How do you know when baby is engaged?

[dee73]

At my last 2 midwife visits she's said the head is down in the right place, but not if it's actually engaged or not... Is this something I can"feel" or does it take a medical expert to tell me?

I do get sharp groin pains sometimes when it feels like the head is jumping up and down trying to push lower, but I haven't had the need to take baby steps which I've heard others talk about... :-s

[Antheia]

For me Lily was engaged from 28 weeks(thats early) but normally for first bubs they engage froma bout 31-32 weeks i think? I don't think you can tell yourself, the doc would have to do that by feeling where the head is, how far into your pelvis it is. I never had to take 'baby steps' but it did sometimes feel like that baby would just fall out iykwim?

[BellyBelly]

dee, don't stress to much about bubs engaging too much hon, they can engage anytime right upto the birth (ask Yvette - none of her bubs engaged until labour including her first) and my two were exactly the same. Everytime I would see my Ob, I stressed over Marisa being engaged - the Ob said, no she's not engaged yet! So I thought I was so far away from having her! But she came early and in her own time.

Yes, it is more common for first babies to engage earlier due to less space, but this isn't the case for everyone. Babies are very good at making their own decisions including when to engage and when to come!!! Even if it's not when we are ready for them

[dee73]

Thanks Kelly - I'm not actually stressed about it - just curious. I've heard mums with subsequent pregnancies say they can tell when it's engaged, so I was really just wondering what it feels like...

[Angel]

I had no idea that Kynan had engaged. It happened somewhere between 34-36 weeks. I had a m/w appt at 34 weeks and he wasn't engaged and when I asked at my OB appt at 36 weeks I was told that he was well and truly engaged LOL. I did feel a lot more pressure on my bladder around then and some more pelvic pressure so that might have been because of him engaging but it wasn't obvious to me at the time.

[*Jessica*]

Hi Dee,

I think Aidan engaged at around 34 weeks but I had no idea. I felt like he was about to fall out during most of my pregnancy! He was pretty big and I ended up going 10 days overdue and as I am so impatient thats all I remember about it all!

Jess

[Adnil]

i found out at 32 weeks that bub was engaged (so not sure exactly how long it had been). i guess i noticed that the weight was down low, pushing on my bladder etc, but nothing really obvious,