My due date is tomorrow (first baby). My consultant has always told me that he doesn't like his patients to go more than 4-5 days past their due dates, which sounds good to me. When I saw my consultant on Monday, he offered me a sweep but it wasn't possible because I wasn't dilated at all, although my cervix is soft and partially effaced. He also did an ultrasoundmainly because my baby constantly changes position, even went from breech to cephalic in week 38and the placenta already showed signs of calcification, which means that it's "ripe" and I'm not a candidate for waiting too long. So he planned an induction for this Friday evening.
(I'm seeing a consultant privately -- not because of any complications.)
I'm happy to be induced--I was born 3 weeks late and my placenta was very calcified and had not been doing its job at the end, so I don't want that to happen.
What makes this seem odd to me, in reading up on this after the appointment, is that the head is not engaged. I understand from my pregnancy book that inductions aren't done when the head isn't engaged because there's a danger of the cord slipping down before the head plugs up the cervix, as with a breech baby. I know that the first thing they'll do is check the position because it has changed so many times, but even if it's cephalic it seems there's a risk in doing the induction.
Obviously I'm going to ask the midwives/consultant before the induction but has anyone had this experience, or heard of doing an induction when the head isn't engaged? Maybe the underlying assumption is that it will have engaged by Friday? Or maybe I'm underestimating the seriousness of the calcification of the placenta -- that the baby really needs to come out sooner rather than later.