How long was bub engaged for..............

Hi girls

Just out of curiosity i was wondering how long your bub was engaged for before you went into labour.I know with your first its supposed to happen alot earlier.

Gemma has been engaged for the last 2 weeks(so from 33 weeks)and I saw my doc yesterday and she seemed to think I probably wouldn't make it to my due date.And all yesterday I had period pain and then small niggly pains in my lower abdomen 8-[ (this freaked me out!).A hot bath helped though.

Just wondering what other peoples experiences were........................

Oh also when they are engaged is the pressure in your pelvis quite intense as I have trouble walking and I can feel her head pushing down sometimes.

Kameron engaged from about 29wks and Lachlan engaged at 30wks. I didn't have any extra pressure.

Love

My best friend is currently overdue and her baby's head has been engaged for 4 weeks now.

We think things might be starting to happen for her today.

Wow Kathryn your boys engaged so early.When did you actually have them?Were you early?My doc has me freaked out a bit about being early!

And you felt no pressure in your pelvis?I can hardly walk.

Hi there!

DD#1 engaged when i was 30 weeks,had a fair bit of pressure in my pelvic area which was so uncomfy.

She was 10 days over (EDD 13-12-03,born 23-12-03)

Hope this helps

Yasin was engaged at 36 weeks and then at 39 weeks he unengaged and ended up being 1 week overdue. I think that first babies often engage earlier.

My friend is 38 weeks and bub hasn't engaged, the Dr has said that it's unusual that the bub hasn't engaged especially the first baby. She said they should engage before 37 weeks. Not that it was a huge prob, she has to go back on monday to check progress, and if it doesn't engage will have a caeser.

how do you know if it is engaged?


is it something only the dr can tell or can you tell yourself?

Linda

First babies often engage much earlier than subsequent babies, as there is less room than there would be for a subsequent baby - who is in a uterus which is much more stretched than the first time around. So second babies might bob in and out for a while and often wont engage until labour.

Either way, there are no rules or norms and babies will do as they please and come when they are ready ;) What week they actually engage is not a critical thing.

Amy was engaged from about 32 weeks and I she was born at 39 weeks to the day.

I know both of mine were, but as to when I can't tell you..... sorry. 8-[

I will be 37 wks t'rrow and bubs still hasn't engaged (1st Child). If it still hasn't engaged by next week, my OB is going to take some measurents of my pelvic bone (??), placente (still lying pretty low) and the baby to try and work out why it hasn't enaged. We may then have to consider a c-section.

Belinda

Aidyn never fully engaged at all... in fact at my 39week appt, the midwife said to me that I would be going overdue and to book ahead for my induction. Well, she was wrong and my waters broke the very next day. I'm pretty sure up until I gave birth he never engaged more than 2/5 (maybe cause his head was so bloody big?), yet I had no problems with the birth or him fitting through my pelvis... so I guess it is very different in each individual case.

Wow it really differs from person to person doesn't it!My doc said Gemma is 4/5th's engaged.She said that shes really down there in my pelvis!I wonder why she would say I probably won't see my due date then?!All she succeeded in doing was scarying me into thinking I'm going to go in early!

At my 37week appointment my doctor said the head was engaged.. i then gave birth at 39.6 weeks.. :)

BJ, it is very common these days that pregnant women are being told that their pelvis is 'too small' which is very often misdiagnosed - one of the Admins Lucy was recently told that with the birth of her son and he shot out! Our bodies have been made to birth babies and generally problems with pelvic size can mostly happen where there has been injury to the pelvis.

If you birth your baby in a squatting position, you can have around an extra 30% pelvic space for the baby to be born, so you could mention that to your Ob - this is according to fact.

If you don't want a caesar, then I would ask your Ob if he thinks it's safe to wait - and as I mentioned before, there is no magic time a baby would engage first or last, so if you want to give baby his/her own time to engage, then it's okay to make this known. Obviously there is a time and place for intervention when need be. But right now at 37 weeks, I would not be worried about baby not being engaged - pregnancy is 40 weeks long and maybe baby is just not ready yet! Will your Ob consider further action when you are overdue instead? The pelvic scans they do to measure the size of the pelvis is very misleading and inaccurate.

Meg, I don’t understand what your friend’s doctor is telling her. I’ve had 3 kids so far, & all were born vaginally with no probs, & none of them ever engaged until shortly before being born. Seriously, they didn’t engage at all. When I had a show on my due date with my first daughter, the midwife thought it would still be a week or two because bub had not engaged, and she was born the next morning. There is no way you would need a C-section just for this reason.

Belinda, I’d say the same to you. To be considering a C-section it would have to be for other reasons, not just bub not engaged in the pelvis. Some babies are there for ages before birth & some not at all.

I’d be wary of concerns about size of pelvis too. It’s not an easy thing to assess accurately. What is easy though is using good upright positions for birth. The worst thing you can do if you’re worried about baby’s size is be laying on your back!

I don’t think it has much to do with when bub will be born either. My 1st was born on due date, 2nd 12 days early, 3rd 9 days overdue. None appeared to be under or over cooked ïÂ�Å*

I hear the good thing about having your bub engaged is it takes the pressure off your ribs, but the other side of that is it puts more pressure on the bladder.

Btw, I’m 36 weeks tomorrow with twins, & I don’t have one engaged yet. My friend is 39 weeks with twins & has had one engaged for ages.

Some obs seem way to keen to get you in to a cesarian don't they?? I think they've forgotten our bodies are made to do this thing called BIRTH!!