Different predictions for how much baby is engaged

[MissDolly95]

I had my 38 week midwife check today and the babies heart rate was high so I got sent to triage. All is fine and well and baby did settle and I got sent home.

I've just read my badger notes and my midwife said baby is 4/5 engaged, the triage unit midwife has put 2/5 engaged. What does that actually mean?

4/5 means the midwife can feel 4/5 of the baby’s head above the pelvis and 2/5 means the midwife can only feel 2/5 of the baby’s head above your pelvic bone i.e. 2/5 is more deeply engaged than 4/5, it’s all very subjective however and so very likely one midwife’s estimation will be different to another. P.s at 38 weeks it’s not unlikely your baby could of dropped down between your 1st and 2nd midwife examination’s

Baby can move in and out a bit before properly engaging in labour.

I think this is the wrong way round. 4/5 is 4/5 of the head being in the pelvis. 5/5 is fully engaged.

It’s guess work for most part. The amount of times midwifes tell mum’s something and then we scan them and it’s completely untrue.

This is very true! My midwife told
mE I was 1/5 and I had a scan 2 hours later and the baby was clearly much lower than that, judging by how Low the sonographer had to go for head measurement!

the reality is all bets are off until labour begins anyway

I work in maternity care and can assure you that in the UK, when we write 4/5 we are referring to being able to feel 4/5 of the fetal head above the maternal pelvic bone. Maybe done the other way around in other countries???

1/5 means the midwife can only feel 1/5 of the baby’s head above the pelvic bone, that is extremely low, we don’t usually feel a baby being that low until a mother is in advanced labour