Hello Kekepania! How exciting, a new baby in your household very soon!
I just had to reply to this as I see these types of issues everyday and trouble-shoot to get past the medical model. Having said that, all my suggestions are very safe and evidence-based.
kekepania said:
Hi, I appreciate Souljourney asking for me. Heres the deal. My midwife said that the most likely reason fore the baby not dropping is that I am a short bodied woman. Apparently this is common.
There is absolutely no evidence that short bodied women's baby's are less likely to 'drop' into the pelvis than for women with long bodies. In my job I see plenty of 'short bodied' women giving birth naturally so this is an erroneous reason to labour.
She also said that by not dropping he is not able to stimulate the labor process.
The labour is less likely to start or continue naturally but it doesn't necessarily mean that labour won't happen because of it. You need to give yourself the best possible chance and the longest amount of time, so that you feel satisfied with your birth at the end of it all. The comment 'oh well, look you have a healthy baby' is very unhelpful if your level of satisfaction is below zero. Even if you end up with all the intervention under the sun , the important thing is that you made as many decsions as you could. Never put your pregnancy and birth completely into another person's hands whether they be doctor or midwife or you could end up feeling very dissatisfied. This can lead to post-natal depression, too.
They will induce me on Monday, so I don't go past 2 weeks late.
My understanding from your friend's original post was that you will only be 41 weeks at time of induction. 7 days more is a huge amount in terms of working to get into labour.
It is your choice about being induced, your choice about whether you want your body attended to like this, not the midwife's, not the doctor's, not anyone else's. They can't do it without your consent or that is assault (not that I'm suggesting going down that path lol, just an illustration).
The reason they give for induction is that the longer the baby goes past term the likelihood of complications grows.
I agree that perhaps past 42 weeks this may happen but not before. If they get antsy about it you can always agree to have 2nd daily monitoring CTG and AFI to make sure all is still well. The 'risk' of complications is not a reason to intervene. If that were so we would never leave our houses.
I plan to do a natural active birth and informed her that I really don't want to do a chemical induction if it can be avoided.
If you are planning to be natural and active then the above are things that you can use to negotiate your position. As I said, early induction is the most common cause for caesarian not to mention more than a handful of complications.
I lost the mucous plug last night so am not sure if sex is a safe option anymore.
Sex becomes no longer safe, nor necessary once the waters have broken. So, yes its safe to have stacks of sex
Daniel has been doing the acupressure points, but nothing so far, although the Vag. exam this morning showed me dilated to 1.
That is excellent news! Well done. Daniel's work has not been nothing.
He is still turned Posterior even though we have been doing the points to turn him as well as hands and knees time.
That's great, you do as much as you can on that score.
My midwife did prescribe Caullyphyllum but made me promise not to take it or any other herbal or homeopathic remedy until Monday morning as she will not be able to monitor the baby to ensure that he is ok.
There's absolutely no reason why she has to monitor your bub after any homeopathic remedy.
Let me tell you, the birth centre I work in comes under the umbrella of a ridiculously conservative level 3 hospital so we have to work within some fairly conservative guidelines. All the info I am giving you here are within those guidelines. I'm not even telling you how the homebirth midwives handle this stuff.
I also don't want to do canola oil if it can be helped because well, who wants stomach gas on top of labor pains?
Well its not gas you'll be having with castor oil, its diarrhoea. Having said that if it were me I would try it at the very last minute.
It sounds like your midwife is finding it hard not to give in to the pressure of the medical model. This can be very hard but ultimately you are the only person who can really assert yourself and have the best possible chance for the birth you want.
Lack of evidence of a complication is the best reason not to intervene with mother nature. If and when a complication arises, then its reasonable to intervene. This whole induction process is very frustrating. At my work, they have just started an induction audit. Even though studies have come back showing that early and unnecessary induction leads to all sorts of awful complications, doctors just don't seem to be able to comply.
Whether you have a caesarian or not, the important part of this whole process is that you feel empowered to be an integral part of the decision making process. Too many doctors waltz in and snatch that away from women and their partners. Be cool, be calm, be collected but state your case and stick to it, confidently.
Best of luck to you.
Goddess xxoo