What does 1/5 engaged mean?

[highheavenn]

I'm so confused with what this means! Does it mean fully engaged or no where near?

It's about as engaged as you can get. Baby is very deep in your pelvis.

Sorry...baby's 'head' is very deep in your pelvis.

The score out of five is how much they can feel above your pelvis. So if they can feel 1/5, then 4/5 is in the pelvis.

Thank you for explaining! It does sound more like the other way around but you made sense of it 🤪

Hey OP midwife here. Frustratingly it depends on what the midwife uses.

1/5th engaged would mean just the tip of baby's head is engaged, so essentially nowhere near, and could also bob back out again.

If they meant 1/5th palpable, that means that they can only feel 1/5th of baby's head above the pelvis which is extremely well engaged and unlikely to pop back out of the pelvis again!!!

Hey! Thanks for the reply! I remember she said I was engaged but I don't know if she meant fully or just a bit!

I attatched a brief part of my notes, the bottom bit was my last check up if that helps! It's so confusing google says one thing and another x

Ah okay, so looking at the previous two entries where the engagement is written as 'free' that basically means baby wasn't engaged. The most recent entry says 1/5 so I would imagine they mean 1 5th engaged, so a little bit engaged. I'd be surprised if you went from being nowhere near to fully engaged!

🤦‍♀️ do you understand fractions?

People keep telling me first time mums are usually engaged for weeks before birth and second third etc mums can be engaged in birth or baby can be in and out of pelvis!

Confusing as I'm a third time mum 🤪 all I know is I was 1cm and my cervix was 3cm long. No sign of labour and no symptoms either yet I'm 2 days passed my due date! Very strange ha x

Yes of course....do you understand context?

As I explained in my follow up comment, which was taken directly from the NCT website.

A midwife has since posted on the thread that it depends on the context in which the midwife uses it. So 1/5 could be that they can feel 1/5 of baby's head free, or could mean the 1/5 of baby's head is in the pelvis.

No need to be rude....

@highheavenn I stand corrected! Apologies, but taken directly from the NCT site - I see how it could go both ways depending on how the midwife describes it

It's very confusing! To me 1/5 sounds very not engaged but according to uk websites it means fully engaged so the best thing is to ask my midwife on Wednesday when I see her! I'll comment a update as to what she meant by that! All these medical terms are difficult to understand when there is a lot of different meanings etc but thanks everyone who commented

@SpringIntoChaos ah come on that's a bit mean seeing as you've also not got the full context of the thread?

This will probably be as some midwives will mean it as 1/5th 'palpable' so that they can only feel a very small amount of baby's head above the brim of the pelvis, therefore most of baby's head is deeply engaged. I've just seen that it's your 3rd baby! You may well have all of a sudden had baby clunk down into your pelvis-apologies I missed that bit!! Your midwife should be more than happy to explain to you/confirm which way round she means ☺️