todays check up with midwife.

[helsi]

hello all,

at my appt with midwife today she said that I am measuring 32 weeks not 29 which is what I am by dates. the baby's head is also down. Does this mean anything or is it just a slightly bigger baby who was in head down position when I saw the midwife?

i always measured bigger... i did have a biggish baby (9lb 1oz) but TONS of water too.

and a couple of times they couldn't decide if what they were feeling was bum or head! lol

my ds' head was engaged from 26 weeks and he measured 3 weeks ahead too, he was 8 Ib 10 born but is in 6-9 month clothes now at 12 weeks old!

I was always told that dd1 was big but she was only 8lb 8oz but is tiny and petite now. I did have a lot of fluid with dd1 so maybe thats it.

Sounds like it could be. DS was 9 lb 10 and when I was expecting DD I was measuring big for dates and the midwife was saying it could be a 10 lb plus baby. It ended up being 8 lb 12 oz DD (who is now quite petite) and loads of fluid. Also don't think position is particularly relevent just yet.

DD measured 2 weeks ahead all the way through, she was a week early but only 6lb 11oz.

I don't mean to hijack the original post but could do with do with some advice.
Had my 28 week midwife check today and feel really upset and dissatisfied.
Have always wanted a home birth if pos and at 11 week Nuchal they found a fibroid, originally this wasn't going to cause a problem but now I have been referred to a consultant. I don't want to take any chances obviously but feel I have been a bit misled.
Also she never seems to 'measure' like my two friends midwives do. I was on the couch all of 2 mins, she just poked my stomach at both sides and then top and bottom and said fine.
Have been getting lots of pubic/pelvic pain and told her, she gave me a (wrong) number of the local physio people and said ring them and see what they say. I didn't ever get my mat exemption form for prescriptions inspite of sending two forms and today she said she can't give me another one and I will have to try and find a number and sort it out.
I already feel completely miserable and out of control, have had several bleeds and ? ruptured membranes and don't feel very supported.
Don't even know what I want anyone to say really, just feeling miserable.

can you ask to be asigned to another midwife?

That's what DP said but if I do get my home birth I don't want to rock the boat as our midwives work in teams so I may end up with this one anyway and then there would be a horrid atmosphere!

helsi this happened to me and my mw sent me for scan - too much fluid and was diagnosed with polyhydromnosis - apparantly you stop growing at about 36/7cm and I was up at 43cm it was so uncomfortable and I ended up in hospital for about 4 days (the rest was great). I also had an 8lb 10oz boy in there!!

With ds1 and ds2 I measured pretty much the right size for my dates. Ds1 weighed 9lbs 8oz and ds2 was 9lbs (2 weeks early). This time around I am measuring 4 - 5cm bigger than I should be. A growth scan has shown that the fluid levels are fine and that the baby is generally within the normal limits.

Ds1 and ds2 were head-down pretty much all the way through. This baby has been in every position except head-down.

helsi, if I have the right person, have you still got that "something's not right" feeling or are you OK now?

i am not as bad Miaou now as midwife out my mind at rest - thanks for asking though.

Helsi - according to my midwife I am having a very large baby (first baby, girl), she keeps saying this. However, my GP kept telling me not to worry because fundal height measurements (i.e. with tapemeasure) are quite inaccurate and depend on the person doing it, in some countries they don't bother full stop with this. On medical websites it says that it can be out by 2 weeks either side, but according to my GP it is pretty meaningless. I have recently had a scan and according to the scan the baby is on the small side!!! Definitely not very large and at best average! Clearly, if the head is down is a good thing but again the only way to be absolutely clear is through a scan much later on (because baby could still do somersaults at this stage, so little point doing it now). Again my midwives keep telling me my baby is LOA. According to my GP she is ROA and according to recent scan she is ROA (btw I am now 40 wks), so today midwife was looking for heartbeat on left hand side and couldn't find it, I really started panicking because she moves a lot less now (less space, but still bit disconcerting so I was looking forward to hear heartbeat), was looking for 20 minutes and said that maybe I should stay for foetal heart rate monitoring (i.e. belts strapped across your bump) so I asked again and again if she could check right hand side, she finally agreed and had heart beat straight away and all was fine. So my experience is that some of the midwives can easily freak you out and just don't seem to know what they are doing, see if you can have other opinion, either from other midwife or GP if you have a good one or if you are reallly worried ask for a scan but maybe a bit later on, i.e. 37 weeks or so? Good luck

Fenny1 - I was all set for a homebirth and only found out after having sought a second opinion wrt fibroid that I am at much higher risk of post partum haemorrhage and hence it would be very unwise, could be dead by the time I have been transferred to hospital! Hospital initially was happy with me having a homebirth nonetheless (because hadn't shown on 12 and 20 week scan but I remembered having fibroid from scan several years ago), it is only since the second opinion (private consultant) send a letter to the hospital and me finally having been able to speak to the senior consultant in charge of the labour ward that they have agreed that in my case it would indeed be very unwise to proceed with a homebirth (I had already hired the pool, I only found the seriousness of pph risk out at 37 wks! External consultant saw fibroid straight away). Now I'll be giving birth at birthing centre with canula inserted for second stage so that straight after the birth I'll be given intravenous oxytocin for medical third stage (I had hoped to have natural third stage) and in case of pph given that I would already have the canula (thing for the drip) they could give me a drip with more Oxytocin straight away, given that if you have pph it is difficult to find a vein to insert drip hence better to have canula put in in advance (which will be covered so that I can still have water birth), all not very nice, but better safe than sorry the last thing I want is panic right after the birth. At least on the bright side for you, you'll have more time to adjust to the news and think of alternative options. Clearly, lots of women have fibroids and in most cases it might not cause a problem, but how would you feel if right after birth you face emergency transfer to hospital??? I decided I really don't want to face the risk, but clearly everybody has to make their own decision, anyway, make sure you get all information you need maybe get second opinion so you can make informed decision! Good luck.