MSE Pregnancy Club 26

Bangton

BadlyWrittenPoem wrote: »

I think reasons include: being fed up of being pregnant, believing that the baby needs to be born by a certain date, hoping a sweep will enable them to avoid induction or just going along with whatever is offered.

Oh so it's not really a medical necessity and I can say no without feeling bad! It's just midwife vaguely said something about placenta being seen as weaker after 38 weeks, so without asking she just said if I get to next Wednesday when I have a 40 week appointment I'll be given a sweep but I'd really rather not! He comes when he comes unless medically there is a real reason he must be evicted!!! He might come before anyway but I'll be saying no thanks!

Toothfairy4

Pretty sure a typical placenta doesn't start to lose function until after 42 weeks. I wish they would explain things more as a CHOICE if it's not medically necessary. Of course i'm all for intervention if needed but i'm sure most women are intelligent enough to make an informed decision about these things?

Bangton

Toothfairy4 wrote: »

Pretty sure a typical placenta doesn't start to lose function until after 42 weeks. I wish they would explain things more as a CHOICE if it's not medically necessary. Of course i'm all for intervention if needed but i'm sure most women are intelligent enough to make an informed decision about these things?

I agree with you totally. She didn't even explain it really she just said it does what it says on tin! Once again I am glad for the forum and the women on here because my midwife is so half ar5ed with everything!!

It's the way she said I'll be given rather than offered a sweep that made me think it was something I was kind of advised to do!

continualdiamond

I'm assuming they can't tell you the chance of a sweep working until after it's done.

Only basing this on the fact that I had one done on Tuesday. My only reason for giving it a go is the possibility of hubby working away next week (driver) and I have no immediate family here with being from another country and am not close enough to my mother in law or friends to want anyone else with me but my husband when I'm in labour.

However after having it done I was given a 2/10 chance of it working due to the fact that my cervix well at least on Tuesday hadn't even began to soften. If it works, I was told it usually does within 48 hours and as you can tell 48 hrs has passed for me.

I won't be having another as I don't see the midwife until next Thurs the 3rd and I am booked in to be induced on Sat the 5th anyway so kinda don't see the point.

My midwife did listen to baby's heart beat after the sweep which was to make sure it hadn't annoyed baby in anyway, which it hadn't, all was fine.

So now I'm just hoping nature takes it course and that hubby isn't working away at all next week.

kerri_dfw

Bangton wrote: »

Oh so it's not really a medical necessity and I can say no without feeling bad! It's just midwife vaguely said something about placenta being seen as weaker after 38 weeks, so without asking she just said if I get to next Wednesday when I have a 40 week appointment I'll be given a sweep but I'd really rather not! He comes when he comes unless medically there is a real reason he must be evicted!!! He might come before anyway but I'll be saying no thanks!

I'm refusing a sweep, baby comes when she comes and I'd rather she was late anyway than born on New Years Day or even Xmas if she's early :eek: im going to refuse induction also unless baby or I require medical intervention. Although my midwife was pushing whooping cough and flu vaccine today whilst talking to me like I'm a teenager, when in fact I'm a well informed adult (I just look young).

Toothfairy4

Fingers crossed that things get moving for you soon continualdiamond! How far away will hubby be? I assume he can get out of going if baba makes an appearance before then? :eek:

BadlyWrittenPoem

Bangton wrote: »

Oh so it's not really a medical necessity and I can say no without feeling bad! It's just midwife vaguely said something about placenta being seen as weaker after 38 weeks, so without asking she just said if I get to next Wednesday when I have a 40 week appointment I'll be given a sweep but I'd really rather not! He comes when he comes unless medically there is a real reason he must be evicted!!! He might come before anyway but I'll be saying no thanks!

There's an outdated idea that the placenta "starts to pack up" once you get to a certain stage but unless there is something wrong the baby should naturally be born without the placenta failing. Beyond 42 weeks monitoring should be more often than once a week to make sure that the baby is still okay. There's a post here which gives more information and links about going post dates: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=27893667&postcount=13882

continualdiamond

He can be sent anywhere, each day is different. He's been as far as Aberdeen which is 8 hours away from us, the problem arises if his hours are up which = having to stop out overnight or if they have a lot of jobs on in one area and send them for a certain number of days in a row, which is what the possibility is.

Yep if baby makes an appearance before next week then he'll be off for 2 weeks so will avoid being put down as the one of the drivers to work away.

BadlyWrittenPoem

kerri_dfw wrote: »

I'm refusing a sweep, baby comes when she comes and I'd rather she was late anyway than born on New Years Day or even Xmas if she's early :eek: im going to refuse induction also unless baby or I require medical intervention. Although my midwife was pushing whooping cough and flu vaccine today whilst talking to me like I'm a teenager, when in fact I'm a well informed adult (I just look young).

I really hate when my MW spouts unsubstantiated rubbish to me telling me it's to enable me to "make an informed choice" when I have obviously looked into it myself already. When I declined a sweep at T+10 she told me that the placents "starts to pack up from 40 weeks" and she also told me that if I didn't let her listen in to the heartbeat then when I went into labour it would be "unknown whether my baby was viable" even though I'd spent ages on a monitor during a hospital admission and had growth scans and was quoting the NICE guidance at her.

BadlyWrittenPoem

And lest I sound totally anti sweeps/inductions I should add that I am totally in favour of them if there is a medical indication for one - it's just the pushing of them as something needed just because your deemed to be "late".