without one) but i didn't need an epidural, the gas and air was enough, so don't be talked into an epidural just because it's what 'everyone else' on a drip needs.

i had a midwife who was an NCT member, and breastfeeding counsellor. she taught me some positions for labouring, and told me that there was no need to lie back even though i was tied to mintors. i got up off the bed and lay back on a birth ball and the difference in pain was astonishing. it hurts much more when you lie down, and you don't need to.

when the pains got bad i fell onto my knees and was leaning against the bed swinging my hips around, i did cry for pethidine but that was because i thought i had hours more of that pain and it was going to get worse, in actual fact the baby was on the way out and i didn't need pethidine. i did lie back to push him out.

i've typed far too much and you're probably in labour anyhow. but if you do go into hospital for induction you can do it without the epidural if you want to, and you can be mobile-ish, you don't have to lie back. being mobile and having no epidural means you're less likely to need the interventions others have described.

a well staffed ward with enough midwives to monitor you properly may mean a lower drip speed, my baby was out in 3 hours but i would have preferred a slower birth, it would have hurt less i think.

one final point, my second labour was induced for no reason, simply because he was overdue. there was no problem with me, baby or placenta, doppler scan was fine. all of that for the sake of procedure, and then he was born as visiting closed so my husband was chucked out and i had to deal with a screaming starving baby who couldn't latch on, and cleaning up all of my blood loss because other women in the ward idn't want to slip on it when they went to the loo. in a way i'm glad it was night because i wouldn't want other people's visitors seeing the rivers of blood, but i wanted my husband there with me and hated that he was sent home.

best wishes, sending you vibes for a lovely home birth

Dumbledore55

Oh my goodness, please be in labour soon, my tummy hurts just at the thought of how big you myst be by now. My second baby was 10 days late and I didn't dare go out to the bank or shop in M&S....kept having nightmares about my waters breaking in the food department.

Then when I finally went into labour, silly me decided to drive my 10 yr old daughter to school not to worry her. contractions were 6 mins apart on the way there, 3 mins apart on the way home....drove myself to hospital...1 and a half hours later, allowed them to break my waters...2 pushes and 6 mins from breaking waters to placenta being delivered...a lovely baby boy with arms like Popeye!!

Good luck with your delivery and hope you're cuddling that baby very, very soon x

Anniek1969

Jellyhead your experience sounds terrible. I was induced with my 3rd because of high blood pressure but she was 3days late anyway. The used the pessary which brought on mild contractions at about 1am and they didn't take me to the delivery suite until 12pm next day. Like I said in an earlier post, they were really busy that day and because my waters hadn't broke they just kept putting me to the back of the queue. They did put the needle in my hand for the drip but it wasn't needed so had 2 bruised hands for days after (midwife couldn't get the needle in and after trying both hands had to ask the doctor to put it in). I had told them from the begining that I didn't want any pain relief, hadn't had any with my other 2 so wanted to do this one without any as well, but as the contractions had been going that long and I was so tired I asked for pethidine, I wish now I hadn't as all it made me do was feel dizzy and sick. After all of my births the first 2 being the middle of the night my DH was allowed to stay as long as I was in the labour ward and when I went on the ward he was allowed to stay till 10pm. I had a great experience with the hospital and the midwife the 3rd time round was fantastic, she seemed to be there all the time although she had been in and out all afternoon delivering other babies. She was there with me continuosly for the last 2hrs of my labour and stayed with my DH and baby until after I'd had my bath.

jellyhead

hi, my experience wasn't terrible, it just wasn't as pleasant as i'd have liked, and the ward was too busy with too much being slotted into a timetable. i actually really enjoyed my second labour and said straight away that i would like to have another one but do it at home next time, or in a field lol!

i wasn't scared or anything like that, just felt a bit that the midwives didn't have time to listen to me. the midwife who showed me the positions off the bed was great, but she was going off shift. if i'd had more chances to speak to the midwife i would have been able to ask for the drip to be turned down (i don't think you can do it yourself, the machine tells their monitoring station everything that goes on, they get beepings and stuff like that). i also didn't have time to make it clear that i didn't want the jab to get the placenta out. busy staff don't look at your birth plan, they have never met you before and don't know your wishes, and if you're on a high drip with no time for speech in between contractions (also no chance to suck ice etc.) you can't stamp your feet or be as demanding as you would if you weren't having a contraction lol!

it was a lovely experience, the actual birth bit, i felt great.

have to say though if something had gone wrong (something more serious than the baby actually coming out while i was still kneeling on the floor wearing a maternity pad and cotton knickers (should have got the paper ones out lol!) perhaps the staff wouldn't have noticed quickly, being at home means one to one care. also the ward was filthy, being in hospital for 3 days trying pessaries meant i was already wondering if i'd caught MRSA lol!

sorry for hijacking the thread though lol! hopefully you've had a home birth by now jo :-)

Penny_Watcher

Is the baby cooked yet Jo? I think you have him/her on slow roast rather than flash fry

All 3 of my babies were late. Number 1 daughter was only a week late when they wanted to take me in to be induced, but that was in 1982 and apparently things have moved on a pace since then. The threat of induction was enough to bring on spontaneous labour and it was 5 hours between first twinge and delivery. 7lbs 11oz. "Well done," they said, "your next baby will be born even more quickly." Hmmmmm.......

Time passes.... yadah, yadah, yadah ... fast forward to 1994 and the birth on Number 1 son. Induced at 41+4, but I'm convinced he wasn't ready. Most unpleasant experience. His head hadn't engaged and my cervix wasn't ripe. We spent 3 days trying to get the little rotter out. Pessaries, drips, sweeps, breaking water when the cervix wasn't dilated enough (OUCH!). I had one of everything on the drugs trolley and gas and air. Eventually my cervix admitted defeat and dilated. No. 1 Son was born so quickly (due to the elephantine amounts of artificial contracting hormone that were in my bloodstream by now) that the midwife didn't have enough time to open the 'birthing pack' (2nd stage? what 2nd stage?) The problem had been that his head was so big (98th centile) that he'd got stuck in transition. 9lbs 14oz. The poor little mite had a pointed head with a purple lumpy bruise on the top where he'd been bouncing up and down on my closed cervix for hours on end. Such an attractive newborn :rotfl: but he's very handsome now and all the girls love him. Didn't do a lot of good to my undercarriage either. For months it felt like I was storing a grapefruit up there.


Moving on the No. 2 Daughter in 1997. 41+3 and still no sign of impending labour. Hospital suggested induction but, strangely, I wasn't too keen after the last experience. They tried a couple of pessaries to no effect. I was examined and they suggested a c section. After the previous experience with induction I agreed. I know it's major abdominal surgery but compared to the previous birth and aftermath the c section was an absolute doddle. I recovered so much more quickly than after the birth of No. 1 Son. Also as this birth was a much more positive experience I didn't get any post baby blues (always a bonus). As it tuned out if I'd gone into spontaneous labour she'd definitely have got stuck - 10lbs 7oz and a head so big it was off the centile chart_pale_

Looking back now I think it's very important to do what your body tells you is the right thing to do. It's nature's way after all. Instinct is a wonderful thing.

Good luck Jo :wave:

Benny24

Cor blimey Jo, have you not had the little critter YET?!!

We're with you girl, keep us updated!!!