Thanks for the responses Kelly and Justin. I think because she was willing to let me do most of it my way last time and it all went wrong she is just being a bit more cautious this time. Last time I was two weeks over, waters had been broken for 48hrs so she induced. She did as I asked and started out just breaking the rest of the waters to see if labour would start on it's own, it didn't so then she introduced the synto at the lowest dose. However as nothing progressed she slowly increased the dose until I was having a lot of trouble managing the pain with hypnobirthing techniques alone and I was encouraged (sort of told) to take pain relief or else risk C/S as the synto was at the highest dose by then and bub was most certainly stuck and not moving despite the strength of teh contractions. I guess it helped me to relax a bit because he got past that jammed point soon after and the birth was quite quick and I managed to do most of the early pushing without them realising I was doing so because I didn't want to be told to hold my breath, so slowly "breathed" him down with big deap breaths when they didn't realise I was able to fele the contractions yet due to the epi (I had been told I could push as soon as I could feel the contractions, I just didn't tell anyone, so they didn't realise until they did a check and saw that he was crowning and madly called the ob back... oops). He had the cord tightly wrapped around his neck twice which is probably why he wouldn't decend or labour wouldn't progress properly, and the cord had to be cut while he was still inside, after which I felt no more contractions but had to push him out ASAP so he could breathe. DH asked if we could have an ultrasound closer to the due day to check position and where the cord is but she talked him out of it because she said there is really no need, bub could move between tehn and labour and all it would do is lead to a bit of a panic if things weren't ideal and potentially be an unneccesary c/s if we were worried. I think the other issue about letting the baby go late is that my son was quite big, I am quite small framed and that may have contributed to the malposition and non-progressing labour. (Although I have done research on that topic too and realise that small women can birth some enormous babies without hassle - I think she's just being careful). So given all of that, I think she is more than happy to support a natural birth, however wants to take a few precautions this time.

I think that without the malposition (and cord issues) I should be okay, because I managed for quite sometime without pain relief (using hypnobirthing techniques and deep relaxation) and the actual pushing part was quick and quite easy for me, no tearing (despite his size!) etc.

I am trying to maintain a positive frame of mind to this second labour, as I understand that the malposition and cord issues were just a bad luck thing, not necessarily going to happen again,a nd so far this baby is looking like a more average size (my sone was always 2-3w ahead at EVERY check-up and then came two weeks late). My ob keeps telling me that my body knows what it's doing this time, so I need to trust it will continue to do the right thing, and I trust enough in the accupuncture (I believe it's what helped my waters break in the first place last time and I felt the difference between treatments) to prepare my body to do it all on it's own.

I will definitely talk to my accupuncturist this week (she is at the same place as my chiropractor who I am seeing weekly to keep my spine in alignment, and help an easier birth) and see what she has to offer in the way of pre-labour treatment. I guess it is similar to the chiropractic in that it is a preventaative measure rather than symptomatic treatment, ensuring that the energy chanels are free and open to assist in the right messages going from my brain to my body. I think that is why my chiropractor works with her as they are different techniques that try to achieve a similar thing.

Thanks again.