The head is right down there?

[MrsCraig87]

I was seen at the maternity day care today and she was feeling for the baby and she said "oh the head is right down there". What do you think that means? I'm nearly 39 weeks pregnant with my second baby.

I have read the head doesn't get engaged until just before the baby comes with second baby.

Thanks for advice x

It just sounds as htough she was saying that the baby is well engaged already. I fyou look in your notes, she would have written down how engaged it was eg. 3/5, 2/5, etc. I think 1/5 is the most engaged the head can be before labour starts.

I had a look in notes but no clue to how engaged baby is. lol

hmmm, I think it must be more than 1/5 because midwife recorded in my notes that baby is 2/5 engaged and I am definitely not in labour. In fact, the last midwife I saw said 2 to 3/5 engaged. Sadly, there's still no sign of labour though.

the 1/5 is how much they can feel. so 5/5 means they can feel the whole head 1/5 means they can only feel a fifth, so it's all engaged

there are no hard and fast rules on when baby's head will engage. some don't engage until you're IN labour, some will engage earlier

Now I'm confused (doesn't take much these days) Just looked at my notes again and midwife has written 2/5 under the column headed 'engaged' with a little arrow pointing downwards next to it. Maybe I can be a little optimistic that I have been assuming it's the other way around? That would be cheering.

1/5 means that the head is fully engaged. 5/5 is the least engaged.

Well actually 'free' would indicate that the head is not engaged at all, ie. they can feel the whole head floating around above the pelvis. Madcats - if you have 2/5 engaged in your notes, that measn that your baby is well on the way down, so a good sign!

hmm my midwife told me that 1/5 is only a little bit engaged and that it progresses from there. I went from 2/5 engaged at 36 weeks, to fully engaged at just 37 weeks and being told "oh the baby could come any day now" . However...DD then stayed put, fully engaged for another 4 weeks.

Sending "easy quick labour" vibes your way MrsC!

I'm on my 4th and baby has been engaged since 36 weeks, I'm 40+1 now. She was 4/5ths then last week still only 3/5...