41 weeks - head not engaged, any suggestions for getting him into position?

[LadySanders]

Desperately hoping for home vbac, have been totally positive all along but now overdue and feeling very discouraged as baby's head not engaged.

hospital have booked c-section for 18 feb if nothing happened by then, as will be 3 weeks over due by then (and know my dates are correct to the day).

baby is head down, anterior, spine to left, so can't understand why not engaged as in such perfect position(first baby didn't either, but had csection for placenta previa at 37 weeks so no 'track record')

am walking loads to let gravity help. taking herb "red" to open lower chakra. had acupuncture today and been having weekly reflexology but still baby's head remains high.

midwives say no point doing any induction stuff (stretch & sweep) until head engaged.

any thoughts on how to get him down there?

second babies often don;t engage until labour starts.... it might jsut take some good strong contractions to get baby down there once labour is underway..have MWs suggested any reason why head might not be engaged>?

walking up stairs sideways is good to open up the pelvis

My consultant told me head could engage very fast (maybe whilst in labour) as it's my 2nd baby, and this isn't unusual at all. Hope all goes well for you and that things happen before you get to 18th Feb.

Apart from my first none of my babies engaged until labour. I still had 'sweeps' once I'd gone overdue. They used the Bishops score assessment to see if I was favourable for sweep.

head engaged at varying times with first 3dc but #4 head didn't engage before or during labour. Mw examined me, was 10cm, head still high in pelvis, she turned away saying DS wouldn't arrive for hours yet, and without pushing #4 shot out of me. Mw said unusual but not unheard of.

Your baby will engage when it ready.

Sympathies!

I'm 40weeks - my duedate is today! And my LO also not even engaged yet - but this is my first so I'm a bit miffed!

I know its early days yet, but I'm interested in the bit where M/w says no point in doing anything like sweep etc. until engaged - can anyone in the know explain more?

Gabster

Ta

lulumama thank u for advice re stairs, oddly enough my mother phoned this morning to say she'd been told that going up stairs on hands and knees has similar effect... guess what i'll be doing for rest of day!

Gabster - when the head engages, this puts pressure on the cervix and makes the waters bulge also the riper your cervix is the more the waters bulge. Stretch and sweep will only work if you are ripe and ready to go, so to speak.

With my ds (my first) he never fully engaged, but I still went into spontaneous labour at 40+8.

Good luck xx

My sil was due almost 2 weeks after me with one of my babies. I went almost 2weeks over. Her baby's head engaged a few days before I (with non-engaged baby) delivered. She didn't go into labour for another week and half. So engagement isn't always a good indicator of imminent labour.

Great to hear Moveit - thanks for the info.

LadyS - hope you did not mind me hijacking your thread. At least you have stairs - I live in a bungalow! Mind you, there are three steps leading up to the front door. I could always ... yeh, what the hey, the neighbours already think I am mental .....