first baby disengaged at 39 weeks...

[Ilovemyboy]

Midwife told me at 37 weeks that my baby was engaged.

Doctor told me last week that he wasn't engaged and when I was in bed last night, I could feel my baby hiccuping down by my right hip so even though he is head down, he is nowhere near engaged.

Anyone else had this with their first baby? What were your experiences?

at 37 weeks...how engaged was your baby....they can pop in and out for a bit!! if he has partially engaged once..should go back again....?

I don't know how engaged he was. The notes just say 'eng'.

I have days where I feel a lot of pressure down there so think he may have engaged himself again but then he just pops right out again.

Do you think my baby not engaging may prevent me from having my homebirth?

ok...sometimes it is written as

2/5 or 3/5 etc...which is partially engaged .....

hard to say.......! can you call the midwife and find out as not sure about the rules re homebirth.. i imagine it wouldn;t be an issue...as he has been engaged so he will fit in the pelvis.....

or she can palpate you and feel if he has popped back in!

It just says 'eng' which the doc was surprised about when I saw him last week.

I am seeing him again today so will see what he thinks.

Will give the midwife a ring too.

Thanks for replying lulumama.

let us know how you get on........! xx

Just got back from docs.

My baby's head isn't engaged but is sitting just above the pelvic brim. The doc said he can just get his fingers over the top of his head.

He is lay anterior which is good. Let's just hope he stays that way.

that sounds good...i take it no problems re the home birth....

The doc said that he doesn't think that there will be a problem.

If you think about it, a lot of second and subsequent babies never engage until labour and midwives are happy to do homebirths for them so I don't think there will be a problem.

I will see what the midwife says when I see her on my due date.

Hello

If it is any help, my baby is now 2/5ths engaged (so the midwife could only feel 2/5ths of the head, the rest was engaged) but when he has hiccups I only feel them on my hip now, I am not saying this is the case, but from what I have read, doctors aren't great at feeling where the baby is, so he may be completely wrong anyway.

When do you next see the midwife?

And you are right, babies don't have to engage before labour, and many second timers don't.

I think the only thing I can think of that the midwife said to me when we were talking about the homebirth is if your waters go before the baby is engaged, you could have a cord pro-lapse, where the cord comes down in front of the head and then gets squashed by the head cutting off the blood and oxygen supply to the baby. So I think that is the only thing they would be watching for with a home birth.

It isn't much longer for either of us now, I know that doesn't help much, but every day is a day closer and all of that...!