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 🙄

Longest I went was 41+4 with my first. There is no way I would consent to an induction after the awful one I had with my youngest and I'm nearly 40 now anyway but in the very unlikely event that I get pregnant again I would be asking for an elcs between 40+0 and 40+5.

OP, why are you against having an induction? Don’t feel you have to answer any of these questions here, but do have a think about them. Are you worried about the cascade of interventions and possible instrumental delivery? In that case would you consider refusing induction and asking for a C-Section?
Are you worried about the drip and the fact many women believe it caused them to have more painful contractions than spontaneous labour would have done? In that case maybe you’d like to try the other induction methods (pessary/cervical gel. Balloon, ARM) but go to a C-section if labour doesn’t start after that. Or ask for an epidural before the drip is placed?
If this is just about preferring a spontaneous labour, how likely do your midwives/doctors think it is that you will go into spontaneous labour now? What have they said about your cervix? Where is babies head atm? Sometimes if the head is too big to descend into the pelvis then the cervix doesn’t dilate because there’s no pressure pushing on it. And if the head is too big to get through the pelvis, it needs to be a C-section. Remember your baby is still growing, so every day you’re still pregnant and the head is not engaged makes this scenario more likely.
Remember the doctors and midwives are not enemies seeking to push you into a kind of birth you don’t want. They also love it when women go into spontaneous labour between 39 and 42 weeks and no episiotomy, forceps, ventouse, or EMCS is required. They might feel like they are against you at the moment, but the truth is they are just evaluating the risks differently. You might feel that the risks of a bad outcome are still very small, and it probably won’t happen to you. And you’re not wrong. The doctors and midwives see overdue pregnancies every day, and so they do see the few bad outcomes as well as the all the many many good outcomes. They deliver thousands of babies so those 1 in a thousand or 2 in a thousand bad outcomes do happen for them. It’s not a possible risk from their point of view but a real thing they have to deal with sometimes. They give all the women in your situation the same or very similar (tailored to include individual factors) advice. They do this because that advice will save real babies that they will deliver.

Monitor her movements extremely closely over the weekend.

@elisremi

Monitor her movements extremely closely over the weekend.

I'm going in today instead.

Phew. Good luck OP, hope it goes well!

Best of luck rachiro. FWIW I think you're making a sensible decision to go in today rather than waiting until Monday. Will you ask about your Bishop's score?

Oh and I forgot to add - if a pessary is enough to tip you into labour, you can probably ask to go to the MLU or use the pool if that’s your preference. Hope to hear good news soon!

My maternity hospital insisted on the delivery unit from 42 weeks onwards, MLU is no longer an option at that point.

(There is a pool room on the delivery unit though so it's worth asking if that's a possibility even if MLU isn't.)

Been thinking of you OP. Hope no news is good news!

I was 42+2 with DD1, went in for induction at 42+1 and she was born the following day by EMCS. Looking back, I feel really lucky nothing went wrong, but I was really terrified of induction. I wouldn’t wait that long if I were doing it again and would be requesting an ELCS much earlier.

DD2 was an EMCS at 35+6, and I don’t recommend that either!

@rachiro how are you? Hope baby arrived safely