Large baby potential induction / third baby speed

[Betsy7]

I’m about to have my third baby. She’s due in roughly four weeks and after a very fast precipitous labour I have already been told to be vigilant as the third could be even quicker. Which in my case would likely mean home birth. What are other people’s experiences of this?

I also had a scan at 34+5 where I found she is measuring 96th percentile and will need another scan soon. My midwife feels it’s likely I’ll be offered induction. However I do not want this if possible as both my other babies arrived just before 40 weeks I think I’d be better off allowing myself time to see if my body does this again as I have had quite uncomplicated births. Again has having a very large baby caused any issues for anyone that I may not have had discussed with me.

The scans are so inaccurate, they said my little boy would be 9lb and he was actually 10lb 8oz! The main serious risk of a really big baby is shoulder dystocia and you would absolutely need to be in hospital if that happened, but your baby also may turn out to not be massive after all! Go with what you're comfortable with, even if they are big that's much more doable as your third baby than your first.

How big were your others? I had a big second baby. First was 8.11 and he was 10.8. He went 11 days overdue. Don’t know if he ran out of space to get into position!

No problems with the birth though. I was induced in the end but it was fine and I delivered him without intervention and only a small tear. With my first who was smaller I needed an episiotomy and ventouse.

My third came quickly. I just managed to get to the hospital in time. I climbed onto the bed in the Labour suite and gave birth. He weighed 9lbs 1oz. I didn’t have time for any pain relief, he was born without any intervention. I didn’t need stitches. It was an amazing birth. I gave birth at 12noon and by 1pm everything was done and I ate fish and chips. We went home later that day.

It's a while since I had my third but MW told me it could go either way. I had a home birth, as DC2 came extremely quickly but DC3 decided to take his time. It was a very stop/start labour and they ended up breaking my waters as everything just kept stopping. Things went quickly from then on.

He was also 9 days late whereas his three sibs were all within 2-3 days of due date.

I never had any concerns raised about size at scans, and considering DC3 was overdue, 8lbs 13oz was fine. DC2 was 9lbs 10 and DC4 10lbs 1oz, both were water births and no complications (and no one ever picked up that they were on the large size except me, as I felt huge!!).

Not sure that is terribly helpful, but it does all seem to vary. Best of luck with it.

Scans aren’t always accurate, but my daughter was in a similar position and they booked her in for induction so she was already in hospital. The induction was really good, and actually she would have gone into labour naturally within the next couple of days. The induction itself didn’t cause any problems at all.
I do think it helped that her body was pretty much ready to go into labour naturally, I think it might have been more risk of complications if it had been done a lot earlier.

Thanks for all your responses.

I just feel like hearing other stories is really reassuring.

My other two were 8lb6 and 7lb15. So not particularly small but certainly not measuring like
this was has. I know myself i am absolutely bigger in this pregnancy than previously too so I suspected she may be larger.

im not totally against induction if it becomes medically necessary but as I said my first two where born before 40 weeks and I’d like to give myself the opportunity to see if this happens again. That paired with the speed of my last labour is the bigger risk for me right now but it’s so unpredictable.