First baby not engaged at 40 weeks - anyone else?

Hi there!

I'm just wondering whether many other mothers have had their baby floating about after 40 weeks? I'm 40-and-a-half weeks and apparently she still hasn't engaged. My OB thinks this might be due to her being 'big', but I know that it is quite common with subsequent pregnancies for babies to wait until labour to engage, owing to the extra room in the pelvis. So, I've decided that I just have a roomy pelvis, and that she is enjoying the space!

In any event, I would be interested to know if any women had this happen with their first pregnancy, and went on to have successful vaginal births despite baby not engaging until the last minute. I think I'd find such anecdotes reassuring.

Thanks!

A few weeks ago I had a mum whose baby was floating at her 40 week appointment - she went into labour the next day and had a normal birth. It was her first baby.

I can tell you numerous stories about women I've supported who have been in this situation... some even with unengaged babies at 41-42 + weeks. Your gut instinct is right - some babies don't engage until labour and that is normal.

Trust your body. It's brought your baby this far, and it knows how to finish the job ;) :hug:

With DD she was engaged early at about 33 weeks and everyone was saying Oh you'll go early for sure (2nd pregnancy) well at 38 weeks she disengaged and when i was booked for induction they told me she was heads doen but not engaged. !st gel and 2 hours after bubs was certainly down she was out. It can happen so quickly.

DS wasnt engaged til the day before and i was 42 weeks and 3 days

My sister is 40+2 and bub is still very high. Unfortunately my sister is extremely impatient and is having her waters broken as I write this to induce labour. I will come back in here when bub is out to let you know how she went

According to my doc I am 41 weeks today. He has said the past couple of weeks that the baby is possibly 1/5 engaged - so not very and that there is still a lot of the head "free floating". He seems unconcerned and hasn't said it's because my baby is "big". Not sure how my labour will turn out yet but my mother tells me that when I was born I was not engaged at all in the lead up to labour starting. She had been in "good" labour with regular contractions for over 10 hours. I was still only 1/5 engaged. 3 hours later I was born - normal vag delivery. It really can happen at the last minute. Oh, and I am the eldest, so my mum's first baby.

I agree with the pp who suggested that your body knows what it's doing. I also think this baby knows more about it than I do so I'm trying to focus on that as well.

Good luck!

My first bub didnt engage either,by 42 weeks.I had a normal natural birth all over in three hours! good luck.;)

Oh, great! Thank you so much for all your responses. My feeling is that she will engage at the last possible moment, and that the fact that she hasn't yet doesn't necessarily indicate a problem...but it's easy to be swayed in your thinking, particularly at this stage of pregnancy. Thank you!

Ashton didn't engage until I was pushing him out pretty much. He was 5kg (11lbs) with a 39cm head and they told me that is why.