What is overdue and WHY the hassle when it happens?

[StarlightMaJesty]

Okay, I've seen and researched the arguments but, until now, it hasn't been something that has happened to me.

Now that it has, and I am experiencing it first hand, I'm wondering WHY it is such an area for battle.

I mean, I KNOW my rights etc. that no-one can force intervention or refuse hb etc etc. but I also know that this kind of pressure isn't conducive to getting the baby out spontaneosly.

And the messages seem to begin a few days before 40 weeks I.e 'well next time we'll see you we'll give you a sweep'.

And if you decline at that point, they tell you that you can possibly wait a week.

A week? Why?

Overdue is just what it says your baby is later than anticipated. It's not a huge problem to be overdue by a week or so but after than things get very cramped and problems can occur with blood supply being restricted through the cord due to the size and weight of the baby pressing on it. I have a colleague who was allowed to go way overdue over a bank holiday by more than the advised 10 days and tragically when she did eventually go into labour her baby was stillborn, in her case the cord had been compressed and the baby had died just at around 41 weeks, so the risks are very real. Take the advice of your midwife/consultant as imo its not really worth the risk of losing a healthy baby for the sake of not being induced.

The placenta gets less efficient as you get more overdue. Hence dictate not being keen on letting you go more than 14 days over.

The risk of stillbirth increases as you go further past 'term' but is still small. In this country we are a bit fiaxated on 40 weeks as normal and anything past that as 'abnormal' and thus needing to be 'fixed'. That is in fact bollocks. Some women definately 'cook' longer than others. My friend and I both have three children. Hers were 4 weeks early, 2 weeks early and on time. Mine were two weeks late, 1 week late and 1 week late. That means she has been pregnant for 10 weeks less than me. How can anything be judged as a 'rule' when you've got variables like that? (And yes I AM bitter

Basically what it comes down to is that the medical profession - like you - want to deliver a healthy baby. Past term they increasingly start to suggest that the way to achieve that is through intervention. You may or may not go along with that.

BTW - meconium in the fluid is very typical for post dates babies. Two of mine had it. One was in distress (cord round neck), the other was just a little madam.

Boggler, of course the longer a baby is in, the greater the chance of something happening whilst inside, in the same way that a baby being outside has a greater chance of being harmed outside.

But there are a lot of risks associated with expelling an unready baby from an unready uterus and a woman should be able to say 'no thanks' without a fight.

My mw was trying to get me to have a sweep the day before the due date. And now she is talking about shoukdn't be allowed to go over 41 weeks.

I am confident in my ability to deal with this as I need to but really am confused why it seems to be so surprising to her and a bit of a fight when all the literature says that up to 42 weeks is 'normal'.

Sorry - just to add - it's really important that you watch baby's movements. Any change and you MUST go straight to hospital t have baby's wellbeing checked. Don't hesitate, just go.

But I'm nowhere near 14 days overdue! I'm 3 days overdue.

Re dates - when I had dd1 14 years ago, my hospital induced at 14 days. When I had dd3 5 years ago they had changed it to 10 days. My sil is expecting and overdue and has been told 14 days. Last pregnancy she was told 12 days. It varies and isn't really an issue because you, the patient, will decide when you'll be booked in for induction if at all. With dd3 I wanted to be booked in for 14 days and the midwife said she would 'ask' the consultant. I thought that was very funny as whatever he said I wasn't turning up there on day 10

You need to have some sex. Lots of sex and nipple twiddling to try and get baby moving. Forget anything else.

Thanks Northern. Baby moving more than ever. Trying to find my pelvis I reckon. Not yet engaged I don't think. Mw said he was 1/5, but don't see how that is possible with the amount of spinning from back to back to forward and back again.

i went 12 days over had emcs ,my dd had her ds1 14 days over on the day she was due to be induced ,shes due her dd1 in 5 weeks

Yes, it was a bit amusing when mw told me my hb was at risk due to her not being able to find a copy of my scan.

She's nice though, the mw I've been seeing, which is even more confusing. If she was an old school battle-axe I might understand it.

Sorry I keep x posting. Thing is they can't tell - and nor can you - when your placenta will decide it's shutting up shop. The risk of it doing that at 14 days over + is felt to be great enough that it's time to evict baby.
You have to weigh up the relative risks.

With dd3 I would have accepted induction at 14 days over I think. Now, having had some tough experiences in my circle of friends that have made me less confident in pregnancy in general, I might decide otherwise. Or I might not. I really don't know.

Thanks maples. It's been a while since I looked at such things and they may well have changed anyway since. I'll have a look.

I just honestly never expected to go past my due date as both children born ON due date as measured by me.

I don't think it is helping that the scan date is stupidly wrong either.

I really don't think there are any circumstances where I woukd agree to an induction unfortunately.

So are you overdue according to your dates yet?

Yes, 3days by my dates. Well, I woukdn't say I was overdue, but my edd was Sat.

i was booked for HBAC and so I really really wanted to birth at home...however after 17 days over original due date I went in to hospital and had a slight speeding up of labour. had been in slow labour for 3 days and 2 nights, which isn't as bad as it sounds as contractions only happened at night and not in the day. Great benefit of being booked for home birth was having MW come out to me at 2am when i really thought it was it. wasn't, and she did a sweep, and said if i got to 3cm by 8am i could have baby at home. Stayed at 2cm so went into hospital.

I was considering taking castor oil around 14 days over but then kept getting 'wind' whilst in the high street trying to shop for a friends birthday gift and thought, 'if this wind is this bad now I'm not taking castor oil' ! obv it was contractions but i'd never experienced them before, although what on earth i didn't twig at 14 days over i don't know! I did keep close eye on baby's movements and agreed to have monitoring on one of the days. I felt all was fine and all was.

Had ARM in hospital as was still 2cms and then syntocinin. Had a very lovely birth day and only used TENS machine for the whole time (in fact from the Monday thru to the Thursday when she was born!).

You need to do what's right for you, keep an eye on movements and you can go in for monitoring if you want to and still have baby at home. Keep in touch with MW team. I tried every single trick to try and bring on labour and absolutely nothing worked! Had 2 sweeps, reflexology, acupuncture with electricity twice, nothing but bruised legs, lots of raspberry leaf tea and even convinced DH to have sex...they come when they're ready.

the best indicator ime is how you feel and how you think the movements of the baby are.

i went overdue with all mine, term plus 18 with ds3 well a bit longer than that by their dates! i did go and be induced with mine from term plus 15 to +18 with ds3 as i was FED UP and with dd i went in at term plus 10 as i KNEW i would still be there 4 days later and also because i had had a lot of stress with ds3 having kawasakie disease and being unwell myself and i had a niggly feeling, not sure what but actually i was low on fluid levels which was never an issue with my other 4.

all mine were vernixy and yes big but the placentas all looked fine the midwifes checked them over and i had a good look and they assured me they were fine a placenta that is starting to 'go' looks a bit gritty? or somehting they said.

if you are concerned get monitering and you can ask for expectant management and a scan to check the blood flow from the placenta etc, i had that with mine, they were a bit stroppy about it, but you are allowed to request it.

i had it in lovely big red pen on my notes PATIENT HAS REFUSED INDUCTION AND HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE RISKS OF STILLBIRTH! nice! that was with ds3, who was 3 wks over according to hospital dates, not quite that much by my dates.

i tried everything to get my 5 out, lots of sex etc, what did help was accupuncture, lots of contractions and a show after that i could feel it working whilst the woman did it.

fwiw if you do get induced it may be ok, as i was ovedue with mine and alreayd 3-4cm etc they just broke my waters and i then laboured fine, had ds4 in the pool in under an hour.

interestingly the baby i didnt wait till AT LEAT 14 days over for, dd i ended up with syntocinon, i suspect had i waited a few days i wouldnt have needed that tbh, but as i said i had circumstances that made me concerned so it was the right thing and my labour was still active, just gas and air and fairly quick :)

when i had ds1, and ds2 and ds3 the policy was term plus 10 by the time i had ds4 is was term plus 14, it varies depending on where you live! and with dd i ahd to request induction at term plus 10, they were happy to do so as she was no 5, so technically higher risk and because my fluid levels were low, there werent so happy that i refused constant monitering and had an active labour on a birth ball etc, well the consultants werent, the midwife was fine :)

good luck, they may try scare tactics to pressure you but do your research and fingers crossed baby puts in an appearance asap :)

Plus 18?

Crikey - 18 days over! That would test anybody's patience

That's a good point as well about post-term induction. Very often it takes very little to kick you off and the NICE guidelines specifically mention labouring in water as being ok.

Sorry I'm a bit confused about your dates. If you're at 40+3 by your dates where do the hospital think you're at?

41 weeks today.

But that would mean that I conceived before we has sex, for which there is on,y one case in history, and if that is indeed what has happened I reckon I shoukd leave well alone.

i only gave up and went in to be induced as it was almost xmas and i didnt want an xmas day baby! ds3 is the 23rd dec, i had him in 3 hrs and was home within 4 hrs of having him.

and yes once REALLY post dates labour is fairly easy to get going, my situation is complicated by the fact that they discovered with ds1 i am allergic to the prostin gel they use to induce you so they have to break my waters! this worked fine for no 2, 3 and 4 and yes you can use the pool to labour in as long as you dont have the syntocin drip, so i did with ds4 and planned to do so with dd (no 5) but ended up on the drip, i didnt wait that long after they broke my waters, 6hrs or so? before having the drip, you can wait longer than that, htey dont always like it tho!

yes what dates do the hospital think you are at?

oh and they shouldnt have offered to doa sweep before you were even due, that goes against guildlines as its counter indicated and can cause problems.

oh so their dates arent out by much, and if you know when you conceived then stick to your guns, which is what i did with ds3, i also KNEW when he was conceived, hence me saying he was 18 days late when the hospital said he was 21 days late and they got very grumpy about it!