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3rd Trimester
Has anyone been induced before 40 weeks and why?
Was your baby fine?
Did the baby have to stay in the hospital longer?
How was your labor? Fairly easy? Misrerable?
I am just curious because my doctors said he probably won't let me go until the full 40 weeks because of my height, body structure, and how big the baby is already.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Has anyone been induced before 40 weeks and why?
Me: 37
DH: 36
Married: 08-25-07
DS: 11-20-09
Name change alert: Formerly Lisswastaken
I have had several girlfriends induced prior to 40 weeks. Two were for medical reasons (PIH and one had super low platelet counts and a baby that wasn't gaining weight).
I also had girlfriends induced prior to 40 weeks because of the baby's "size" and yet both of their children were born in the low 7 lbs. It all went great, but I don't get that. My doctor never mentioned inducing early due to size and he thinks I'm going to have a "healthy" little girl.
I was induced at 39 weeks. I went in for my normal appt and my blood pressure was dangerously high so my Dr sent me to Labor and Delivery and I had my baby 15 hours later. I was already 3 cm dilated and was having irregular contractions.?
At the time I was glad to be induced, I was so over being pregnant. ?I know that it was the safest thing for my baby but with the next baby I hope that I am able to?go into labor naturally (and that my epidural will work). Once my water broke my contractions were pretty much constant and my epidural did not work... verrrry painful (i'm a wimp and I was counting on that epidrual).?
?I didn't have an easy delivery but my friend was also induced at 39 weeks and she was only in labor five hours and had a perfectly smooth, easy delivery.??
Just curious what your height and body structure is like? If you don't mind sharing...
The reason for my asking is that it has been addressed that I may have issues with my build as well. I'm 4'11 with the body of an 11 year old boy (ok, a chubby 11 year old boy...)
I was induced at 39 weeks with my second daughter. My first daughter was born, at 40 weeks 1 day, and weighed 11 lbs. 10 oz. - they didn't want (and me neither) to go through that again. DD#2 was born at 9 lbs. 4 oz. I will be induced again at 39 weeks.
I had no trouble with my induction. I went in the night before for cervadil to be inserted to get my cervix ripe, had pitocin at 8 a.m. and DD#2 was born at 5:32 p.m. Pitocin sucks, but I had it with my first daughter too (because my water broke and then nothing happened), so I was prepared for what the contractions were like.
I WOULD NOT recommend that you allow your doctor to induce you early (or do a c-section right off the bat) because of "perceived" size - because you never know what your body is capable of. Yes, my labor was a tad difficult giving birth to a 3 month old, but nothing different from what I've heard from my other friends. And, u/s are notoriously wrong on size estimates.
Good luck.
She was pretty much fine, I guess, until they took her to the nursery and gave her a bottle that landed her in the NICU for a couple of days. But she was in distress during labor, so I had an emergency c/s. They showed her to me VERY briefly and then whisked her away. I have no idea what her Apgar scores were, so they could've been not so hot. They didn't actually tell us whether she was a boy or girl. My OB knew that we knew, so I don't know whether she just figured that it was silly to say that or whether they were freaking out about her or not. She's since told me (not in ref. to DD's birth) that they don't whisk the baby away unless it's an emergency, so I still don't really know.
She did, but her NICU stay was pretty unrelated to my birth experience, except that the distress she was in was the cause of her being taken away instead of left w/ us, like I wanted. She then had jaundice, and probably would've needed to stay another day (I was in for 3 w/ my c/s), but my doctor, which was also her doctor saw how much I wanted to go home and take my baby w/ me, so he discharged her w/ me.
Labor was pretty good. I progressed well (they broke my water and then did a pit drip), and pushed for about 2.5 hrs before they finally decided to do the c/s. I DO think that she wasn't ready to come and that was probably stressing her out more than anything. I was induced at 37 weeks due to high blood pressure. B/c of this, I didn't get to walk around, had to be strapped to the bed and kept on constant monitors. I didn't get to push the way I wanted, and I think that didn't help with her getting stuck.
I hope all goes well for you!
With DS, I was induced at 37w6d and he was born perfectly fine, happy and healthy. I had a "scheduled" c-section and stayed in the hospital for 4 day and 3 nights.
Scheduled is in quotes b/c although it was scheduled, I convinced my doc to allow me to try to labor on my own for a couple of hours just in case some miracle happened and I was able to deliver vaginally. I have a completely flat pelvic bone which does not allow the baby to enter the birth canal therefore I cannot deliver vaginally.
This is a absurd statement. I was induced at 38 weeks because my baby was measuring over 10lbs and yes he was only 9lbs. At 9lbs I believe that he was healthy and that my DR. would never suggest such a thing if it could potentially hurt my child. To tell someone to find a new Dr for suggesting that is just wronge. I know that on this board people frown upon induction, but do the research to the positives as well as all the negatives.
I am an inch taller than you and am not what you would call petite by any means but I have a small torso and body structure.
At my 30 week appt, our baby was measuring in the 90th percentile based off of his head measurements and femur measurements. My doctor obviously knows what I look like in regards to my body structure and said "we want to get to you close to full term but after 35 weeks, the baby will be fine."
I am already at the point that my pelvic pain is unbearable-hurts to walk, hurts to sleep in any position and our little boys head is so far down already that at our last ultrasound at 30 weeks, they had to push his head out of the way in order to get a picture of my low lying placenta. Currently, I also have absurd swelling in my feet, ankles, nose, and hands which seeing as how this is my first pregnancy, I don't know what is "normal" for swelling and my next appt is on Wednesday so I am just trying to suck it up until then when I can talk to my doctor.
In my ideal world, if the doctor thinks induction is best, I would like to wait until 37/38 weeks because the babe will be "full term".
Induced at 37.5 weeks for pre-e and fetal intrabdominal umbilical vein varix. Had to have an amnio for fetal lung maturity before the induction started.
Baby was fine, despite the cord being around her neck. She didn't tolerate pitocin very well though, so they had to keep turning down the dosage, which likely prolonged my labor.
Labor itself - I wasn't effaced or dilated, so it took a LONG time. I labored for 25 hours, pushing for 1.5 hours of that time. Induced labor sucks. I had an early epidural with the full knowledge that it increased my odds of slowing labor further and resulting in a c-section. I am VERY lucky that I was able to have a vaginal birth - there are a lot of doctors who would not have been as patient as mine was and would have just sectioned me. It helped tremendously that one of my clinic's midwives was there with me for a lot of my labor and advocated patience.
We stayed two days in the hospital following the birth before being released. DD didn't have to go to NICU - she was able to room in with me.
Please give serious consideration to letting your body go into labor on its own. Unless you have a very skilled u/s tech, prenatal weight estimates can be off by a pound or more. It's also not really possible to determine just how much your pelvis will spread until you're actually IN labor. There are women with narrow hips who have no problem delivering vaginally, even delivering large babies.Your height also should not have anything to do with how you deliver a baby, unless you have some form of dwarfism.
Meredith, 6-1-06 and Alex, 11-5-09
I was induced at 39w. It wasn't particularly medically necessary. I was flirting with PA but could have waited.
I was in labor for fifteen hours before ending up with a csection. We were in the hospital a day extra because I was GB+ which we knew before we went in. My labor was fairly easy for the first eight or nine hours. I experienced back labor which my epi doesn't touch and then developed an infection as did my son likely from my water being broken for so long. I couldn't pass him because my cervix was swollen from his head pushing on it for so long as was his head from pushing on my cervix for so long.
I agree, as long as you and baby are fine, this doesn't seem like a good reason to induce.
On another note, my supervisor has had three babies in the 5 + years I've worked here. All of them were induced early due to pre-e. I think her first was born as 35 weeks, the other two at 37. All of them were perfectly fine. Her first was smallish (about 5 pounds), but she never even spent a night in NICU. They went home a day or so after she was born. I don't think she had easy labors though.
i was induced with my son at 37 weeks due to low amniotic fluid after he failed an NST--
labor was horrible --my body wasnt ready to push him out--until i had the epidural--i delievered vaginally--he came home with me two days later and is totally fine--he was 5lbs 11 oz at birth