37 weeks & anxious about labour choices

[Oli16]

I have gestational diabetes and this is my first pregnancy (DD 12th August)

I’m going back and forth about my birth plan as I’ve been advised by two separate consultants to not go past my due date because of the diabetes and possible risks that could cause.

they’ve said they’d offer me an induction or elective on my due date - I personally do not want an induction and after much thought have booked in for an elective c section on the 12th, this is a back up and I’m hoping baby will arrive naturally before this. Ideally I’d love a water birth or natural birth at hospital!

midwife has offered me a sweep at my appointment next week (38 weeks + 2 days) but I honestly don’t know what to do?

babys last scan was 36 weeks and measuring at 88% percentile and around 6lbs. For context I’m 5”4 and my partner / men in my family are quite tall…

having last minute nerves about everything and don’t have confidence as a first time mum to make sweep decision or induction / c section decision….

in the meantime I’m drinking lots of raspberry leaf tea and eating dates daily / pregnancy ball sitting etc!

I am two weeks postpartum and while I did not have gestational diabetes I thought I’d share my positive induction story. I was induced at 41+5 with a pessary. After the pessary had been in for 10 hours I started having contractions at about 10pm. By 5am the contractions were very painful and I asked the midwife to check if I’d dilated. I was 2cm so they were happy to remove the pessary and I was added to the list to have my waters broken or to see if I’d go into labour naturally. I had a short restbite and everything then ramped up! By 8:30am I was having very close and painful contractions and had the urge to push! My husband wasn’t even at the hospital yet! I was taken to the midwife led ward and if it hadn’t all gone so quickly I could have had the option for a water birth. I proceeded to give birth naturally with just gas and air and baby arrived at 10:55am. I had no further intervention. I am a FTM and I was surprised my labour was so positive with being induced. I had a sweep exactly at 40 weeks which did not do anything. I also religiously ate my dates and drank my raspberry leaf tea. In hindsight maybe the tea did indeed shorten my labour!

Whatever option you choose I hope it all goes well and good luck!

Thanks for the reply and nice to hear about a positive induction story - I think I hear so many induction stories that end up with intervention and ultimately an emergency c section so that’s why I’m hesitant. Especially as baby seems to be on the bigger side I feel like it might inevitably end up having one anyway!

I would say yes to the sweep OP - why not? It may get things going before your due date so that you can avoid induction or c section.

Hi OP. I'm 39 weeks and my situation is a bit different to yours - not gestational diabetes - but I had to make a choice between a potentially complicated natural labour or an elective C section due to some underlying health stuff.

The consultant couldn't really advise either way, and it could be that natural birth would go completely fine for me, and I kept asking myself why put myself through surgery if I might be in and out in 4 or 5 hours and recovered the next day?

However, I knew that scenario was only one of several that could happen, and realistically, I just didn't want to put myself through the uncertainty of it all. I knew that going through a long labour would exhaust me and ending in an emergency C section would be traumatic. It's a world apart from an elective.

So in the end I have gone ahead and booked in an elective, and honestly, it was such a weight lifted. It hasn't happened yet but I'm feeling good about my decision and much more happy and confident moving forward with my choice. It's given me certainty and an element of control which I needed.

I don't think I even realised how much distress it was all causing me until that weight lifted once I'd made the decision. It was such a relief.

I can only speak for my own experience though and I don't know what it will actually be like - but I can now plan for the procedure and recovery.

Do you have any friends who have had elective C sections who could talk to you about it? - That has also really helped to reassure me.

Good luck whatever you decide.

I’m another one who had a positive experience of induction, we are out there you just don’t hear about us very often because people are (understandably) keen to talk more about the negative experiences. Obviously induction comes with higher chances of caesarean or instrumental (I actually had an instrumental delivery, but it was completely fine and I had a smooth recovery) but the majority still have uncomplicated deliveries.

What about if you had the sweep, then that would give you a bit of information about what your cervix is doing, eg is it already starting to show signs of labour? If things are starting to happen on their own any intervention (eg sweep, induction) is more likely to work. Though I had a sweep the day before my induction and they couldn’t even do it because my cervix was still so tightly closed, I spent the next 24 hours assuming the induction would be long and drawn out but it really wasn’t, I had the balloon and that was all I needed to go into labour!

It’s hard because birth is so unpredictable, and it’s understandable that you want some certainty but no one can really give that to you! You ultimately just have to do what feels right for you. Good luck with whatever you decide!