42 week pregnancy - advice!

jellyhead

love your birth experiences penny

both of my babies have had enormous heads (98th centile) even though they weren't heavy babies, one was 25th centile weight, one was 50th centile. it's one of those things you never really know about in advance. a friend had a massive baby whose shoulder got stuck, completely unexpected because you don't get late scans in a 'normal' pregnancy so don't really know the size or particulars of your baby.

in a way perhaps going overdue might be a good thing, making you even better prepared for labour, as long as you get a scan and not just a tape measure over the belly. if you know that your baby isn't enormous it must make you more confident that you can have a 'normal' labour. then again they only told me the weight of my babies in the final scans, not that the heads were huge :rotfl:

i wonder how many women really do have a medical need for an induction or section? (they do a section in my hospital as routine if 5 days of induction and a rest day hasn't worked, so on 42+2 you would have a section here even if there were no medical problems). i realise that there are tragic cases of going overdue and having a stillbirth, the desperate midwives programme featured a girl who had a family history of it. was that the one you saw mishka? i was heavily pregnant at the time and watched that home birth baby floppy and looking dead, and it went on for so long, i was in tears. but anyway, i was wondering if there might be a genetic cause for some of the problems experienced with going overdue. maybe if the interventions and inductions were put on hold for a couple of extra days all that unecessary money could be spent on other things such as research into the causes of the problem, and maybe how to detect problems on a scan and if there are none then leave a woman alone if she doesn't want induction.

Lillys_mum

Just thought I would add I had a home birth at 41 weeks with my 3rd they said they would let me go to 42 and still have the HB but anything over I would have to go into hospital.
Night before labour ate loads of fresh pineapple, had a hot bath followed buy lots of sex, worked a treat was in labour by 5am!!!

Hope everything goes well for you xxx

Jo_R_2

LOL nope STILL no baby! Have been trying many different things now, think fresh pineapple is next on list! Have bottle of clary sage oil to use as well, been drinking raspberry leaf tea, plus the other stuff that has been recommended, boyfy thinks it's his birthday AND Christmas all at the same time LOL! :rotfl:

Going for a long walk now so see if that works!

Edited to add am now 42+2, will try anything within reason as feel like am working to a deadline, haven't come to any decisions about 43 weeks yet should we get there...

rchddap1

Well if bean gets stubborn I'll certainly know where to go if the time comes. Got a while to go yet though.

tawnyowls

Jo_R wrote:

L
Edited to add am now 42+2, will try anything within reason as feel like am working to a deadline, haven't come to any decisions about 43 weeks yet should we get there...

Scrubbing the floor (hands and knees with a scrubbing brush) used to be a recommendation by midwives - apparently the extra room given by the tummy hanging down (sorry, that sounds awful!:p ) in combination with the exercise caused by the scrubbing kick-started it.

Lilly's mum's suggestion sounds more fun, but then that's what got you in this situation in the first place!:rotfl:

Jay-Jay_4

Light a fire a smoke it out!

Savvy_Sue

Do you have a TENS machine? I think you can hire them from Boots. The instructions are NOT to use them on your stomach, and I was told that if you DO then they may help induce labour. You'd probably want to google that to make sure there are no nasty warnings about electrocuting the little darling that way ...

BASIL

as an acupuncture student it might be worth trying acupuncture or shiatsu.... theres a specific acupuncture trick which may work if you can make it out of the house...!
anything other than induction.....
good luck!

savingsgirl

Jo, I know you dont want to but induction really isnt that bad. I had a sweep with my second child and that was truly horrific but being induced was fine.
Good luck xx

Kimberley

I didn't think they let you go over two weeks late :eek: