How long would you be willing to go overdue? **Content warning - title edited by MNHQ**

[rachiro]

41+5 and since baby is doing well I'll be waiting for another few days at least. My baby just doesn't seem ready yet. I wonder why some babies just don't come on their own/why some of our bodies do this 🙄

"If your body isn’t ready or baby isn’t cooperative then it won’t be a positive experience but I think the question then becomes at what point will your baby and body be ready? You can’t know that, so you have to take the risk of a potential negative induction or the increased risk in stillbirth."

...or opt for an ELCS.

@InTheNightWeWillWish

Personally I wasn’t prepared to go to 39 weeks. I had an induction booked at 39 weeks due to GD and hospital policy (which I could have fought but didn’t want to). I had reduced movements and happily accepted an induction at 38+1 because my anxiety was building and I wanted baby here. My induction was positive, pessary worked and baby was born vaginally at 38+2.

The thing with inductions is if your body is ready and baby is cooperative, they’re a positive experience. If your body isn’t ready or baby isn’t cooperative then it won’t be a positive experience but I think the question then becomes at what point will your baby and body be ready? You can’t know that, so you have to take the risk of a potential negative induction or the increased risk in stillbirth. My personal view is that at 41 weeks induction will either work quickly or you’ll have needed assistance anyway because of baby’s position/size.

100% right there. There is such a difference between labours where baby is ready and baby really isn't!!

By contrast to my experience with DD1, DD2 arrived naturally on her due date. 3.5 hours in hospital and 3 minutes of actual labour.

I am someone who believes that other people can do whatever they want with their pregnancies (when it comes to pro choice debate i would lean on the side of abortion up to delivery if it was allowed).

For me personally i got the consultant to agree to an induction at 40 weeks if i got that far, i have factor V leiden so placental failiure/risk of clots is higher for me than an average person. If i were non FVL maybe 41 weeks?

Fwiw i had the pressary, ARM and syntocin drip and it was fine, relatively long but i would do that again over a c section which im a bit scared of! Im very cautious naturally and wouldnt want to be the one it goes wrong for, esp as i have lots of "unusual" health issues

Fwiw one of my DC was induced as something odd came up which might have been the placenta failing, i chose induction but believe in other women's choice to not have it if they didnt want it

Fwiw the DC i had induced was not probably "ready" but the delivery itself was fine. The one thing that stayed with me was DH'S "helpful" advice.... much prefered the delivery without him!

I'm very much done with 1 child, but hypothetically speaking, I wouldn't go overdue at all.

I had an ELCS a day after my due date and my placenta was disintegrating and DS was born with skin so dry, it was cracked and bloody in places. So I wouldn't wait at all.

@BigotSpigot

Privately a friend who is a consultant obstetrician told me not to go over 40 weeks at all as it was just heartbreaking delivering stillborn babies who would have survived if they had been born at term.

That's my experience too. I know of two friends who had still births at 42 weeks. Truly not worth the risk.

OP you may find this study of interest: www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6131

They divided women with low risk pregnancies into two groups (induction at 41 weeks and expectant management with induction at 42 weeks).

The study had to be stopped early because unfortunately six babies in the expectant management (42 week) group died.

"Perinatal mortality was... significantly lower in the induction group (no deaths) than expectant management group (five intrauterine deaths, one neonatal death; P=0.03). Furthermore, the induction group had lower admittance to a neonatal intensive care unit, fewer infants with neonatal jaundice requiring therapy, and fewer macrosomic infants."

"The study was stopped early owing to a significantly higher rate of perinatal mortality in the expectant management group."

Is there any evidence behind the aging placenta theory? I thought it was a (widely believed) myth.

Placentas can fail at any point in pregnancy for various reasons... is there evidence to show that they fail solely due to prolonged gestation?

@NameChange30

"If your body isn’t ready or baby isn’t cooperative then it won’t be a positive experience but I think the question then becomes at what point will your baby and body be ready? You can’t know that, so you have to take the risk of a potential negative induction or the increased risk in stillbirth."

...or opt for an ELCS.

But given the chance of a positive induction or ELCS, I’d choose the induction over major surgery. I had a positive induction with vaginal birth. An ELCS would have been a much worse recovery for me. Mums in our NCT group who had a c-section weren’t able to lift the car seat. I was able to do that 1 day after birth when we went home. I was able to take DD out by myself, lift the pram in the car, drive, get some fresh air. Other mums in my NCT class were stuck inside or walking around their local area once their partners went back to work. I had a point in my induction where I was prepared to ask for a c-section if it looked like it wasn’t working. You don’t have to do the full induction process before requesting a c-section.

@BitcherOfBlakiven

Yeah, it’s not like the baby can die, cause sepsis in the mother almost killing her, and it definitely won’t come out already well into decomposition.

Nope. Never seen that in my job —multiple times—

Does that really happen??????

You chose induction over ELCS. Some women might chose ELCS rather than even attempting induction.

My point was simply that ELCS should be included in the options, as you'd mentioned induction or waiting (with associated risks), but not mentioned ELCS.

I went to 40+4, baby born via EMCS at 40+6. Placenta had calcifications and had started to degrade. If I’d gone to 42+, who knows if I’d have a healthy baby.

I was 41+3 and it was horrific.

I was 41+5 and very comfortable in my pregnancy, no issues at all, but I am so, so glad I agreed to the suggested ELCS because DD was 10lb 13oz, completely stuck in my pelvis and would almost certainly have died before I went into natural labour. She was so huge she hadn't even dropped - she would never had made contact with my cervix.

They advised against induction because she was so big (no GD, just a big baby - she's still on the 98th centile for height although only the 50th for weight now) and I found the C-section recovery really easy, no issues at all.

@NameChange30

I've found some data. Risk of stillbirth (perinatal death to be precise) when inducing at 41 weeks is 4 in 10,000, compared to 35 in 10,000 at 42 weeks. So it goes from 0.0004% to 0.0035%. Obviously even 4 is too many and no one wants to be the mother of those 4. But the numbers were are talking about, statistically speaking, are tiny.

35 in 10,000 is 0.35%, or a 1 in 286 chance of stillbirth.

I don't think the placenta just suddenly deteriorates as soon as you're 42 weeks, right?

No, it’s probably started deteriorating way before that and it’s only from 42 weeks that it starts to be more obvious

I was induced with dc1 at 42 weeks and with dc2 went into labour naturally at 42 weeks the morning I was booked for induction.

I had sweeps with both and wouldn't have wanted to go any longer especially as my mum had a stillbirth at 42+1 and was understandably terrified for me the closer I got to that same stage.

41 weeks. That's considered the length of a normal pregnancy in most European countries.

Wouldn't want to go very much over that at all though.

The thing is that due dates aren’t necessarily accurate. They can be affected by the gestation at first scan, sensitivity of equipment, experience of sonographer etc. Plus another factor is that there is some evidence that women of different ethnicities have different lengths of pregnancy, on average, with black/Asian women more likely to give birth earlier than white women.

Personally, the ovulation that became my first pregnancy was triggered with a trigger shot after a follicle scan, so I could be sure that I hadn’t conceived before the day of that trigger, as I’d seen my ovaries and the eggs very much not released. Yet according to my “due date” I’d actually conceived a week before that, which was simply not possible.

In those circumstances I was happy to go to 40+12 (actually 40+5 or less on my own dates) and had a very fast induction. With my second pregnancy I would probably have wanted an induction before 41 weeks as expected the baby to be big. As it was my waters went at 39+5 so didn’t have to worry!

35 in 10,000 is 0.35%, or a 1 in 286 chance of stillbirth.

Indeed, and it's worth highlighting the word stillbirth.

That statistic doesn't include the women who nearly died, or the babies who suffered life changing birth injuries.

I'm honestly shocked at how sanguine some posters are about the risks of over going over term.

The placenta has a shelf life and it's already deteriorating towards the end of a normal gestation because it's theoretically done it's job.

What's especially sad is that it's perfectly possible to feel fine and not understand that deterioration because in the U.K. it's not routinely screened for.

Personally I would not go over 40 weeks, though that decision was never enacted in my case as I went into labour at 37 weeks (but 38 by my calculation).

All the best to you OP and I wish you well, but I hope you take on board the information you've been given here about the risks.

I got to 40 weeks + 12 days overdue and was booked in for an induction with my daughter. I was induced about the same time with my 1st and had a horrible experience. I really didn't want a repeat. Thankfully she started things moving the night before I was due for induction. I got the water birth I wanted and everything happened naturally. I couldn't imagine going anything over that! I was uncomfortable. Hadn't slept in weeks. Horrible SPD.

40 weeks. I had my first baby at 41+6 after a failed induction, fetal distress and an emcs. 2nd baby arrived 2 days before due date and with this baby (I'm 31+5), I won't be going over my due date because of my age, the fact I've had a previous section and I have gestational diabetes.

I went to 42+2 and I wouldn't do it again. I'd maybe limp on to 41 weeks.

And another who wouldn't bother with induction. I had a midwife tell me that very overdue babies (especially big ones) often haven't engaged, and run out of space to do so, so induction can often fail. I'd also be asking for straight to c section.

daschundsanddancer
"35 in 10,000 is 0.35%, or a 1 in 286 chance of stillbirth."
You're right, I'm sorry, my maths was out
So it goes from 0.04% at 41 weeks to 0.35% at 42 weeks.

If it was me personally I'd understand the rationale for inducing as I approached 42 weeks but certainly not before 41 weeks.

To be clear, though (if it wasn't clear enough before!) that's just my approach and I obviously respect that other women choose differently.

I don't like the pile on (which often happens on mumsnet) against women questioning the necessity or timing of induction. Same as the pile on against women considering home birth.