Military Families
paulinaramirez
member
silly question but figured i would ask
paulinaramirez
member
Anyone know if you can be induced at like 37- 40 weeks by choice? i know it sounds silly and quite dumb when you really think about it, but my husband s going on deployment soon. It wouldnt be such a big deal but he leaves in November as far as we know, but he may be leaving sometime in October... We re due October 17th and i just know we may be cutting it real close.... it may sound selfish but this is baby number one and i figured i would just ask ... in the end i know that things will work themselves out for the better, but i dunno...
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Re: silly question but figured i would ask
Ask your OB.
It is not something I would choose to do, but only your OB can tell you whether or not they'd be willing to.
Have sex and walk a lot.
Semen dilates the cervix and walking helps- well; I dunno know what- but most ladies near full term walk their asses off and it helps them go into labor. (The ladies I know, anyway.)
If it happens before he goes, then great... but I don't think your OB will agree to inducing 'just because.' Talk to your delivering hopsital to see if they have a camera setup and can film/live stream the birth for you. Some hospitals do this free of charge for spouses with deployed husbands.
1. Talk to your OB. Some will induce (most not until at least 38-39 weeks) for deployments as long as an amnio comes back ok, some won't. Definitely look into all the risks for your situation before deciding if that's something you want to.
2. Talk to his unit. I know my husband's unit for every single one of his 4 deployments, has let the soon-to-be daddies stay back if their baby was due within so many days of them leaving (usually within 20-30 days), and then join the unit in Iraq/Afghanistan on a later flight. Of course this will depend on the individual unit, how many other soldiers in that unit have reasons to need to stay back and what those reasons are, and whether or not the unit is fully staffed. I know ours has to be at 90% to deploy, and they were cutting it close this time so not all the guys that wanted to stay back for babies got to. It came down to how many older kids each family had (first babies got priority), if the pregnancy was high risk, if he had missed any other births, etc. And I'm not even sure if all units do this or not, but it's worth a shot to at least see if it's an option.