Natural Birth
OctGirl80
member
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41 weeks + (induction ?)
OctGirl80
member
So I've lurking here & there and have a question for you ladies. At what point do you feel induction is ok/warranted? 41 weeks? 42? 44? I don't want to be induced unless something is wrong with LO. If not, leave her there til she's ready. I am very leery of being induced (I don't want to be at all) but I keep seeing that the ob's & mw "won't let you" go past 40/41 weeks (with some exceptions to 42). Is this the reality of it?
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Re: 41 weeks + (induction ?)
I had Lily at 43 weeks. I was being monitored closely in the last week and everything looked great, so we waited.
I don't know how long I would have let it go- I think you really can't say because every situation and every baby and Mama are different.
However, I can say that I would not allow an induction at 41 weeks for date reasons. The average for first time Moms is 41 weeks 3 days, so the whole induction at 41 weeks makes no sense to me. I think it has more to do with litigation, than it does with the actual health of Mom and babe.
Assuming no concerns prior, I'm OK with being induced at 42 weeks. Before then, the risks of inducing outweigh the risks of waiting. Past that point, it's a toss-up. Induction is not the end of the world, especially that late in the game, so I'd rather err on the side of inducing when I should have waited, vs. waiting when I should have induced.
This assumes an accurately dated pregnancy, i.e. not one just calculated based on LMP! DS's EDD based on LMP was nearly two weeks earlier than his EDD based on ultrasound at 6 weeks. (And I know the ultrasound was accurate because I charted, and knew my conception date.) Obviously, I would not have been OK inducing at 42 weeks per LMP, because that was really only 40 weeks 1 day!
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)
Matthew Kevin
7/31/83-7/20/11
Met 1/8/00
Engaged 4/21/06
Married 9/29/07
Two beautiful legacies: Noah Matthew (2 yrs) and Chloe Marcella (8 mos)
Day Three
With the midwives I was with during my first pg, they claimed they didn't induce until real postdates, so 42 weeks (though I went through an induction scare myself for low AFI at 41 weeks, so I wonder how often they have women get that far?). With this practice, I think they wait til 42 weeks, but I'm a VBAC, so they're pushing repeat c-section at 41 weeks.
I just think providers are too quick to want to induce for no reason other than being over 40 weeks...there's some insane fact that the average length of pregnancy in the US is a good week+ shorter than it was years ago. And unless someone was charting or had an IF procedure to get pregnant, no one's 100% sure when they conceived (I know within a week, but that's it), so there's the risk you're inducing too early. I definitely fall in the wait-and-see camp, or at the least women really, really need to be treated on a case-by-case basis, not by a "OMG, you're 40 weeks, induuuuuuce!" policy.
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
http://www.jakeala.etsy.com