5/5 in relation to brim - translation please!

[cryingatthediscoteque]

I am 34 weeks pregnant and saw the consultant yesterday. In my notes there is a column titled Relation to Brim in 1/5s. Up until now the midwife has written "free" and yesterday the consultant wrote "5/5". What does this mean??

babys head is engaged

They divide a babies head into fifths as a simple measurement of how engaged the head is. It means that she can feel all 5 5ths of the babies head above your pubic bone - ie the head is not engaged.

The consultant could only feel 4/5ths which means the head has dropped down slightly.

kelly - i think it means 5/5ths palpable ie free

Oh bugger, sorry!

they emasure the amount of the babies head that they can feel in 5ths so if yoiur consultant can feel 5/5 then you're not engaged

Is this another example of consultants having to make things difficult? Why couldn't he have just written "free" like everyone else!?

the fifths measurement is pretty common i think. CERtainly is where i am - mw's and consultants both use it.

I suppose the fact that there are 2 ways of saying that baby's head is not engaged might be confusing, but they are both acceptable ways of telling what the findings on palpation are. In my experience community mw do use free more than 5/5th though. I've also noticed that some of them also just write eng., while others write exactly how much they can feel e.g. 3/5th, 4/5th,...
What type of handheld notes do you have? Ours are green and they have a page which explains all of the terminology used by mw's and obstetricians. The yellow version that's also around explains this too. I don't know what the other types of handheld notes are like. I only know the ones I've come acros in my short time as a student mw.

34 weeks is still early. Plenty of time to engage. However, if at say 39 weeks it is not at all engaaged it could be a sign that the head is bigger than your pelvis... probably could be lots of other things too -- I'm no doctor. If the head engages and then pops back out it can be a sign of the the baby being wrapped up in the cord... and that can lead to foetal distress and and emergency section.

But, as I said, 34 weeks is still early. If it doesn't engage by say 38 weeks then I'd start asking questions about a scan for the size of the head and a scan to see where the cord is.