Expectant Monitoring

[Babieseverywhere]

Come and tell me what I need to know about expectant monitoring. In particular what they look for and how frequently they need to look at it

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Good News.
Baby has moved again now LOA and not engaged, rather than OP

Not as Good News
I am only 40 + 8 over by scan dates, midwife record has me down for 40 + 9 instead...go figure.

Just had an interesting conversation with a community midwife this morning. She said oh you are 40 + 9, we'll have to book your induction.

I said I didn't want to be induced now and I would like to wait and see if baby turns up on his/her own over the next few days and if nothing happens I would like to go for expectant monitoring from 42 weeks.

Midwife insists she needs to book me in for an inducement even if I choose to cancel it later. I agreed that is fine, I don't want the midwife in trouble, happy to cancel the inducement when I get home from the doctors.

She chats to the hospital who decided the only possible inducement date has to be tomorrow morning at 9am. Midwife falters and back tracks, saying that as she knows I wouldn't go in tomorrow, so there is no point booking me in. More muttering on the phone. Midwife smiles at me again and tells the hospital that she didn't think I would go in on Monday either.

She wants me to see the consultant but his next clinic is 42 weeks, which is fine with me but not for them.

So apparently I can't book another midwife appointment for next week with the community midwifes, as officially I am in inducement territory.

So I am awaiting a phone call from the community midwife as to what we do next. She thinks it will be a meeting with the consultant about inducement which is just a big waste of his time. I know the risks of inducement especially following an C section and unless there is a medical need will not agree to a social inducement based on dates only.

Personally I just want to wait 5 days and see if baby turns up and if not do the expectant monitoring.

Maybe labour will start soon, now the baby is no longer OP...

Oh BE what a crock of shite

Please don't use the 'failure' word. Give things a chance, eh. I find it amazing that they are happy to induce/section, with the associated risks, but not to actually check if it is medically necessary to do so yet. You deserve the information you need to make that choice for yourself, not to be told what is 'best' by someone who actually has NO MORE IDEA than you do.

Well, I got stuck on the CTG for half an hour which showed that baby is just fine and dandy and coping well with some irregular and painless but apparently quite strong contractions. But despite that the midwife said the consultant wanted to see me, to which we asked the obvious 'Why?'

Answer was that 'Its routine with post-maturity'.

Yes, maybe, but Why? What can the consultant do for me? The baby is fine, I am fine. I do not want someone else to tell me how terribly dangerous it is to go past 42 weeks. I have been told. I am happy to take that risk as things stand because so long as my baby is doing well inside me I feel it is safer to wait than take the risks associated with induction.

Oh Ok, they said, if you don't want to we can't make you. Come back tomorrow then.

The SOM I was in contact with is on holiday ATM. I did speak to a lady from the LSA (also an independent midwife in her own right) She advocated relaxing over the weekend, seeing what the Monday brings and make a decision based on that.

TBH the consultant wasn't too negative in manner and the negative facts were to be expected. I think what upset me so much, was the way he keep repeating all the warnings, when all I wanted was for him to write his warnings in my notes, so I could get out of there.

My DH said he could see the consultant was worried that I wasn't taking in all his warnings. But I was too busy trying to hold myself together (I find hospitals terrifying) and TBH I understand that no consultant will ever approve of my choices with my history. I agreed with everything he said, the only thing I objected to was when he asked me to agree to a c-section today/tomorrow.

I am very worried, about how much he has worried DH. Consultant labelled going beyond 42 weeks as 'danger territory' and highlighted the increased still birth rate and how monitoring doesn't stop deaths. I explained to DH afterwards that the still birth rate increases from 1 in 1000 to 2 in 1000 for week 42, just like week 38.

I have been talking to my DH about this, we agree that we are both happy to wait until 42 weeks and see what happens at the Monday monitoring session.

However DH is reluctant to say what he think we should do at this point, from which I am guessing he wants me to agree I have failed and give up on all hope of ever birthing a baby and suffer another c-section.

Where as I want to do the expectant monitoring for a while and see what happens.

Obviously, we are both really hoping baby will engage and turn up naturally over the weekend. But otherwise I am going to be very stumped as to what to do next week. I can't go the expectant management route without DH's full support, it is our baby and this has to be a joint decision. He is a very supportive DH and will help me cope but I really fear I will suffer mentally if I give up, whilst there is still a chance things might work out.

Sigh...

I am also revisting the idea of a sweep on Monday. I didn't want to trigger a crappy stop/start labour and was worried about increasing chance of infection in the baby but maybe weighed up against the risks of a c-section it might be worth the risk ?

They won't do ARC or any other inducement because of past c-section.

I am sure you have read this

I really have my fingers crossed for you.

I read this yesterday, and thought it might be useful to those who are banging heads with a consultant/hospital policy birthchoices.co.uk/birth-bullies/

Few bracken hicks over night (I dream about contractions), no signs of a baby :(

Stick to your original plan of expectant monitoring. Babies can come later than 42 weeks. Remember everything you have read. Make an arrangement to go out for a meal, get your hair done, have lunch out with friends. Bit of reverse psychology. You might find you have to cancel because you are in labour

Yes, we are keeping busy.

Walking around shops yesterday, went swimming today. Tomorrow is DS birthday, so we'll have a family tea and cake. DSis is visiting Thursday.

So we are keeping ourselves busy and plenty of appointments to cancel

Update on the monitoring tomorrow, still unsure if a sweep would help at this stage or not ?

At 42 weeks it is worth a try. Be prepared for cramping though.I just don't agree with them earlier than 41 + 10

oopa meant 40 + 10 weeks

Got there at 8am and was still there 4 hours later

Had scan and CTG trace and both were fine. Different consultant repeated stuff Friday's one did. He repeated that we are welcome to a c-section any time.

Had a sweep and have had bad cramping regularally since, so really hoping this will develop into a proper labour. That said we had a stop start three day of irregular pain after a sweep with our DC1, but fingers crossed this will work.

Not sure what we are going to do otherwise...

Have paraectamol and a warm bath for the cramping.

Then wait for labour until the point you feel that you don't want to wait any more.

If you can manage it try having sex tonight- natural prostin on top of the sweep may help.

Will do :)

Bugger, everything stopped overnight.

I had my normal nightmares about hospitals and contractions and c-sections (common theme in the last few weeks) and woke up with no twinges :(

What do I do now ? Sigh

you can carry on waiting and have expectant management

you can request another sweep

you can ask for a section

you can wait and do nothing at all and not set foot back into the hospital

you and your DH need to make informed decisions about what to do/not to do and take it from there.

it is a hard waiting game though

I am struggling with waiting, I worry when baby goes quite. Though I am luck that we have a doppler, so can check the heart beat when we like.

I have asked about another sweep and as I am overdue I must have it done again by a hospital consultant. The next 'slot' is on Thursday assuming I agree to another scan and CTG. If we are still waiting I suppose that is worth another try.

The majority of the HCP are so negative about the baby's size and position telling me we'll fail even if labour starts on it's own. A couple HCP are more neutral, saying baby might move during labour and things might work out.

I am just getting so worried about waiting too long and risking the baby. I started to panic and told DH he must book me a section for tomorrow. That baby was never going to come and I will end up with a section anyway (very likely) so why not get it over with.
Then changed my mind 5 minutes later.

I am not sleeping well, nightmares about what will happen.

Sigh, I just need a big bowl of hindsight so I know what to do for the best.

Come on baby we want to meet you :)

Had a couple of hours of cramps wonder if they'll fade away at 11pm like last night or not :)

Ooo. I hope not!

I so wish that the HCPs you see were more supportive. Don't you have an IM?
Why not wait till Thursday before making any big decisions. Babies have been known to wait 43 weeks before making an appearance. Any money something happens happens before then

No IM here, though I have been chatting with a lovely LSA midwife (who is an IM) who has been very supportive on the phone.

Yep, we are hoping to hold out until Thursday which would be 42 + 3. 43 weeks would be Monday 16th, surely baby will be here by then.

Tonight we are having 30 to 40 seconds of cramps every 10 to 15 minutes, so closer together than last night. :)

Can't remember how close/long they have to be for proper labour. Sure I am not there yet, but hopefully this is having some affect on my cervix. :)

Well, small show last night, large show this morning.

Cramps 7 minutes apart for an hour, then I lost some (?) water. Yellowish no funny colour, thank goodness.

However no contractions since waters went, so sat on a bath towel with a cup of tea and a smile :)

What next ?!?

You just wait. One of the links posted on your threads earlier described the leaking of fluid just before labour starts - it isn't necessarily your waters. Just keep and eye on it. It was all about the prelabour phase. Will see if I can find it.

warm up labour

Yay! I'm so pleased - things sound like they're finally moving! I'm just cross that I'm going on holiday tonight so probably won't get to hear the end of this until I get back

Good luck with it all!

I hope it is not real waters. Thanks for the link, I reread that link on pre-labour. I have warned my mother that it might be a few days yet before baby makes a serious move.

TBH I am just so grateful that we are finally getting signs of labour being on it's way. Happy to have evenings of cramps on Monday and Tuesday and still got to sleep overnight.

Lets just see how things go, off to nag encourage children and DH to clean house :)