To ask about your experience of giving birth to a big baby?

[bgmama]

Hello, I am in the 37th week of pregnancy and my doctor is telling me that I am carrying a very big baby. This has been confirmed by ultrasounds, although I know they are not an exact science. I already have a child, which was born a few years ago without any complications and I was hoping it would be the same with this one. Can I ask how was your labour if your baby was big? Did you have any complications and did you have to be induced or have an EMCS due to the size of the baby? So far my doctor has a ‘wait and see‘ approach, which I am happy with, but I am also worried, as I would really like to avoid a c-section. I should add I don't live in the UK, so the care I receive is a bit different here. Also, did your baby turn out to be as big as expected when it was born, because I have heard that the scan can very often get it wrong.

Neither of mine were particularly heavy but both had massive heads (~98th centile). Both vaginal births, both pretty quick. Some tearing with the first and none with the second.

I'm not sure it makes as much difference as some people seem to think.

I was 5 '4 and previously under 8 stone.. Ds was 9'3 and managed fine.
Back to back labours are worse than big babies!

Thank you all for replying. Just writing this out and reading about your experiences, both good and bad, has helped me so much and I feel much calmer about the whole thing :)

I was induced and kept having growth scans due to a large baby. He was 8lb4oz!

Thank you also to nervousnelly8 for the link, I am reading it now.

DC1 was born on his due date at 10lbs 4oz. It was a textbook water birth with no pain relief and I only had a small graze.

Good luck!

My first was 10 lb 2. I had an extended episiotomy but no interventions. I healed up fine - in fact better than before. I have never had any problems as a result of the birth.

It was more difficult pushing out a massive head than pushing out my next child who was of normal size.

Both mine were 9lbs plus, both predicted birth weight of 7.5lbs! I had csections with both because they just didn’t budge.

First was 8 1/2 lbs, second was 10. Only difference was the second was finished in 5 hours and I had no pain killers because there was no time by the time they let me come in .

DD was 9lb 7oz and ended up as facial presentation, so was never exiting the 'standard' way, whatever her size! I laboured pretty fast for a first timer (2cm at 8.30am and 10cm two hours later), spent 2 hours pushing, then got taken into theatre, initially for forceps (which I didn't want), but the examination showed she was too far up the birth canal, so I had an EMCS.

First baby was 8lb 13.5 oz. Long labour and difficult birth. Second was completely different. Growth scan estimated 9lb 15oz. He was born 2 days later weighing 10lb 8oz. Natural birth, no pain relief and reasonably quick. First twinge at 2.45am. Despatched DH to get my mum to look after DS1 just in case it was labour as she was 1hr round trip away. Got to hospital at 5.30am and son was born at 7am. He was very long, slightly above average head circumference. I did have a 2nd degree tear that needed stitching but that healed fine. Good luck!

My last baby was 10 lbs. Spontaneous labour at 41 weeks, started at 7pm , delivered at 11 30 pm. First stages of labour were easy and fast but at full dilation he was still facing the wrong way and got stuck. (I have quite small hips and all my family have large heads) At that point they gave me a late and rubbish epidural.
I had effective local anaesthetic for episiotomy and high forceps delivery,. Baby was born alert and well with a small forceps mark on his face, soon faded.

I measured two weeks bigger right from 20 weeks. My midwife and consultant weren't concerned. Got to 42 weeks decided on ELCS due to previous traumatic births, glad I did - baby was born 11lb 9! In my case the scans were right although baby was even bigger than predicted. My previous babies were 8lbs each.

Both my DDs were big. 9lb 2oz and 10lb 7oz. I'm petite at 5' 3 and size 10. Both 10/11 days overdue.

DD1 was straightforward natural birth, just gas and air. Pushing was TOUGH, her head was stuck briefly, 2nd degree tear but recovery was absolutely fine.

DD2 ended in an EMCS for failure to progress after nearly 30 hours. She was too high even after I'd dilated 10cm, despite my best efforts just wasn't getting far enough down the birth canal - it was never stated explicitly but that may have been due to her size? Recovery was also fine.

Overall they were pretty straightforward births by most accounts. Don't be afraid of a big baby alone - as a pp said, there are countless factors besides the size of your baby!

My last 2 were 10lb, fatties, first was 8.4 and long and thin. First 2 were assisted.

Middle child back to back and horrific because nobody knew. Last one 2hrs and fell out. I was in shock it was so quick.

I kept being told my 2nd baby was going to be a big baby, she was born weighing 8.5 lbs but was 55cm long which I think is why they estimated a big baby

Should have added, I found giving birth the 2nd time so easy compared to the first time round

Big babies can be easier to give birth to sometimes. My 7lb13 baby was a lot harder to give birth to. My 9lb baby was born after 1.5 hours of labour with no complications. Don’t worry. Big doesn’t necessarily equal difficult birth. And growth scans can be very inaccurate anyways

We’d no idea the baby was big until she was born! She was also back to back. I ended up with emergency c section after going through the full labour - it was fine and I made an amazing recovery. I imagine I’d have been more traumatised and in pain afterwards had I been ripped to shreds down below! I’d say my experience was a very positive one & I’ll probably go for an ECS next time.

I was told baby would be 7lb max even on induction mifwife said not a very big baby in there! She was 9lb 11oz at 38 weeks. As I was induced labour was fast 2 1/2 hours (1st pessary natural abruption of waters started labour) and delivery was very quick. She was my 3rd though.

My second and third were 10lb 8 and 10lb 5 I was induced for third as second felt a bit tricky to deliver just after due date and was pushing against my pelvic bone for an hour as I think struggled to get into an ideal position. A very round baby 🤣. Apart from me haemorrhaging both times and having some minor tearing babies were fine. I did a fair bit of reading and talking to consultants who talked to another consultant on my behalf (lucky to have a friend who is a consultant as well as being cared for by a consultant) with my third and decided induction a week early would be safer. I didn’t know number two would be so big otherwise I’d have happily had an induction. However induction for a third is a lot more likely to be straightforward than for a first and I knew when they said big it was likely due to history. I know often they are wrong with sizing scans. For my last baby they did regular scans for size which is a more accurate way of doing it. I’m not very small frame wise and I clearly have a good size pelvis but what I would say is to have the baby in hospital near medical intervention as there’s an increase risk of shoulder dystocia and that is not something where you have time to get medics to arrive you need them close by. Good luck I hope I haven’t rambled too much.

Depends on what you mean by big. I had 3 nearly 9lb babies who were all a piece of cake to give birth to and then 2 7lb babies who were both complete nightmares.

I was forecast a big baby and he was if you count very long! I did manage to laugh when the midwife said it was like pulling scarves out of a magicians hat!

Thank God I demanded an epidural much to the nurses disgust because it was my first baby at 21 and I was petrified, he was nearly 10 pounds and I needed forceps then vacuum and god knows how many stitches.
I'd have been hysterical without the epidural. The aftermath was bad enough, I had to have a catheter for days and the stitches were incredibly painful.
I'm glad I didn'[t fall for all the natural childbirth guff that was flying around at that time.

My baby measured big for dates at 38 weeks and we just missed out on an early induction trial our hospital was doing with big babies.
I ended up going 16 days over, 3 days of induction with little success as every time things started they whacked the monitor on and I had to stay still so it stopped. Ended up having an emergency c section.
In hindsight, if I could have pushed for an earlier induction I absolutely would have and will absolutely push for this next time.
The key is knowing your family birth history- my mum had 2 c sections and my sister had 2 vaginal births but both were over term, both induced and both ended up using interventions.
If your mum/aunts/sisters have had smooth vaginal births, no matter the size you should be ok.