How long before baby MUST be born?

[*Efjay*]

I am in my 41st week of pregnancy & I feel perfectly fine. I am not rush to rush this baby. I have an ultrasound tomorrow & then have to go sit on the CTG thingy.
My midwife seems rather supportive of letting things happen in there own time as long as the baby is well etc.

I just curious though, how long can you go overdue before problems can become a real issue? What sort of problems are we talking about?

[Lucy]

FJ....I went 41 weeks and 3 days with Olivia......so I had the "how long" conversation with my Darwin OB.

From memory the main issue is placental breakdown. I am not 100% sure on how that impacts a baby exactly, only that the placenta function is diminished. But he was happy to leave me to it till I hit 42 weeks.......

[{sarah}]

Yeah as far as I know it's all to do with the placenta not performing properly & also fluid reducing after a certain amount of time. From what I've read once you get to 42weeks you can opt for daily monitoring to check fluid levels & placental function.

[*Efjay*]

Well she did say that once I hit 10 days over then they like to discuss induction. Sh asked how I felt about this & said I really didn't want to go down that path if I didn't have too. She said thats fine, we will just get you in daily to monitor you.
I think if I get to friday (which I think I will, will be 10days over going off the 26th as due date) I will agree to a internal if she offeres. I am not over being pg like a lot of women who get to this point are, But Just fact that if things are to happen after the internal, then Friday night would be good as DH has Sat, sun & we think monday off. I think poor DH will snap before I do as far as this baby taking her time. The poor bloke must live on edge when he is away from me. I bet he jumps at every mobile that rings in his earshot LOL.

[{sarah}]

LOL at DH jumping at every phone, I can imagine he is atm!

[Schmickers]

We found out after the fact that there is no real reason to do anything special until you are 42 weeks overdue. We didn't want to be induced at 40 weeks + 10 days, we wanted to wait, and the local hospital's OB registrar made us sign in the hospital records that we were taking that risk "on our own heads" so to speak. It's only because my wife happens to be one of the midwives there that she was chatting to her friends, who had seen the records and thought it was ludicrous that they had made us sign anything at al, and that this was not common practice. We suspect it was because we were having a planned homebirth...*sigh*

The doctors may scare you by telling you the fetal mortality rate "doubles", although my wife assures me that the fetal mortality rate starts at 0.01%, so that doubling it only increases it to 0.02%.

If you have an ultrasound and there is still plenty of fluid, and the blood flow in the cord is fine, then there's no reason to induce. In the old days, women had a due month, not a due date, because they didn't necessarily have any idea when they were due - and nor do the babies!

The baby will come eventually, we don't often see women walking around 18 years pregnant (and gosh, wouldn't it be crowded when he wanted to have his girlfriend stay over!) Leaving it means you're more likely to have a natural birth, rather than kick start a cycle of intervention that may predispose you to further problems or having to have an assisted birth or caeserean.

You could try an osteopath, to make sure your pelvis is well-aligned, as sometimes the baby may have a little trouble settling into the pelvis if it is misaligned. We think osteopathy has assisted both of our overdue babies! But at the end of the day, one of our neighbours told us, a few days before Olivia was born - "When the apple's ripe, it'll fall." So true...

[christy]

Michael thats exactly what my acupuncturist has said, "when the fruits ripe, it'll fall from the tree"

Matilda was 17 days over EDD when I was induced. The hospital said this time they don't want me to get that far trying for a VBAC but I have let them know I prefer to come in daily for monitoring before I go through another induction.

[Fi]

Full term is 38-42 weeks. Just keep repeating that in your head
U/S will show fluid levels and placental function perfectly well. And its only hospital $$ you are burning if you want to go longer than the "term+10d". I'm sure a few extra scans are cheaper than an induction anyway.

[*Efjay*]

Yeah Like I said I am Happy to keep going with out any intervention. I was just curious as too how far over I can actually go.
They do seem supportive of me not wanting to be induced. When DH came home he actually said YOU HAVE TO HAVE THIS BABY SOON! I AM GOING CRAZY!!!
I told him what I posted about reacting to mobile phones & he said yep that is exactly how he spends his day!

Christy & Jillian, How did your birth pan out afte rbeing so over? Christy I see that Matilda was induced, did that end in a c/s?
What about you Jillian, did it happen on its own? or induced?

[christy]

At 14 days I went in to be induced & Matilda was no where near my cervix, so they were unable to induce me. At that time an OB at the hospital "strongly" encouraged me to consider having a c/s due to placental break down. I asked for monitoring until she engaged, and was on daily monitoring. At 16 days she was touching the cervix and they decided it was close enough. I had 2 lots of gel, the next morning AROM, then syntocin. I dilated 6cm and at midday everything stopped. So at 6pm I finally agreed to the c/s. So yep, in the end I had almost every form of induction & c/s. This is why I am desperate not to be induced this time, it was a very traumatic experience for me.

When Matilda came out she didn't look overcooked and the placenta was in perfect condition.

[*Efjay*]

I can understand it being traumatic. Evans birth was nothing compared to Matilda's but I still feel it was traumatic because of the syntocin I had to give things a move along after I didn't progress.
His birth is why I don't want to be induced this time.

[*Efjay*]

Yeah, Plenty of housework, Plenty of walking But I am not interested in trying sex. LOL.
Don't get me wrong I don't want her to get out, I am not over being pg yet so I don't mind. Just more curious as too how long I could be waiting.

[blackbird]

I was just reading about this today and the jist of it was unless you know exactly what day you conceived, the last menstrual period calc can be out quite a bit. There was also talk of lunar months which makes for a different duration to 40wks. Their advice all came down to the same sort of things mentioned above - placenta function, fluid level, cord blood flow. They had egs of many babies who were born +14 and more who showed no signs of being overcooked.

I'm glad you're feeling well and not totally over it - hopefully something will happen soon!

[christy]

Jillian that is soooo good to hear! Trust me, my mind has been replaying things the last 2 days....

[*Efjay*]

Well i had the u/s this mornign & every thing is fine, fluid levels, cord blood flow etc. Its all good. So we'll be hanging in there for a bit longer yet!

[preg_mummy]

hi i got told that 14 days over was the limit.. as ur placenta starts to stop working..dunno how true it is...

[{sarah}]

How are you going now Fiona?

[BellyBelly]

You can go as long as you are happy and healthy FJ, of course that would be sooner than later if you were concerned that something wasn't right. There is no limit that they will stop you and pin you down for an induction, either you keep saying no and will go into labour spontaneously, or you can keep saying no then one day be monitored and something will be picked up and they will want to do something or you can agree to the induction. Take your pick Your choice hon.