Hey Hobnob, don't worry, my head is also rather sieve-like at the moment! The baby has a skin-condition which some research has shown can cause complications to the mother for very prolonged labour and possible still-birth if left to go too long overdue. The consultant I'm under claims to be the expert in the north east on the specific condition and at our last appointment, when we thought we'd be booking a date for a CS, told us about her own research and experiences which showed that mothers and babies she'd been involved with didn't necessarily have problems. Some had gone way overdue and because they'd never had the 16 week blood tests done, they had no clue about the baby's condition until it was born but the babies had no other complications after normal length labours.
As I've always been quite scared about the prospect of a CS and have a 2 yo DD to consider too, I decided to go with a natural labour. I'm really quite worried though, as I was induced last time after my waters broke but nothing happened and 3 days later, DD was born via forceps after her heart stopped and I had an episiotomy, tore anyway and had lots of stitches. I really struggled physically and emotionally for a long time afterwards so I'm really quite worried about another induction. The consultant said last time that if I was still around the day after my due date, she'd meet with me and discuss an action plan, including daily monitoring and an agreed length of time before intervention if I don't go into labour. She said that if I did agree to be induced, I could dictate how long they tried for and then have a CS anyway but I don't know if that's defeating the object. In the back of my mind as well, there's the issue that there are only a handful of babies born with the condition in the area each year, so I just hope the consultant really truly knows what she's doing...
I just feel like there are so many things to consider and although I know that we're lucky that our baby doesn't have learning disabilities or physical disabilities linked to its skin condition (X Linked Ichthyosis) I'm starting to worry about what it's going to look like. We've been warned that it may look fine initially but then develop scales on it's skin as it grows up (we're talking months or years) or could have "snake-like" skin from the beginning. I have a half-brother who I didn't even know about until I found out about all this (very messed up family on my mum's side) and he's got the same condition. According to my eldest sister who's been acting like a kind of go-between, he's got very bad scales on his body which crack, bleed and get infected regularly. He offered to meet me and show me but I must admit to feeling overwhelmed by the whole situation and politely refused. I mean, what would it be like, "Hi I'm your long-lost half-brother, wanna see my scales??"
I'm sorry for the long post in reply. I haven't talked about the baby's condition for months now, even with DH, so it's all come pouring out now. I guess I hadn't realised how nervous I am about meeting the baby and seeing for myself what it looks like and finding out how we're going to have to deal with the condition if it's bad. I'm just going to have to keep my very fat fingers crossed that it's barely affected, as some boys can be, and just looks like it's got a tan in certain places rather than others.
Think I need to have a chat with DH about all this, since we've both been avoiding the subject for so long. He's stuffing his face with leftover Halloween sweets at the moment so I'll be doing his teeth a favour!