Induced labour

[Beccy82]

Hi all. Need a bit of advice please? Midwives and consultant in hospital tell me different from my local midwife and all confusing the shit out of me . Basically i'm 8 months pregnant with my fourth, now there is an age gap between them and I know things change over the yrs. I'm adding their birth weights as it's part of this pregnancy. My oldest is 18 he was 7lb 7oz. My middle is 16 he was 7lb 9oz. My youngest is 11 and was 7lb 1oz. So I don't have little or big babies I have average sized ones.
Now, since i've been pregnant this time i've had 5 scans (fifth one today) for growth scans and i'm under a consultant because my last baby was born small. 7lb 1oz is not small in my eyes. Even my consultants and i've seen 3 have all said that's not small. Anyway, everything is going good with this one they've said on every scan and measurements that's he's slightly over the weight they'd like but not too far over that they'd worry. I had a glucose test done twice, in august and september both clear. On my scan a month ago they said he's weighing 5lb 4oz, on my scan today so one month later they are saying he's weighing 7lb 9oz and that over the last few wks they grow a lot. I've still got 4wks to go yet. But even to me 7lb 9oz is not big surely if he grows anymore he's not gonna go over 8lb 5oz at a guess and even that's not too big. Now, they want me to have another scan at 39wks to check growth again and if he's over a certain line they'll induce me a day or two later.
Here's where I need help, if I need to be induced do I have to stay in hospital or can I discharge myself and go back in when contractions start? Have any of u been induced and did it happen quickly or take days? I cant leave my other kids for long. I know my oldest two can take care of themselves and my oldest is classed as a man, but I do and done everythin for them. Their father is useless so wont think about feeding them or making sure the youngest two have clean school uniforms or money for dinner etc. I'm starting to get stressed now that they will induce me and i'll be stuck there for days. Someone put my mind at rest please and tell me I can go home?

Never mind can you go home, you don't need to agree to be induced.

Oh don't I? I thought I had too. Can obviously tell i've never been induced before lol. Thank you.

My waters went at 38 weeks with both of mine then nothing.
So was induced. Nought to 100 in about an hour, so go prepared.

I got induced with my first born (now 3 weeks old), they thought she was going to be +9lbs (she ended up being 7lbs13).

It took FOREVER. I was in hospital for 4 nights before even having her (had pessary gel 4 times, got to 1cm dilated, they broke my waters, went on drip, dilated 10cm and then couldn't push her out, ended up with forceps).

All seemed pointless / traumatic considering she wasn't actually big at all! I would always avoid induction if possible in future.. it may be quicker as it isn't your first baby.. either way good luck!! Keep us posted

Hi I am consultant led and likely to need to be induced. PP are correct. You can choose whether you want to be induced. They can't do it without your say so. However if you do decide to go down that route they are not likely to let you home. It does depend on the health trust however. I have read and heard some people got to go home. However as I am classed as high risk i wont be. If you aren't high risk then there is a chance you can. It also depends on the type of induction.

Thanx all. I'm not classed as high risk so I should be able to refuse it. I didn't realise I could tbh. You've put my mind at ease now. Thank u

You can't go home after being induced which is gel inserted into the vagina. They monitor very regularly after induction.
But you can choose not to be induced.
Inducti on can take ages to get going bit sometimes not long at all.
Weights by scan is not exact either. Nor is the gtt test. I swear I had gd in my second pregnancy as I did the first pregnancy but they said I didn't have it a second time. Baby was big, got in to difficulty at birth due to mismanaged induction and was poorly. Yet 1st induction was perfectly managed and text book but lengthy.

I don't generally believe them with the weights, I haven't heard one mother say they were right yet. When I had my youngest 11yrs ago they didn't measure by scan then, they measured by feel. I was told she was going to be a big baby 10-11 lbs, she was 7.1 that's a HUGE difference. So no I don't believe their weights. But they obviously do.

Why is your husband/partner such a useless fucker? TBH I’d be more worried about that than the potential of induction

Average size babies put on 1/2 a lb per week in the last few weeks of pregnancy.

Any medical procedure from examinations, inductions, c sections are all options available to you and you can choose to decline them if you wish. You should ask staff what are the benefits and risks to help you make a decision.

Growth scans have a 15% tolerance either way so your baby maybe 15% smaller or bigger. With mine they were spot on.

A big baby does carry additional risks. You need to get you partner sorted so he can do what is needed if you have a c section or have a longer stay in hospital.

Growth scans for me were massively out, as in almost 2lb. I think they're very quick to offer inductions, I was offered early induction for my second as my first was over 10lb (they said he would be about 8-8.5), but i refused as I'd had a natural delivery with no problems the first time. As it turned out my second arrived early of her own accord and astound 8lb. Again no issues.

Are you sure you're understanding everything correctly?
Everything you do with your care during pregnancy or otherwise is completely up to you.

@QueenArseClangers he's a fucking bellend tbh with u. Absolutely useless and very old fashioned in the way he was raised, by that I mean a woman's place is in the kitchen and bedroom. Well i've got him out of some of those habits he can fuck right off. But I don't think he's ever cook or wash clothes.

@hormonesorDHbeingadick def not having a section unless I 100% have too. The recovery time is too long. The way they've been speaking to me it's as if whatever they say goes. Never knew there was an option for me to say no. That makes me sound so gullible, but with them being professionals sometimes u don't question it. I had normal births with the other 3, no talk of inductions on either of them so this is all new to me.

@raspberryk yes i'm definitely understanding it all correctly, every appointment I have all I hear are the words "checking the baby's growth because your last baby was small" I feel like getting a t shirt saying "LAST BABY WAS 7LB 1OZ STOP SAYING SHE WAS SMALL" today was the first time the word induced was mentioned though. I started panicking straight away with the thought of leaving the kids for days and thought who can I ask? Then figured out how to post my own thread on this. I figured you guys would have answers. And thanx to u all now that I can say no fuck off with your induction, not happening. He'll come when he's good and ready.

I do understand how they can make you feel like that, the consultants will often say "what we will do is this" "you need x, y, z" , and I did once agree to something that I wasn't aware of the risks until after or that there were any alternatives.
I have also had consultants offer treatment giving the benefits and risks, ask me rather than inform, and invited me to discuss and make an informed decision. Sometimes though they suggest downright daft things that need not even be discussed as they make assumptions rather than take into account your individual circumstances.

My top tip now is to refuse anything until you have had time to discuss with midwife, partner, read the info pro's and con's (unless it is life or death).

That's what i'll do. Of course i'm happy to have another scan at 39wks to see my little man but that's as far as i'm gonna let them take it. When I see the consultant afterwards if he mentions inductions again i'll be saying no. Obviously if I go 2wks over then I don't suppose there's much of a choice he has to come out at some point lol. But they ain't starting me off early just because they think he'll be big. Of course, if there's a danger to either of us that's different but there's not. I'm perfectly fine and so is he, on the scan yesterday the fluid and placenta was all good so there's no threats to either of us.
They say in pregnancy not to get stressed, well I can say with their scaremongering they are the one stressing me out for nothing. Idiots.

All labour comes with risks. If he is large their are risks with leaving him to continue to grow and come out in his own time but there are also risks to induction.
It’s best to think BRAIN
Benefits
Risks
Alternatives
Instinct
Nothing - what happens if you do nothing and just wait it out?

I have researched extensively the risks of "big babies", a lot of them are over stated and only slightly increased chances when you look at the actual figures.
Then you have to take into account your previous labour history and if anything went wrong then why.
It's also beneficial to research how to avoid a lot of the common issues arising from hospital practices.
There are also alternatives to induction at 42 weeks, although the benefits and risks would have to be looked into by you.
Just as an example they expected dd to be big, and breech and said I would NEED CSection, which she was til quite late and I wouldn't discus alternatives to vaginal birth until I had exhausted all other options, at 37 weeks they said she was still breech as she wouldn't have room to turn. Despite the fact I told them ds was big and transverse til after 37 weeks- until they scanned me and she had indeed moved. Even if she was I was not going to agree to c section as I had researched (peer reviewed studies) breech water births and asked my midwife if they would attend a breech birth/what would they do if she was undiagnosed breech.
My point being, they don't always know what's best, you have to be your own advocate but make sure you are informed and not just refusing because of inconvenience or recovery times. I have no doubt the decisions some of my friends made regarding induction or c section were best for them.

My main concern is obviously leaving my others for days on end if it takes days which it can. I know when I had my other 3 I stayed in hospital for that night (all night/early morning babies) then home in the afternoon/early evening. So obviously I don't want to leave them for too long. On the other hand, they are talking about inducing early because they THINK he's big. They don't know he is they just think it. So do I let them start me off then he's only 6lb or something born? They were wrong with the weight last time. Massively wrong. Also they said he's 7.9 that's big anyway

That meant to say 7.9 is NOT big anyway

Is that current weight or predicted weight though as if you're 36 weeks now at 40 weeks that could be 2lb more by then and add half a pound for each week thereafter. It isn't that big but the potential is there, it's unlikely in the previous month the baby grew by 2lb though as it's only in the last week's that that happens.

Thanx some good advice there.
On 3rd september he was weighing 5.4 then yesterday he was 7.9 my words were "flipping heck he's grown a lot in a month" to which she replied "every baby is different" they haven't said a predicted weight to me. I think unless he's like 9-10lbs then he's not big and he ain't gonna grow that much more.

Have you looked at estimated calculators?
I agree it's unlikely to grow quite as much as from 5.4 to 7.9 between 32 & 36 weeks , but in the last few weeks and when post term, babies can and do put on up to half a pound per week.
By that I'm not meaning that even a 9 or 10lb baby should mean automatic induction anyway.

I didn't even know there was an estimated calculator i'll have a look now.

Cant find one that doesn't require u to be a mathematician I will keep u all ported anyway. I put a bet on a few months ago with family that he'd be 7.8 at birth. I best be right regardless of the 7.9 they said yesterday

Do you have a graph of your baby’s growth? Do you know how to do a line of best fit or can you google it?

@hormonesorDHbeingadick i'm assuming that's the graph you mean?