Right, I went overdue with my first child. Two weeks by my count, one week by midwives (who weren't interested in listening to my math). So I asked to be induced because I was scred of the placenta deteriorating. Well, long story made short, I ended up in emargency caesarean (and we are talking emergency like a scene from ER where cable are yanked from monitors and by the time DH was dressed in his gear for Theatre he was told to leave because they were knocking me out for the sake of time). Anyway... al of this happened (I found out later) because the baby was wrapped up in the cord (twice around her neck, around her torso and around her foot) so when the induced contractions pusher her down the cord tightened and literally strangled her until her her heart rate dropped and that's when we headed for caesarean.
In the end baby is fine and all is well so don't mean to scare you.
But, was this experience really necessary? Did I need to go through a day and a half of being induced for a delivery that was never going to happen? And did the baby really benefit from being strangled into a state of fetal distress?
I have since learned that if a baby never engages it may be a sign of being wrapped up in the cord. It might also not be a sign of this.
I an telling you this story because if I were you I would ask for a scan, ask to see where the cord is. If it is wrapped around the baby so much that is can't be delivered vaginally, then it wouldbe better not to be induced (if that is what they and you have planned).
I hope you don't mind me telling you this story. I only mention it because I wish someone would have mentioned it to me. After DD was born, I asked the midwives if could have been forseen. They told me that you can't see the cord on the scan. When I was pregnant with DS (2 years later) I had a scan at 36 weeks and asked to see the cord. She showed it to me plain as day all the way from his belly to the placenta. If they had scanned before they induced me, I would still have had a section, but it would have been planned and peacful. Not an ER scene at 3:00 in the morning some 30 hours after checking in for induction.
I really hope I haven't horrified you. Please please ask them for a scan if you don't go into labour.
I never wen into labour because she was literally being suspended up inside me so her head never rested on the cervix. The weight of the baby on the cervix help to set off labour. So I guess in a way this was natures way of protecting the baby... by keeping from going into a labour that would have killed her.
I tend to be rather pro caesarean as a result of this experience. But, I am really opposed to induction.