Mahooosive babies - why oh why?

[getstuffed]

Friend had a little boy today, 11lb 12. Now that, to me ladies, is big.
No mention of a big baby from any HCP and she was booked into a midwife led unit for the birth, where she duly went and then had to be transfered to hospital for an emergency section.

At this point I am thinking three things :-

1. How the hell did no one spot this? she's a regular size 12.
2. If they did, why did no one have a word with her and say there's a chance you might not get this one out????!!!!
3. I'm 35 weeks and how the fook can I stop this from happening to me!!!!

Anyone any experiences, or advice?

Maybe they didn't realise?

Maybe, her bump looked pretty much standard to be fair but call me naive, if you've seen a lot of pregnant women don't you kinda get a feel for stuff like this?

For some women this is a normal sized baby. I don't think that the size of the mother has any real bearing on the size of the baby.

Many women give birth to large babies without problems. Others have to have interventions of various kinds with smaller babies.

There is nothing you can do to stop your baby being the size it is supposed to be - and smaller babies aren't necessarily easier to birth.

Size doesn't mean everything in ease of delivery - I delivered my 9lb12oz dd1 (posterior) vaginally, a friend had a 4 week early 5lber by EMCS the same week.

You can't stop it happening to you!!!

1. because none of the measuring techniques they use are exactly accurate. One friend was told she was having a big baby by her consultant. when the baby arrived - on her due date- she was 6lbs!

1. A bigger baby does not necessarily equal difficult delivery, apparently. so even if they did notice he was bigger there's not much they should have said. Everyone having a baby knows they might need an emergency section, so there is no point in scaring them!

1. There isn't a way. You just have to trust that your body will grow a baby your pelvis can cope with, I'm afraid. There are some oddities like me (2 stuck babies, neither over 8lbs), but I am told that I am a rarety!

What puts the fear of god into me is going for hours and hours and then someone saying ''this isn't happening'' and whipping me off for a section but I guess that could happen with a 7lb baby anyway. DD was 8lb 2 so fingers crossed.

And (this is really bad) everyone seems to think big babies are a negative. I feel really bad when people say to mums ''omg he/she is HUGE, how did you do that, what a WHOPPER'' etc. And my title is ''Mahoosive babies'', I know, I'd never actually say it - but see I THINK it and so do a lot of other people

Ummmm, appear to be a bit 'on one' today.....

That can happen whatever your baby weighs.

But you're allowed to be 'on one', you're 35 weeks pregnant

Thank you, not right today!

My 4 have ranged between 9lbs1 and 10lbs13. I am 5ft6 and a size 10.

I think babies are getting bigger as people are having good diets and healthy lifestyles.

I am not scared by big babies, my 9lbers were under 3 hours and the two 10lbers under 2 hours from first niggle.

Gravity helps.

My personal belief is that 90% of sections arise when the labour has been started or interferred with and then the mum has to hit time lines.

Weight is not the problem its unnecessary interferrence xxx

I have been told that I am having a big baby measured at 8lb2 at 37 weeks. I am booked in for an induction on the 23rd and i'm terrified!

I have two phobeas.... 1 - any intervention that involves being interfered with downstairs (which apparantly happens a great deal in induction) and 2ndly I am frightened of hospitals and have just learnt that once I am being induced - my birthing partners will be sent home (if visiting hours are over) until I am in established labour therefore leaving me on my own in what I consider the most terrifying place on earth to deal with whatever comes my way ON MY OWN!

I am now thinking about telling them that I don't want to be induced but then I run the risk of needing a C-Section and staying in hospital for even longer. I just don't know what to do or who to speak to. )-:

I've had two EMCS,first baby 9lb 5oz and second baby was 10lb 6oz.

I don't believe the size was a factor in me not being able to give birth naturally,my cervix just doesn't dilate.And my second baby was in a good position.

I don't entirely agree with mungogerry as I wasn't really interferred with,although I could just be in the 10percent!

My scan two days before I gave birth was over a lb out although I just 'knew' he would be mahoosive.

allikennedy - is there another reason that they've said you have to be induced? Because if not, you don't have to purely on the size of the baby (which they often sometimes get wrong anyway.

Allikennedy - I agree with the pp. Scans are very unreliable. As soon as they induce you - the risks you mention sky rocket.

You may awsell wait therefore and give your body chance to birth the baby it grew for you.

Check out here hun:

www.bigbaby.org.uk/

xxx

The scans are incredibly unreliable. And baby position can have far more of an impact on length of labour than baby size. True cephalopelvic disproportion (when a babies head or body is too large to fit through the mother?s pelvis) is very very rare, although it used to be dished out as a diagnosis to explain a C-section quite a bit - many mothers then went on to have even bigger babies vaginally so they stopped doing that!

Induction is specially NOT recommended only on a basis of a suspected large baby - it's against NICE policy.