to the ladies that had overdue babies? How many days did you go past?

Question

This is only for the ladies that had overdue babies, how many days did you go past your due date and did your doc have to eventually induce you? What was it like? I am 40 wks and 4 days. Doc wants to induce on the 10th if the baby hasn't came out by then. Please share some of your stories. Did you have to get c-sections or did you deliver vaginally? My doc said that the longer I wait, the more chances there are of a c-section? How true is this? I only want to do what is best for my little guy. I am going through a perfectly healthy/regular pregnancy. What did your doc use to induce you? Did he just give you Pitocin or Cervadil right away or did he break your water? I am very curious tyvm!

Answer 1

My due date was January 1st, 2005...my son was born on January 15th. I went into the hospital the night of the 14th to be induced, and they gave me a pill to soften my cervix. My water broke at 4:30 a.m., and my son was born at 4:15 p.m. I delivered vaginally, and they did pump me full of Petocin....and epidural.

Answer 2

Oh my dear, I've been there! My little guy was 8 days over due. I felt like I was going to pop. It felt like there was a bowling ball in my pelvis. My doc went on vacation the week after I was due so when I went in for a visit, the on-call doc told me to meet her at the hospital the next morning for induction. That day I was 80% effaced and dilated to 2. She advised that I go for a LONG walk to get things started on my own. I had to sit down about 3 blocks from home and have my ex go get the car to pick me up again. In the morning, they induced with pitocin and I felt contractions almost instantly. Epidural was about 5 hours later which is the same point they broke my water. I was dilated to 5. It was another 10.5 hours before I pushed. Little man was born on the 3rd push. They did tell me at about hour 13 that if I didn't go from 8-10 quickly, they wanted to do c-section because I started to spike a fever and they didn't want any complications. Ultimately, whatever delivery method they do, c-section or vaginal, you will have a baby when you are done. My sister's labor was much like mine but hers ended in c-section. Best of luck!!!

Answer 3

All 4 of my children were born past their due dates. My first was 9 days late, my doctor just let me wait it out. This was 28 years ago and my doctor was of the mind set that nature knows best and we wouldn't interfere unless there was a medical reason to. My second was 11 days late. I was scheduled for a non-stress test on a Monday to see how he might do if I needed to be induced, but I went into labor on Sat. and had him on Sun. My third was only 5 days late and we hadn't even started talking about induction yet. My 4th was born when I was 38 years old and had Gestational Diabetes. She was 7 days past her due date. I had an ultrasound and a non-stress test every week beginning at 32 weeks. At 40 weeks I had no sign of beginning labor so I was scheduled at 41 weeks for a prostaglandin gel insertion to see if that would begin the thinning of my cervix. What did happen was I had a bad reaction to the gel. Before I was even allowed to get up from the bed I began having 6 minute contractions and the baby's heartbeat dropped dramatically. I was prepped for a pitocin drip, but then my labor progressed naturally and quickly so I didn't need it. At no time did any of my doctors ever suggest a c-section for my past due babies. All 4 were delivered vaginally with no pain medication for any of them. With my third baby, my water broke at home, but with the other 3, my doctor broke my water when I was in active labor. I was fortunate enough to have doctors for all my pregnancies who believed in letting things happen naturally as much as possible and weren't quick to suggest inducing or a c-section.

Answer 4

I was 5 days late with my daughter when my doctor induced me. I was due on a Monday and he was going to induce me the following Monday, but no one in my family could come that day. I just asked if he would do it on Friday instead. He just told me not to ruin his weekend...lol. Anyway, she ended up being 8 lb. 9 oz. I was in labor for 4 hours and 16 minutes. I had her vaginally, with no pain meds. I had a Pitocin drip to induce me. It made me EXTREMELY sleepy! I actually slept through a lot of my labor. I would wake up when I had a contraction and fall back asleep when it was over. The doctor didn't break my water until after my Pitocin drip was under way. Best of luck with your baby boy!

Answer 5

I was 10 days past due with my first son. My cervix was doing nothing, 0, nadda and they still induced me it took 22 hours for my cervix to dialate and they had me pushing at 9 instead of 10 so I had to be cut. It almost resulted in a c-section. I was in intense labor the entire time and I ended up having to have an epidural because I was so exhausted not to mention it was all BACK LABOR!!! They had to manually break my water as well... the babies heart rate dropped to dangerous levels several times. I will never allow anyone to induce me again I'll take a c-section first.

Answer 6

If left alone, on average first-time moms will give birth around 41 weeks, 1 day.

There is no reason that going past your due date should mean you have to have a c-section. That makes no sense. Chances are, if your baby isn't coming out, your baby isn't ready. However, with induction, there is a higher chance of ending up a with a c-section. It would be best to avoid an induction if you're trying to avoid the c-section (you don't have to be induced on the 10th day if you don't want to be - it's your body).

Answer 7

*sigh* Why is it no one freaks out if a baby comes 6 days before their due date, but god forbid they come 6 days after? Term is 38-42 weeks (actually some, particularly in Europe define it as 37-43 weeks). Post-due/Post-dates is no more a problem then pre-due/pre-dates (*lol* ever hear anyone say this? Nope). Pre-TERM is a problem, and post-TERM can increase the risks of certain problems. Post-term is after 42 weeks NOT after 40.

Then the other question is where did they come up with this darned due date anyway? Is it accurate? Almost all doctors use Naegele's Rule which states that pregnancy is 280 days long starting from the last known period. Well how did he come to that number? Research? Nope. He "decided" that pregnancy should be 10 lunar months because women "should" menstruate every 28 days. Interestingly lunar months aren't even 28 days long, although most lunar calendars seem to use this number. A lunar month is 29.53 days long, and 295 days is actually closer to a normal human gestation. However that whole insanity is crazy as other mammals usually only have 1 or 2 fertile times per year and their gestations are not multiples of the time between fertile periods.

I have heard a theory that the older a fetus is the less their head molds which increases the odds of a c-section but I have yet to see any scientific evidence to this fact.

Babies who do not initiate labour are slightly more likely to have problems, but that doesn't mean that being post-due is a problem. Post-due or even post-term is (rarely) a symptom of an underlying problem.

The length of uncomplicated human gestation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2342739&dopt=Abstract
By retrospective exclusion of gestations with known obstetric complications, maternal diseases, or unreliable menstrual histories, we found that uncomplicated, spontaneous-labor pregnancy in private-care white mothers is longer than Naegele's rule predicts. For primiparas, the median duration of gestation from assumed ovulation to delivery was 274 days, significantly longer than the predicted 266 days (P = .0003). For multiparas, the median duration of pregnancy was 269 days, also significantly longer than the prediction (P = .019). Moreover, the median length of pregnancy in primiparas proved to be significantly longer than that for multiparas (P = .0032). Thus, this study suggests that when estimating a due date for private-care white patients, one should count back 3 months from the first day of the last menses, then add 15 days for primiparas or 10 days for multiparas, instead of using the common algorithm for Naegele's rule.


Induced Labor and Informed Consent in Canada
http://www.canadiandoulas.com/dahl_induction.htm

Due Dates
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/dueDates.html

Postdates
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/postdates.html

Induced and Seduced: The Dangers of Cytotec
http://www.mothering.com/articles/pregnancy_birth/birth_preparation/cytotech.html

Let the Baby Decide: The Case against Inducing Labor
http://www.mothering.com/articles/pregnancy_birth/birth_preparation/inducing.html

http://www.mothering.com/sections/experts/buckley-archive3.html#induction

Revealing the Real Risks: Obstetrical Interventions and Maternal Mortality
http://www.mothering.com/articles/pregnancy_birth/birth_preparation/risks.html

What is a Bishop's Score and How Does it Relate to Inducing Labor? (C-section rates as well)
http://www.amazingpregnancy.com/pregnancy-articles/173.html

Answer 8

With my first Baby, I was due on August 21st. She was born on September 1st, 11 days "late". It was a vaginal delivery, but the doctor gave me something to delay the labor as he was the only doctor there and there was a whole bunch of women that came into labor that day. My labor was going fast, but there was another woman that was delivering and so they delayed me. After he came back they gave me petocin to restart the labor, but it failed to work and my labor continued very slow. My baby was born 12 hours after I first went into labor.

My second baby was due Dec. 24th, she wasn't born until January 8th, 15 days "late". I learned my lesson with the first baby and refused the I.V., the means by which they give you any drugs. I got to the hospital at 5am, my baby was born at 5:44 am. Very easy delivery.

I'm curently, at this writing, 13 days late with my thrid pregnancy.

You don't have to have the induction. The doctors often make it sound like you have no choice in the matter, but you do. Talk to him about the risks of waiting. Ask him about the risks of induction, believe me, there are risks to induction (Even the FDA acknowledged the dangers of Pitocin years ago, when it removed its approval of the drug for the elective induction of labor in 1978). Then you make the decision yourself on whether you want to be induced. The doctor has to respect your wishes unless he feels the baby is truly at risk, then you want him make that call.

Answer 9

I went 3 days past my due date with both of my kids. My doctor didn't want me to go past 41 weeks so I was always scheduled the following week to be induced but luckily never made it that far.

Answer 10

In the UK,they don't like to leave you any longer than 10 days over-due.
My friend just had her second baby this morning,he was 10 days over due.
They induced her and he still wasn't coming,so after 30 hours of labour,they gave her a C-section to finally get him out!