Does anyone know if cervical ripening matters to ELCS?

[TheRipening]

Due to various issues I have an ELCS booked for 39+1 which is 3 days away. My OBGYN says my cervix is still not ripening at all, but that it's not a problem. But it made me think that maybe I should wait a bit longer? Postpone the ELCS for a few days or a week? If my cervix is not ripening, then baby may not be fully ready and he may not be fully developed (I read too much about respiratory problems)?

I'm aware that I'm not a medical professional though, and that I worry a lot and read studies online that make me second guess everything!

Does anyone think it has any relevance? Or do you think people get C-sections with unripened cervixes all the time? I don't know why my doctor told me mine is totally unripened tbh!

I've never heard the phrase 'cervical ripening' in my life and I've had two babies!

FWIW both of mine were born before 39+1 and were fully developed. 40 weeks is an average and full-term is anything from 37 weeks, so I wouldn't worry too much about the baby not being ready. Good luck!

I have no personal experience of this, but I can only think that he wanted to make sure you aren’t going to go into spontaneous labour before the planned section? In which case it’s presumably a good thing that it isn’t ripening, as I assume there are medical reasons why you aren’t going to deliver vaginally.

And as PP said, 37 weeks is full term so you don’t need to have any concerns about baby’s development at almost 40 weeks.

I doubt it matters a toss. Babies are induced at 37 weeks with "unripened" cervixes all the time and they generally do fine. The process of CS doesn't have the beneficial effects of labour in terms of stimulating the lungs which is why it isn't normally done until 39 weeks unless strictly necessary, but once you're at 39 weeks a healthy baby is going to do fine, even if you wouldn't "naturally" have gone into labour at that gestation.

Ok, thanks everyone. I guess I'm just being overly anxious about the whole thing.