People texting just to see if you’re in labour

[Dellys]

Having a hard week of it anyway (38 weeks) my baby has very much dropped and I feel like I’ve got a bowling ball between my legs. Every movement baby makes is really hurting me now and unless I’m lying down inside my pregnancy pillow I’m pretty much in agony doing anything else.

I’ve got another few days until my csection and most of my close friends will know it’s soon but I’m starting to get so fed up of the texts 😑 I can’t imagine how people feel who get to 41 weeks and have this to deal with. My hairdresser was even messaging me yesterday with her guess as to when it is. Why guess to me? I know when it is! It’s like she was just trying to see what I’d reply. My neighbour texted and said she thought I was in labour because my MIL’s car was at my house.

I had two of my close friends message at the exact same time so it was obvious they’d just been together and were speaking about whether it had been. They both sent completely random texts though like they were just casually making conversation. What do people think they’re going to gain by doing this? Is the person going to reply ‘oh I meant to say to you actually..I had the baby yesterday’! 🤦🏻‍♀️

I purposely didn’t text my heavily pregnant friend at all at this stage because I knew she might think that’s what I was doing. You also need to give people a bit of peace so they can have their moment and announce when baby has arrived safely. Sorry just needed to rant to anyone who might understand 😩

I found this so frustrating when pregnant with DS. As soon as I hit around 38 and a half weeks I had an influx of messages and I felt so overwhelmed!
I did have baby at 39+4 so fortunately was early but I even had people saying to me at 39 weeks that I should request an induction!! Why would I do that for no reason other than to get baby here earlier, that one made no sense to me.

I had three responses...

Ignore
'you should know better!' (if they'd already had kids)
'im waiting as fast as I can'

DD was two weeks late so I sent a lot of these

I'm the same as the previous poster in that I don't text friends who I know are close to their due date.

I felt fortunate in some ways I had my son at 38 +1 so hadn't got any messages yet and everyone was surprised I was early for some reason! Lol

@Spottypineapple ohh I can imagine 😑 so frustrating!

Yeah both my babies were late, my second one was 9 days late. I had so many messages from people and I just kept replying 'still pregnant, ill let you know when she is here' because I got so fed up of it!

When I was 41 weeks I nearly started a thread about things not to message heavily pregnant women.

I nearly threw my phone in the river just to make the ‘any news’ messages stop.
People sent me messages saying ‘happy due date’ which was so infuriating.
Other people sent helpful suggestions of how to bring on Labour, all of which I had obviously tried already or were total bullshit.

In future I will send a message or ring any close friends/family members at 37 weeks and just say ‘I’m thinking of you, I’m here if you need me but I’m not going to message you until I hear from you’.

If I am ever pregnant again I will lie about my due date.

This is so frustrating! We've purposefully not told anyone our due date this time, only the month, because the amount of messages we got with DS was ridiculous. He arrived at 41 weeks so it was relentless for about 4 weeks 🤦🏼‍♀️ it would especially irritate me that my mum would say everyday 'X days to go' (based on due date). I lost count of the amount of times I had to explain babies are full term from 37 weeks and really it's fine for them to arrive anytime during 37-42ish weeks 😐 as soon as I went past my due date, my Mum would say start saying 'oh he's X days late now'... Like I needed to reminder 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

I’m currently 41 weeks and receiving so many of these texts and calls. I’ve taken to ignoring people as I just can’t be bothered to respond. Problem is they then text DH assuming something is happening…😞

The worse thing I done was tell close family (parents and siblings) I was in labour and because I was in labour with my 1st for 48 hours I was inundated with messages asking if baby was here yet. I went 11 days over as well. That was worse then the people you hardly know messaging you on Facebook asking if you had the baby yet. My second I only told close family and friends that I was pregnant and then because I'd gone so over with my 1st they didn't bother asking if I'd gone with my second or messaging while I was in labour.

I’m not telling anyone my due date for this reason (apart from work to sort leave etc). If anyone asks I say the month. It’s a due ‘period’ anyway, the date is arbitrary

DS2 was a 42 weeker. I took myself off social media and basically stopped stalking to anyone that wasn't at my house.

With DS1(40+10) I was getting a bit irritated and my Mum said that if I text the few people who are asking most days just regular stuff they won't keep asking about the baby.

Always move the date back a couple of weeks!

Drove me mad too. Even MIL, who was our arranged transport to the hospital when the time came, was texting me daily. I felt like screaming at her "you know I'm not in labour because we would have rung you for the lift if I was!!!". I ended up just ignoring the messages in the end. Couldn't be bothered with it.

Excellent idea - wish I'd thought of this! You don't realise how irritating it will be with your first though.

I think it's really rude. Also, very sadly, for some women, labour doesn't always result in the safe delivery of a baby and i cannot imagine the pain of dealing with a poorly or worse baby and being harrassed by nosy people trying to find out if the baby has been born. Its so insensitive. (And I say this as a NICU mum).

I'd be tempted to give the 42 week date, I wish I'd done this with mine, the first was induced 4 days before due date m, the second and third were both 10 days late and although it was pre text my in-laws phoned every day from 37 weeks. I felt under so much pressure to go into labour I broke down in front of a midwife.

It must be so much harder these days.

My parents were far more laid back and let me get on with it

Just send a blanket "I know you all mean well, but the multiple "baby here yet?" texts are adding to my stress - I'm trying to just enjoy these last couple of weeks, please rest assured as soon as me and baby are through the messy parts me or DH will let you know xx love you all xx"