Post Punk Kitchen Forum

The American OB group (ACOG) says that weight estimates near term are simply inaccurate and should not be done. One of the reasons they say that is that providers are way more likely to leap to a c-section if they think a baby is big, but that their decision to section is entirely related to their perception of size rather than the actual size of the baby, which it isn't correlated to at all. I also had lots of "your baby's gonna be huge!" stuff at the end - she was 7lb 1oz. For all you know this baby might be smaller than your last. If this is your first case of GD and it's been really well controlled, you may wind up with a smaller baby (many women with GD wind up with very small babies because their diet is way more controlled and their blood sugar much lower than a non-GD patient's blood sugar, particularly if they're on insulin).

On the other hand, if you already have a giant baby and the baby won't birth easily (or would have shoulder dystocia or whatever), it makes way more sense to plan a c-section than to induce - inducing doesn't solve the problem because the baby's already too big and certainly waiting and inducing doesn't help.

You've got to do what makes sense for you of course, and I totally agree a bad labor followed by section is way worse than a planned section, but why not wait to see if labor would start on its own and then assess then (you can still do a non-emergent C-section in that case and not wait for labor to get hairy)? At least that way you know the baby is definitely "cooked." My understanding is that size of the baby has much less to do with how labor goes than presentation, which you can't really predict (although have you seen the spinning babies site? It's great for suggestions on getting the best presentation during labor).

Yeah, I getcha. I'll have a talk with my OB on Tuesday at my appt. We shall see what she thinks.

i saw my acupuncturist this morning and she has placed her bet that i am having a boy.

in Chinese medicine they take your pulse on several different places on your wrist and on both wrists and different spots correlate to different functions of your body (i cant remember what though)

anywho she said according to Chinese medicine if your pulse is stronger on your left wrist you are having a boy, if your pulse is stronger on your right wrist you are having a girl.

my pulse was apparently a lot stronger on my left wrist. so there you have it.

statistically if you look at both me and my husband's families we will also have a boy based on that but i guess we will just find out when it happens. :-)

"On the other hand, if you already have a giant baby and the baby won't birth easily (or would have shoulder dystocia or whatever), it makes way more sense to plan a c-section than to induce - inducing doesn't solve the problem because the baby's already too big and certainly waiting and inducing doesn't help."
Yep. You have to take each case individually sure, but inducing certainly does not make laboring easier. The midwife we had at Freya's delivery spoke with me at length a few weeks afterward and said that she really truly believed that she (baby) was going to have come out without some help (she was a forceps birth). I really don't know what I'd do if we decide to go ahead with another baby and it looks like she's going to be a big baby. I've never had a c-section but it sure seems like it's an option to consider for some moms. 32 hours of back labor with lots of blood loss and much trauma for a 10lb7oz baby...yeah, I've done that...it's not fun.

stuck...I don't know what's right for you of course, I just see lots of women doing what they're told "needs to be done" (myself included, to a large degree) and then later having some second thoughts.

Oi, I feel like there should be some sort of karmic law that if you have a troublesome first birth then you should get to do the next one in like 15 minutes. :D

haha, so true!
but i keep hearing horror stories of second births being just as hard if you have a tiny body, trying to push out big babies... tss! I really want to do whats best for me and bebe, but ugh, this is so confusing!

Totally agree that you have to do what's right for you - just gather all the into you can and do what feels right. Good luck in making your decision!

(Fwiw, I am a small person (I'm only 5' and about 105 lbs), and my second baby was 8 lb 5 oz and 22 inches - really large for me. And his birth was pretty damn easy - much easier and faster than my first, who was a pound smaller and 3 inches shorter.)

Your body grows the baby that you can birth. Sure, sometimes we need some help, but our bodies really do know what they're doing.

Omg, contractions suck. I was having a ton of BH and thinking that those were unpleasant. And then i had a couple real ones and i was like, " oh RIGHT."

I guess i should call my midwife and let her know, even though they're only happening every couple hours?

So exciting!!!!! Sending tons of good thoughts!

So exciting! Happy, happy labour and delivery to you!

Oh my goodness! Sending good labor thoughts your way!!

But it's too soon! I'm not ready to have a baby yet!!

I remember you saying you had all your baby stuff ready at 20 weeks! Ha. Good luck littlebird!!

No big deal, littlebird, just keep your legs closed and don't push. ;D

The baby stuff is ready. Just nothing else in my life. I dunno. I've been up for a couple hours now and nothing more than a couple BH. Kinda hoping it's a false alarm. Next week would be great, ok, little baby?

Whoa, possible excitement in the pregnancy thread! Sending good thoughts either way, LB!

Woot! If baby comes now, it will work out. Hoping that you can get a bit of rest even if the show is starting

No no, keep that baby in! My turn first lol

I am about go to on another 2-3 mile walk. This needs to start something, right?

good luck LB!!!!

Okay, 2-3 miles turned into just 1, but wow I'm pooped now. Come on, Elijah!

Maybe you'll just get "lucky" and have a week or two of prodromal labor!

Yeah, maybe.

Good luck LB! I keep checking this thread to see there is a Baby Littlebird yet! I can't wait for pictures of her with Tzippi! Please let us now how you're doing <3

Good luck stuck!

Hi all. thanks refinnej for worrying about me. I had a really difficult, traumatic birth. My sweet son (lets call him littlemap) didn't want to come out. I was induced, he still didn't want to come out. First foley catheter, then misoprostal. I finally went into labor, and he couldn't tolerate me being in any position other than on my side, I couldn't sit, walk, or be on my back or his heart rate plummeted. I wasn't progressing fast enough and they were worried about him being too worn out to be born properly, so they gave me picotin. He couldn't tolerate the picotin contractions (heart rate plummeted) so we turned that off, and again we were running out of time. Eventually his heart rate was low for so long he had to be born as quickly as possible (risk of low oxygen to his brain), and the doctor thought vaginal delivery was faster than cesearean, so I had to push him out even though he wasn't low enough yet. I had no idea when I was having contractions, I was in a delerium of pain, there was a room full of people telling me when to push and the doctor was pulling him out with vaccuum extractor. He was born not breathing and they took him away right away. They had him incubated 1 1/2 minutes after birth and he was breathing with the machine at 10 minutes and completely on his own at 35 minutes. The best estimate was he had low oxygen to the brain for something less than 10 minutes, so the doctors decided it was best for him to get a treatment were they keep him cold for three days. Research has shown that a lot of brain damage from difficult births happens hours to days after the oxygen deprivation, and by inducing hypothermia for three days there is a lot less brain damage. We didn't get to hold him for three days while he had this treatment, but we got to visit him as much as we could and I pumped and he got my colostrom and then milk through a tube that went to his stomach. When he got warmed up he was in intensive care for a couple more days. We got to go home one week after he was born. All of his tests have been excellent. His brain patterns went to normal after about 40 hours of the treatment, he never had any seizures, and he acts like a normal healthy baby with his grasping and sucking reflexes being perfect. His MRI showed that there was one part of his brain that had been compromised by low oxygen but saw no signs of dead cells. It was a part of the brain that heals. We're waiting to hear results from a follow up MRI, when the doctors are expecting that this second MRI will be identical to the MRI of a child who didn't have a difficult birth (they expect his brain to be healed enough that you can't see from the MRI that littlemap had a difficult birth). He has a slightly higher chance than any other baby leaving the hospital to have some fine motor problems, but it's a very small risk, and not much different from a normal birth. We won't know until he starts crawling, but we don't expect any problems.

I've learned since his birth that this type of difficult birth is very common. Two of our friends were born not breathing and the doctors told their parents they might be brain damaged, and they are both totally healthy adults. If littlemap had been born in the US, they wouldn't have done this hypothermia treatment and we wouldn't have been as scared- it's so common to be born not breathing, you just incubate the child until it can breathe and then you send it home. So he got the absolute best treatment possible and I am so thankful to be in a country with socialized health care and a high standard of treatment. On the other hand, we wouldn't have been so scared in a place that doesn't take it as seriously.

We've been home three weeks now. Just learning how to care for a baby. Tired, confused. Still not recovered from the birth. I think the rough start makes it harder for us to adapt to our new lives. Littlemap is amazing. He's beautiful and loves music and watching us doing things.

I have some of the normal new parent problems- one of my nipples really hurts, I don't think his latch is as good as it should be, I'm worried about him eating enough and gaining enough weight, I'm exhausted and can't imagine excersizing ever again. Just carrying him tires me out. He is already changing in his face and he's getting noticeably longer and more substantial. He poops just about every time he eats.

We love him.

Oh, so very glad to hear that you are home and well now. Lying here next to freya and remembering that moment when she too was born not breathing. That feeling of time going so fast and slow at the same time.

Are you able to see an lc re breastfeeding? Norway has such a high bf'ing rate, I'd hope there'd be lots of support.

I'm glad you posted! Didn't want to be a bother but we were definitely thinking of you. Hope you are staying cozy and warm and letting your husband site on you! :)