CALLING 'BLACK PEOPLE'....PLEASE HELP! TO ENGAGE OR NOT TO ENGAGE.

[norash40]

Hello everyone,

I am almost a week overdue and the baby is not even trying to engage.

I saw the consultant yesterday who said that it was very common in black people not to engage until labour is established.

Please let me know if this has been the case for you or anyone you know.

Is it truth or myth?

hmm... Can;t help you with the being 'black' but my dd1 head didnt engage at all. surely down to pelvis size of woman?

not black but I don't think DS engaged till the day before I went into labour even though he was a first baby.

I am a black woman, babys head has been down for months and gradually dropping until engaged. Its now been engaged for about 2 and a half weeks and I am 8 days overdue.

But I have never heard of this suggestion before, I'd have to say that it depends on the size of the pelvis and as we are all diffrently shaped I dont see how that can be true, if anything I would have thought it was the other way around, science progs and and all that seem to suggest that black women have fuller hips or bigger something around the pelvic area so I'd have thought it would have been easier for us!!

Tam x

DS1 engaged but the others didn't. I thought that that was just commonplace in all peoples. Maybe it's true, but it shouldn't affect anything. Hope all goes well and that the baby comes really soon.

don't "they" say that black women have more oval shaped pelvises which gives, how can I put this, an eyecatching tilt to the posterior

That's all I've ever heard in tems of racial classifications and birth

loving the eye-catching description.

If I recall correctly what the doctor said to my lovely wife, then it was not so much about the 'oval shape' of the pelvis. However he said, that the anatomy of black women was different in terms of the space between the spine and the pelvis bone being smaller than in white women. His opinion was that only labour/contractions would push the baby's head down.

This article talks about when your baby's head may engage and some reasons why it might not.

The only thing I have ever heard about race and labour was a study I took part in when I was pregnant. It was recruiting people to have their babies monitored in late pregnancy and labour to see if there was a difference in the baby's response/heartbeat during labour between afro-caribbean and caucasian women. IIRC the hypothesis was that a-c babies showed less reaction during labour and consequently there was more chance of intervention. If it could be proved that was the norm, then interventions could be reduced. Never saw or heard of the results though.

hello sweetie, don't worry! not black but i was 10days overdue and not engaged, went into labour on the 13th (ooh er!) and it all went fine, my ds was breach until near the end as well until he flipped so just trust in nature. Good luck with it all x.

Thanks for all your replies.

I have been looking for research on this but not found much.

Could anyone who has any post them.

Thank you in advanced.