40 weeks head not engaged - advice re induction!

[lilhen]

Hi there,

Really looking for any advice from people who have had similar experiences.

I'm 40+2 FTM and baby's head is 'free', so not engaged at all so midwife was unable to attempt a sweep.

Induction has been booked for when I will be 41+6. I'm a bit worried about how far over this is for a few reasons- Baby is measuring above 95th percentile and has consistently measured two weeks over on scans, it also seems very near the 42 week mark when I've been told is when things can start to become dangerous for baby, and very less importantly it will be very near to Christmas when I could potentially still be in hospital, which I was hoping to avoid.

I wanted to know, if the head isn't engaged at all at this point what chance is there that I am likely to go into labour naturally before induction? If it's highly unlikely I'd rather be induced sooner which midwife said we could possibly do. I should also say I'd really like to avoid being induced at all costs due to all of the associated cons but if it is almost inevitable then rather it was over and done with iyswim.

Any advice experiences would be really appreciated!

Anyone? So confused

I dont really know what to advise is this your first child? I was induced with my second child and it was fine there are not just horror stories with induction. Tbh i would be concerned if you are measuring 2 weeks over and they wont induce you now. Are you sure pf your lmp dates?

When i was induced with dd i was 40+1 and she was not far down enough which meant that a sweep wouldnt work as she just wasnt ready. This meant it was not a pleasant labour with the induction and it was extremely long (22 hours) with contractions every 10 mins or so lasting 20 seconds.

I ended up with a c section.

You dont have to have an induction but they will monitor you very closely after a week or so overdue.

I personally wouldnt have an induction again unless there was a danger to the baby.

Thanks for replies, yes first baby! I'd like to avoid induction of possibly just wasn't sure if it was inevitable given she hasn't engaged at all??!

They don't seem overly concerned about size for some reason and I am 100% with my dates.

All very stressful- so difficult to know what's best to do

My second was 41.6 overdue when i was induced. It came on very very quickly with just the pessary and start of contractions to end of birth was 24mins, so very intense contractions. I would go with what your midwife advises but have a good chat with her /him re c section possibilities etc. I would say try not to go over the 42 weeks as i pushed for induction knowing my dates but dd had lost a lot of weight as they hadnt picked up that my placenta had stopped working properly. Dd looked like a shrivelled up prune with skin you could ease away from her.
As for being your first, i would presume that they would try the induction first anyway over a section? There were first time mums in my ward that had been there days! Trying to get things going. So it may take a while with you or it may not.

DS1's head never engaged, but my waters obligingly broke on his due date. Labour never commenced, even with induction, as apparently head has to be in contact with cervix for this to happen, which his never was. I'd had the drip running at full speed for six hours and I was looking blankly at the midwife asking if it was supposed to be hurting yet. She confirmed that it certainly was, so I was either superwoman or he wasn't budging.

He wasn't budging, so it went to EMCS as my waters had been broken for well over 24 hours by then, and there was an infection risk. He was 9lb 4oz. The obstetrician said there was no way he was ever going to descend given his size and my apparently very small pelvic ring.

The induction was mostly a complete non-issue in the end. The only problem it created was a very floppy uterus from over 12 hours of pointless syntocinon pumped into me, which caused a post-partum haemorrhage because the placenta wouldn't come out easily.

I just went straight for an ELCS with DS2 (just as well - he was 9lb 6.5oz).

I'm afraid I can't reassure you much. I was in labour for 2 days when I was induced. It wasn't fun. I opted for an epidural and after that it was absolutely lovely. I would recommend it to anyone that has to be induced but obviously do your research. Everyone's different