Horrendously overdue - tell me your happy stories please

[MayimBialik]

I know a lot of first timers go overdue but I'm now 40+10 and feeling thoroughly fed up. Desperate to have a natural, spontaneous birth but feeling like induction is the only likely outcome at the moment. Also finding it very hard to believe that I'm ever going to actually have a baby!

Would love to hear some nice, positive, encouraging stories of people going overdue to lift my spirits (and hopefully get some oxytocin swirling around my body!)

Thanks :-)

[waves at fatima] - your point exactly. I wouldn't have known re refusal of induction if I hadn't done a hypnobirthing class. I just assumed the docs/midwives would go through all the options and, you k is, treat us like adults. Now realise that this is emphatically not the case. We have to specifically ask them. Which is a pretty poor state of affairs.

Peer to peer relationship please. I'm not a child

Why did he veto the water birth lemmings? How annoying. Was it just because you were overdue

DC2 was induced at 40 plus thirteen long days..... I used the phase 'just get it out NOW' and I didn't use my indoor voice
DC2 was born less than an hour after the IV went in. He was over nine pounds and I didn't have time to have any painkillers. I was a bit shouty

Sorry, forgot to add, good luck OP, it WON'T be long.

Try and relish every moment

Thanks for all the replies! Good to hear some positive stories about last min spontaneous labour and also positive inductions stories.

Have to say don't want this thread to turn into a debate about whether or not to refuse induction. Am well aware of my choices but there's no way I would refuse induction. Obviously would be a lot nicer to go into spontaneous labour as it would a) be sooner and I get to meet my baby sooner and b) would mean I get less time in hospital as I'll be able to spend earlier labour at home. But ultimately, if there's no baby by Friday I shall be racing to the hospital begging them to make something happen!

"Have to say don't want this thread to turn into a debate about whether or not to refuse induction. Am well aware of my choices but there's no way I would refuse induction"

That's fine Mayim -but not everyone feels the same way and one of the great things about Mumsnet is that posters get to discuss and share lots of information as the conversation naturally develops - rather than the original poster being able to dictate what's discussed in the thread. It might be best to make it very clear in future opening posts that only posts agreeing with your course of action should be posted and any posts should not refer to posters' specific circumstances. Just yours (which is basically what your last post appears to say) - but that kind of goes against the ethos of mumsnet as I've said above. Your first post is also a bit confusing as it says that you think induction is "the only option" - people are just pointing out that that is not the case. You also ask for "nice positive stories". For a lot of people, being induced isn't very nice or positive as its accepted by the medics that it is very likely to start a cascade of intervention (particularly with first time mothers) so they would rather look at alternatives.

The good news is that you'll have no problem finding a consultant to agree to induce you so probably best to focus in that now and how to deal with that induction process as obviously there are pros and cons to that (fact of life not an opinion). Be prepared though - if the consultant is doing their job properly, they will want to discuss these with you to make sure they get informed consent. They will not just dwell on the positives.

I never had the option for induction it just happened. But looking back I'm glad it did. Little boy was 8lb 13 and long with big head! Lol.
He also had little fluid covering him which made his skin dry and cracking.
On the plus side labour was short which seems to be common with induced babies.

Sorry mayim didn't mean to derail in to a thread about induction. I think if I was you I would be doing the same on Friday

Hopefully it will have started by then already. Fwiw I was born at 40+14 after spontaneous labour.
Keep on bouncing on the ball whilst eating pineapple whilst having sex in castor oil

40 + 10? That's not horrendously overdue! I thought you were going to say you were 3 or 4 weeks overdue like my sister routinely goes. (her 1st was a 44 weeker, next 2 came "early" at 42 weeks (induced and still covered in vernix))

In France due dates are given for 41 weeks. They don't generally "let" you go more than a week beyond that. At least that given due date takes into account the wide variations in pregnancy length and acknowledges that most babies will be born by the end of the 41 week.

fwiw, my four were 40+10, 40+11, 40+13 and 40+ either 10 (hospital dates) or 17 (my dates).

What matters more is how your individual baby is. If they ask you to come in for monitoring, I would accept that if I were you, and furthermore ask for a Doppler blood flow scan on the cord. That's the only way of knowing from the outside if the placenta is still functioning well. Also keep a kick/movement chart.

Oh, and none of mine until the last one were induced, but she was a special case which I won't bore you with now! I can well remember feeling that they were never going to come of their own accord (in fact #3 was due to be induced the following day) when they did.

Mine was another 40+13, 5 hours before scheduled induction. 3 sweeps (asked the midwife to 'really go for it' with the last one, which she did - then ordered me to walk sideways down the stairs & go home and have sex immediately), clary sage oil in bath & to massage in (prescribed by midwife), then lots of long, stompy walks, passing the local MLU frequently, telling the bump that he was please to come out there & not in the hospital in the next city.

Shinyblackgrape- bit uncalled for.

neither of my inductions led to a 'cascade of medical intervention'. In fact I am very glad DS2 was induced and he had started to lose weight prior to delivery as my placenta was calcifying. When he was born his skin was all baggy. Very glad I was able to be induced

I had two sweeps at 40 +9 ( sorry I used to call it 41 +2?)
I'd recommend avoiding the sweeps if you can as I found them pretty gruesome. The rest was fine...except the waiting...the blinking waiting!
Good luck

FunnysinlJardin - funny you should say that, ds was born with loads of baggy skin and was 57cm long but 'only' 8lb11. I don't know why though....

Hey, not read other posts, just yours [lazy] will read them in a moment.

i went to 40+12, due to be induced on the monday, had spontaneous and quick birth on the saturday before (4hours from first contraction to holding DS in my arms) no complications.

OP if you were in Sweden (I think it?s Sweden anyway) you wouldn?t be term yet ? term is 42 weeks there.

shinyblackgrape hugely uncalled for and quite an upsetting post for me to read.

I think the title of my thread says it all.

Mumsnet it a place for people to come and get support. THAT is the ethos of mumsnet.

I've loved hearing everyone's experiences of going overdue and narrowly missing induction or having a good induction experience. Thanks so much for your replies.

I'm going to leave the thread here because I probably did make a mistake starting it without stating that I didn't want a debate.

I really hope I have a good induction experience without the 'cascade of intervention' but to be honest I think it's women that tell other women horror stories about childbirth that can do just as much damage.

fatima no worries! It's good that people give advice

Mayim sorry you have been upset. I agree that this thread was entirely the wrong place to start a debate about the rights and wrongs of induction. Very insensitive.

Thankfully I had no preconceptions about induction and just saw it as the next step if the DC wouldn't come on their own. I am sure that if you are induced it will be nice and quick and all will be fine. With DS2, my second induction, he was born within 2 hours of the first contraction with just Gas and Air. It was a very good birth.

Er....so sorry for not saying that all inductions are fabulous and the only option at the hospital's policy date but I'm afraid I'm not going to lie or misrepresent what the medical position is.

shiny you have upset the OP. She didn't ask whether all inductions were fabulous or not, in fact she didn't even ask to hear from us who have had inductions. She asked for happy tales from folk who had gone into labour just in time. She over due and fed up and so why not back down and say sorry instead of giving it all of this

Because I'm afraid I don't feel like that jardin and I don't think either Fatima's or my posts were unreasonable on a public forum that is read by lots of other people bar just the originating poster.

shiny I think your posts were mean and off topic. This is not AIBU and the OP was clearly asking for nice, positive and encouraging stories not your sour postings.

Start your own thread if you like but your views were not called for on this thread.

If you don't feel like that shiney then why post on this thread. As Cahoots said this isn't AIBU.