What happens when I get to 40 weeks? FTM questions

[theresaplaceforus]

I’m 35 weeks and a FTM ... I’m quite anxious about things and the birth.
I’m wondering if someone could explain what happens if I get to my due date and haven’t gone into labour? What happens with appointments and when would induction be suggested/best to happen etc? What about sweeps when do they happen? What exactly is a sweep? Sorry I really am clueless

So a lot of your questions are area dependent and you’re better off asking your midwife for an exact answer.

A sweep (or stretch and sweep) is when the midwife runs her finger around your cervix to irritate it and try and send you in to labour. It’s like a very thorough smear test.

There are two options: keep monitoring you and the baby, usually this is a few times a week to make sure baby is not too big and still happy.
Option 2: induce labour, there are different ways of doing it, you can research pros and cons or ask your midwife.

This is a great time to do some more research about it so you’re prepared if 40 weeks arrived and baby is still comfy inside :)

Lots and lots of babies are born after 40 weeks - my own DC1 was at 41+1

I declined a sweep because my Mum, who had 3 babies, was 1 or 2 weeks late with all of them. Apparently there is strong evidence that Daughters will have similar gestation lengths to their Mums!

In my wonderful hypnobirthing course, I learned that if you have a low risk pregnancy then there is no reason to hurry baby out of the door at 40 weeks. I was prepared to turn down any intervention (such as a sweep) until 42 weeks, and possibly a few days longer, if me and the baby were well.

Some babies need longer to cook so we should consider letting them happily grow a bit more in the lovely safety of your tummy!

Of course some babies need to come sooner if there is a medical concern, but if not I really encourage folks just to be patient and give baby the choice to come when they’re ready x