July mum's to be

[LuvBeingAMum]

Hi all

Luvbeingamum please put some pictures from your 4d scan on here, I loved mine so much and still look at the pictures all the time

I will hun will start new thread with them hopefully if baby lets me see it! xxxxx

 

[Bournefree]

Due 30th of July and will be induced on the day if baby not here by then as I am 40 and risks go up. We are extremely excited. Hoping not to need the induction so will be trying every weird folk remedy we can think of that isn't actively dangerous to get things started before then...

You shouldn't be routinely induced because you are over 35 (Obstetrically geriatric - what a horrid term!) on your EDD, If there isn't any presentations on clinical evidence you NEED to be induced. The inherent risks of induction, don't warrant the medical intervention. Please don't think of induction as a defaco scenario because of your age alone.

There is NO scientific data to support this policy of the labelling of over 35s of being at greater risk of placental insufficiency post EDD. There are some documented risks of going post term - (i.e over 42 weeks gestation) for any women - but you are not even there yet!… and it is a fluid concept - dependant on individual women’s certainly of dates and cycles.

You can, and should be offered monitoring post EDD + 12 for placental sufficiency. However, fetal movement, fetal heart rate, then even scans will tell you what you need to know - drug induction, or the offer of a c-section carries significant risks with them.. and should NOT be assumed as the safest option for any mother and baby.

Really sorry if I appear to have jumped on this - but it incenses me, that for the reduction in litigation risk to the medical profession, the health of women is routinely becoming sidelined in the over-medicalisation of birth, for un-necessary reasons, such as policy and NOT evidence of individual presentation.
XxX

 

[addy23]

Hello! I'm due July 8 with a baby boy. My only fear is that I'll be overdue. But not so sure based off the way I'm feeling now. Oh and this is my 2nd

 

[lilwelsh1]

hello ladies,

im due 20th July with baby number 3, am hoping she arrives bang on time as my older 2 will be on summer holidays lol oh yes im asking for a miracle but it would be oh so convenient, but i dont care really, as long as she arrives safely and well. I'm amazed by the amount of ladies who r pregnant or just had babies in my circle of friends. We r all sporting bumps of different sizes lol. Im still in that frame of mind where i cant believe im actually pregnant, that this is all a dream or something silly i know but its all still a whirlwind for me lol.

Its all gone so quickly for me already on wednesday i c my consultant to find out if baby is growing on target, as my previous babies havent, if she is then all they have to do is keep an eye on the cord flow and placenta cuz unfortunately i have been in the position where the placenta has started to fail earlier than normal on both babies. My daughter had to be induced urgently and my son naturally arrived before they could do anything lol. Any way i've rambled on long enough hope everyone elses pregnancies r sailing by smoothly xx

 

[mummy2lola]

If My baby didn't arrive by due date I'd love to be induced on that day,I've got this horrible paranoia about everything and going over scares the life out of me xx

 

[Bournefree]

If My baby didn't arrive by due date I'd love to be induced on that day, I've got this horrible paranoia about everything and going over scares the life out of me xx

Why does it scare you? - you have been pregnant a long time, your EDD is just an ESTIMATE. Your baby secretes a hormone when their lungs are ready to start labour naturally- doesn't that thought make you think about bringing baby too soon as counter intuitive? Synthetic drugs (synmotrine, or pictocin - US), which although are a fantastic innovation in obstetric care (when medically required), don't and can't give you any pain relief, unlike natural oxytocin produced in the brain. And Induction, has a high incidence of fetal distress, higher reported incidence of pain in mother (demonstrated by an increase in mothers take-up of anaesthetic epidurals).. and has a higher incidence of leading to an increased c-sections for induced mums - those are the unfortunate documented reports and statistics in our obstritic and midwifery journals.

So you should be asking yourself, where your fears lie?
XxX

 

[mummy2lola]

I guess people have different fears about different things.I'm overly obsessed with kick counting but the second I'm at l&d I feel better and to me whilst being induced holds it's own risks I would still b in the place I need to be if anything did go wrong.im not trying to start a huge debate or anything.just stating Why I have my fears xx

 

[Bournefree]

That is totally cool with me, I understand. I wanted to highlight that some of the risks are associated and documented with our increasing reliance on medical intervention and how it isn’t always clinically indicated, and can come down to policy, and not individual clinical presentation.

Fear is a serious consideration, which not only has mental effects and physiological ones too.. When you take into account how limitating it can be and the effects of stress on the mother. To me, it is all about choice and what makes you feel most comfortable - I would never, never suggest that a women that didn't feel comfortable say for example with giving birth vaginally (i.e who had a psychological fear of child birth - tokophobia) and wanted to have a c-seciton, should be anywhere but where shes feels comfortable. (that of course is an extreme of feeling), but likewise, anywhere on the scale; anywomen has to feel and do what is right for them - I would defend to the upmost any women’s right to that comfort. As fear doesn’t have to be justified to have its negative and real physiological effects on the course of pregnancy or birth
XxX

 

[maybethisit]

Due 30th of July and will be induced on the day if baby not here by then as I am 40 and risks go up. We are extremely excited. Hoping not to need the induction so will be trying every weird folk remedy we can think of that isn't actively dangerous to get things started before then...

You shouldn't be routinely induced because you are over 35 (Obstetrically geriatric - what a horrid term!) on your EDD, If there isn't any presentations on clinical evidence you NEED to be induced. The inherent risks of induction, don't warrant the medical intervention. Please don't think of induction as a defaco scenario because of your age alone.

There is NO scientific data to support this policy of the labelling of over 35s of being at greater risk of placental insufficiency post EDD. There are some documented risks of going post term - (i.e over 42 weeks gestation) for any women - but you are not even there yet!… and it is a fluid concept - dependant on individual women’s certainly of dates and cycles.

You can, and should be offered monitoring post EDD + 12 for placental sufficiency. However, fetal movement, fetal heart rate, then even scans will tell you what you need to know - drug induction, or the offer of a c-section carries significant risks with them.. and should NOT be assumed as the safest option for any mother and baby.

Really sorry if I appear to have jumped on this - but it incenses me, that for the reduction in litigation risk to the medical profession, the health of women is routinely becoming sidelined in the over-medicalisation of birth, for un-necessary reasons, such as policy and NOT evidence of individual presentation.
XxX

Hey sweetie thanks for this - I haven't totally ruled out the possibility of monitoring for a couple of days over at least as I really, really don't want to be induced, having had a horrible experience of that with my first... Also my midwife is great and has said she is happy to start doing sweeps really early to see if we can get things going so that (in her words) I 'don't have to have a horrible labour experience if it's not necessary' (how reassuring...!?)

But while I totally agree re the over 35's, the position changes once you get over 40 and there are loads of studies showing that there is an increased risk of stillbirth in this age group if you go overdue - it's about 3 times greater. It's still a relatively small risk but it's about 8.2 in a thousand instead of about 2.4 in a thousand, and the biggest study I've seen they still couldn't identify why - they followed over a million births in some country (I think it was Sweden) over years, and couldn't find any correlation between obvious risk factors such as GD or PE why this should be the case, yet they still found it to be so.

So even though it's still rare, at more than 1 in 125 pregnancies it's heading up enough to scare me...It took us so long to have this baby and the chances of us conceiving again are not great, so the prospect of not only losing this child - which I can't see how we would ever deal with - but not being able to have one at all, is too scary for me to want to mess with any kind of odds (I have 2 teenagers from my first marriage but this is our first together and OH's first - not that it would ever be something easy to cope with in any circumstances)...

But yeah, you're right, at 35 you should be treated the same as everyone else, but over 40 there's unfortunately a bit more to think about Although as I am just 40 and very fit and healthy, I imagine the reality might be I'd fit more in the younger age group than the older, which must include a fair number of people in mid 40s also who would presumably be higher risk if it's purely age-related, and so the stats are presumably a bit skewed by that... Gaah sometimes I think it's better not to know these things
xx

 

[maybethisit]

Ps I would agree though, re induction being generally not fun and not very good for the likelihood of a positive birth experience, and that not-so-nice interventions are more likely - also it is likely to be tougher on the baby as the contractions are likely to be stronger. Mine resulted in a less-than-two hour labour from not being dilated to delivery, which was insanely intense and painful, and despite being scared of epidurals I desperately wanted one, but it was so quick they couldn't get an anesthetist in time (the first stage, which was the tough one, was about 40 minutes...). My second labour started naturally and was a breeze by comparison about 5 hours from going in at 3cm, with normal labour pains, and I coped fine.

I know people who've been induced without problems too, and if it has to be done, I'll do it again, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it as an easy option to anyone and wouldn't want to do it unless medically necessary, personally

 

[Lawa]

I am hoping not to be induced. I am on high levels of monitoring which doesn't help me feel like this is a normal pregnancy.I have a growth scan next Tuesday and one again at 36 weeks

 

[xKatie Tx]

Im due 21st july! can't wait now on count down till my maternity leave starts in 6 weeks can't wait

look forward to hearing all the birth annoucments from all of you xx

 

[angie79]

oooo its so nice to hear others that have big babies already - My lo was 2lb at my 20 week scan and i have to have a growth scan at 28 weeks to check which is on the 10th may - i'm having my 4d scan this saturday and cant wait

I feel i'm organised - i have everything and the nursery is finished - its so unlike me i'm the most unorganised person ever - think i impressed my mum

xxx

 

[babesx3]

I had an induction with my 3rd baby due to size, and had no probs whatsoever, just had gas and air, and i wouldn't say it was anymore painful than my second labour that started naturally....
Every woman has a right to choose what is right for her..
u can go on the net and find arguments and statistics to prove a theory either way... everywoman will react to natural childbirth or inductions in different ways....
my first natural labour was hell and i'd chose my induced labour over that anyday... but like i say you'll be able to find someone to prove or disprove a theory either way...

what we all want is a healthy baby at the end and sometimes medical intervention is better for mother and baby..mentally and physically ..