Head *still* not engaged

[Hooliaaa]

I'm 41 weeks pregnant with my first baby today.I went into hospital this morning for a membrane sweep. The midwife said that my cervix is 1cm dilated but the babies head is still floating. I thought for first babies the head dropped several weeks before labour. Has anyone else been in this situation and still gone into labour naturally?

My DS (my first) didn't engage at all before and he was 10 days early. I assumed first babies engaged and when I saw the MW who said he wasn't, I thought it was going to be a while but he was early. I was more than half way through labour and he was still only 3/5ths engaged so they don't all engage early.

Good luck!

That's great to hear. Thanks loads!

Neither of mine ever engaged and both had to be induced. With my 2nd baby, my MW said when she did my sweep that she could have broken my waters there and then, but didn't want to in case the cord came down with the waters and then the baby's head engaged, trapping the cord. So she waited until I was in hospital for my induction, they put a cannula in my hand in case they needed to give me an EMCS and then she broke my waters in a very controlled way as I was already 3cm. That was all I needed to start things off properly. As soon as I stood up after that it was like a truck had hit me, the contractions were so strong and painful, now the baby was finally where she should be! She was born 2 hours later.

A good article here-
www.bellybelly.com.au/articles/birth/baby-engaged

That's a really informative article. Thanks SelinaDoula. It's really good to know there's nothing abnormal about this situation. I'm just starting to get a bit impatient even though I know first babies are often a bit late. Also good to know that not all induced labours last for days.... just in case....