It's my due date today...

[weebleknievel]

and I don't feel any different to any other day so what happens now?

Have sweep booked with MW tomorrow but other than that what can I do that might actually work?

Don't want to have to go 2 wks over and then be induced because I won't be able to have my planned water birth as I'll need to be monitored so it rules it out.

It is hard. Really think we shouldn't be given a due date! So depressing.

Nothing works aside from induction. Sorry to say. Staying mobile, a good walk and some ball bouncing/figure of 8s are good for getting position right. A sweep can work if you're pretty much ready anyway. Feel free to try all the old wives tales but don't put yourself through it unless you want to. Hot curries that give you horrific heartburn, 7 pineapples at once, sex (oh please noooo!!)....none of them work. No evidence reflexology or acupuncture work either.

I'm afraid baby will come when it's ready (or when induced!). There's still plenty of time. DS was born naturally at 40+13. I'm currently 40+12 with dc2 and induction booked for Friday.

Inductions not what I would choose either but from experience I would say adjust your expectations to delivery at 42 weeks, and look at induction as something you've chosen to meet your baby and keep them safe, rather than something done to you. That's what I'm trying anyway. If you deliver in the meantime then great!

Go out and do nice things if you can. Try to get out each day for coffee/cinema/pedicure etc.

Thank you that's really good advice. Had a haircut and a pedicure so am feeling glam at least!

I will adjust my perspective and focus on 42wks

I'm just impatient because I had 24 weeks of hyperemesis so my pregnancy feels like it's gone on forever already!

Roll on 8th May

Walk every day. Walk, walk and walk some more. I also carried heavy shopping bags and stuff up and down stairs. It worked for me. But then, some babies just aren't ready until they're ready IYSWIM.

It is tough, but it helps to try and adjust your due date expectations from 40 wks to 42 wks. I wish someone had suggested that to me, as DD was born at 42 wks (went into labour at 40 + 13) and I had planned a hb, which the NHS mw prefer not to do after 42 wks (although they had already agreed to attend if that was my choice).

I did a variety of things in the last week before giving birth, including acupuncture, sex, walking (inc. up hills), swimming, taking evening primrose oil, 3 sweeps, and having plenty of 'letting it all out' weeps on DH's shoulder. No idea if any of it worked, but instinctively I think the combo of sex and sweeps might have helped push things along. For me, declining the automatic induction apt booked for me at 40 + 12 and opting for monitoring helped take the pressure off. As it was, that appointment would have happened 3 hrs before my waters broke naturally. I also had an amazingly supportive and attentive community midwife team who all seemed to be rooting for my homebirth.