...to want my baby born in September (not August)?

[chickpea1982]

I'd be really interested to hear other Mumsnetters' experiences on this question.

I'm currently pregnant with DC3, who is due on 31 August. My plan was to try to hold on until 1 September (unless the baby decides otherwise!) so DC3 is born in September and so is the oldest/one of the oldest in her year. It feels to me like it could make such a big difference to her life - either the oldest in her year, or the absolute youngest. Or am I overthinking things?

The doctors want to induce at 39 weeks as I have gestational diabetes, but I'm not completely convinced it's necessary, or that waiting a few extra days will make much difference.

Looking forward to receiving your wisdom!

A couple of days can absolutely make a difference. I don't think it makes a difference at school plus you can always defer if you want to. Please follow medical advice for the safety of yourself and baby.

Thanks everyone. Seems like the consensus is not to worry about it, and go with what the doctors suggest. As a few pp have said, it's absolutely not worth jeopardising her health. I appreciate all your replies. 🙏

As an August-born who excelled academically it boggles my mind that this is something anyone worries about even a little bit.

The boy who was top of the class with me in most subjects at school was even younger than me!

If they're academic they'll excel whenever they're born and if they're not they won't. It doesn't matter.

And how exactly do you think a doctor would enforce this - they can recommend all they like but if a woman chooses to delay there is nothing the doctor can do about it. Not saying it would be the right thing to do, but any medical intervention can only happen if the patient agrees.

My son was born late August and will be going into year 3 in September. He hasn’t struggled at all, he hit all the year 2 targets

I don't think pregnant women can be forced to be induced. The OP can choose to go against her doctor's advice.

Or they coerce them into agreeing to it. It does happen, unfortunately.

OP My DS is not only an August born, but also the smallest & shortest in stature in every year group he's been in. He'd was already in yr1 before i discovered we could've deferred. Teacher commented his attention wasn't good when he started reception, but he was only 4 and 5mths! He always did well in all the small pieces of work he was given, not top sets but middling. At secondary, he shone in English and creative writing and Art. He wasn't great at sport and when I signed him up for football club, I noticed he could never get a chance at the ball. Still, he made lots of friends and has a very likeable personality which saw him through primary and secondary.
He just graduated last month from a top university with a 2.1 and an excellent job awaiting him.

I hope you can see it's not all doom and gloom if you are August born, frankly I think it makes only the tiniest of differences, what makes more of a difference is nature and personality of the dc.

Different but I was like this with my daughter who was due in dec- I wanted her to come abit early so she wasn't caught in the xmas mayhem. Got offered an induction at the end of Nov and took it.

I'd be the same as you for a sept baby!

I have to say that my son was at a disadvantage in his early years at being born in August 1st as he was the youngest in his class and quite a few children were nearly a year older.

The infants school was a lot of my being called in as he was being 'immature' when compared to the older children.

I had asked to keep him off and start again the following year but was refused.

You could spot the older ones as they had better sitting down skills and better attention in class.

Once they got to junior school the difference had disappeared.

I had horrific GD and nearly had a VERY bad outcome and I had only just hit 36 weeks when they had to deliver. So I wouldn’t be considering delaying and ignoring the doctors’ advice just for a September birthday. Sure, odds are it’ll all be well as it is a precaution but I wouldn’t want to risk being the statistical bad outcome.

There's a good reason why they want to induce you early due to gd. Babies can be much bigger and if you want a vaginal delivery then they'll want this to happen sooner than later so baby can't grow even more. I'd sit down with your consultant and go through the pros and cons of both. If you're really against it they can do a watch and wait approach. I had gd and it was well controlled but I opted for a section because of the risk of shoulder dystocia. They'd estimated ds at 6lbs and he was 9lb 2 so I was glad I went for that in the end up. The last few weeks they can grow quite quickly. But you need to listen to your own instinct. It's more important in my mind that you have the best birth for your body to set you up well for having your 3rd and protecting your mental and physical health. Your child will develop at their own pace no matter when they're born and they'll do just fine if they're born in August or Sept.

August born generally gives you the ability to choose based on the individual child, September born doesn’t. Two of my 3 have early September birthday (not planned), I feel like both were bored at preschool and would have benefited from being able to start school earlier.

You have the right to start a child in school the term after they turn 5 (this goes for all children - so Autumn babies can start in January and Winter/Spring babies after Easter). With Summer borns, this is the September after their birthday

The head can argue that the child has to start in Y1, but precedent has been set that they have to prove it's in the child's best interests to skip Reception altogether, which is hard to do, as Reception benefits all.

My baby is due in September and I'm hoping he'll come a little bit earlier so I can save a whole extra year of nursery fees 😅. I nave friends born at the end of August who got the highest grades in their year at school - only affects the first year or 2.

But the most important thing is you and your baby are safe so follow doctor's advice and don't take risks there x

I cannot advise about the medical need side of things obviously. The health of you and the baby is the priority. But that aside, my view is that it is far, far better from an educational/school point of view to be born in the autumn term. The deferred start now available mitigates the disadvantage of summer born children to an extent, but in my opinion (just my personal view based on our own experiences) it does not extinguish them altogether.

August-born in England is more like a February-born in Scotland due to the different academic year cut-offs. August-born in Scotland is in the older half of kids in the school year as the cut-off runs from start of March to end of Feb. Kids born in August don't start until they turn 5, whereas Feb kids can start at 4.5.

In Scotland it's entirely normal to defer Jan/Feb kids (which would be July/August in England I guess). All the kids in my DD1's antenatal group are Feb born and all are deferring to next year. It's just a tick box on the funding form.

instead lobby your MP for a 1st June cut of day for educational year age.

That way every child starting school in September would be 4 and 3 months at least.

or return to the children starting school the term after they are 4 or 5 years old, so there are 3 intakes during the year to settle children into school

My birthday is 2nd September, my best friend through school was born August 30 and was almost a year younger than me.
She was a high achiever in school!

And actually although everyone on MN has the ubiquitous bright child who is ready for GCSEs at the age of 7 and a social butterfly, a lot of kids do struggle with starting school so early, either academically or more usually socially, some of which isn't apparent till later in their school career when it comes to sitting exams, etc. Anecdotes about individual kids who achieved this and that aren't really useful. We need to look at a population level generally and also consider individual children.

DD could start school in August at 4.5 and would probably be 'fine', but deferring her a year will give her a whole year of social maturity and growth in a quality early years setting and set her up as best as possible at no real cost to me (thanks to the 30 hours of funding we get here). Speaking to friends and family who are teachers, I've yet to find one with anything negative to say about deferral, but they all have lots to say about sending kids too soon.

I am an August baby and can never remember being disadvantaged,my daughter is September baby and was so bored with nursery in the last year because she was so ready for school. My son has two friends born 31August and they are at Durham and Edinburgh Unis . It really doesn’t make any difference and there will always be a youngest child in a year .
As adults the only drawback was the younger ones are last to learn to drive and go to the pub !!

Think of the nursery fees you'll save if you work.

Also the latest statistics show that in the most affluent areas in Scotland, 55% of Jan and Feb babies are deferred, dropping to 35% in the most deprived areas, so it's an extremely common situation here.

A government committee set up to examine the issue of summer-born children in England found this and reported it back:

It was clear from the evidence we received, including the Department’s own analysis, that there is a measurable effect of the month of a child’s birth on academic outcomes. We also heard evidence about non- academic effects of being summer-born, including disproportionately high SEN diagnosis, bullying and placement in low ability groups. There is widespread agreement that a problem exists, on average, for summer born and premature children.'

Anyway, obviously if the baby's health is in question then there should be no delay. But there are, or should be, other options around school entry for summer-born children to look at when you get there.

My twins were due end of September but born 30 August. They were very tired for first year of primary so we didn’t do after school clubs like ballet and swimming but started that in year 2 and they caught up. By year 4, academically you’d never know and now in year 8 they are doing brilliantly. I think the down side of a September baby is they get bored at nursery (dd1 did by the last term and she’s a February baby).

August babies tend to be more creative children apparently and I’ve seen that in mine. They’re also great at problem solving and thinking outside the box.

What I’m saying is, it’s nothing to stress about.

I was supposed to have a scheduled c section at 39 weeks which would have made my baby have an end of August birthday.

Our first baby was born late August so we wanted to avoid that again and asked if we could delay the c section to scrape into September. They let us and dd was delayed by 2 days and born in September.