Reply With Quotehun, i am not sure what that means, but matisse was 1/5 engaged a week before she was born, then 2 days before she was born she wasnt engaged at all!
they can pop in and out.
i am so excited fo you, so very close!
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Question about engagement...
At my 38 wk appointment the midwife said baby wasn't engaged still and probably because it was posterior
Anyway, when I was looking in my orange book to see what they wrote it was different to the other times. In the column about engagement they usually write 'NE' which I assume means not engaged. This time it has an arrow pointing up and then '5/5' written next to it. What on earth does that mean? Why didn't they just write NE??
Anyone know??
Thanks
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hun, i am not sure what that means, but matisse was 1/5 engaged a week before she was born, then 2 days before she was born she wasnt engaged at all!
they can pop in and out.
i am so excited fo you, so very close!
Registered User
Thanks Kitten!! I know. Getting excited now. Hurry up baby!
Moderator
SJ, I'm not too sure about the 5/5 with arrow pointing up - I did read somewhere about being a number of "fifths" engaged, I might try and google it again for you...
BUT! I asked my Obs yesterday if I were engaged and she got a bit funny about it - she said that the term "engaged" is bandied about too much these days and the only real way to tell how far down the baby has moved is to do an internal exam (which as you know she didn't want to do).
She said being engaged to her means that the head is down and cannot be turned, rotated, by palpating the baby. So she can't turn my baby any more so it is engaged. I don't have an orange book or anything so I am not sure about the arrow etc!
HTH!
Moderator
Ahhh I believe it means they can still feel 5/5ths of the baby's head above the pelvis. So that would go with her saying bubs isn't engaged yet.
So the most engaged they measure is 1/5th I think which means baby has dropped a lot.
Here's a BellyBelly article on it:
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/baby-engaged
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Thanks OP!!
Hmm......why didn't they just write NE again then. Just to confuse me I bet, lol.
Moderator
Hehehe probably! Maybe it means the head is at least close to the pelvis? Maybe earlier bubs' head was floating around somewhere it shouldn't have been and now it has dropped down? Who knows???
I read in an article that some MWs/Obs measure how engaged you are and some measure how engaged you aren't. So when they say 5/5ths it could mean completely engaged or completely unengaged! How confusing!!!!!
Registered User
hi sj
my last 2 appts, they have put 4/5 and a arrow going up, but they said they could still feel some of the babies head, so think it means exactly what OP said, mine is only 1/5 engaged (4/5 left to go), but heading in the right direction.
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