Michelle answers:

If you’re already getting contractions, you should try using a birthing ball. If the contractions aren’t having much effect it’ll get the babys head in the right spot to make them more effective. Just bounce lightly on one or sway back and fourth. It’s very comfortable, and you could do it while watching tv/etc.

It’s the same thing I have been trying. I’m 38 weeks pregnant and at every appt. There’s more progress (just slow progress!) I’m having the same thing (regular contractions that aren’t turning into active labor) I also got sent home, after having contractions 2 min apart for over 12 hours with little progress.

Hope it works for you!

By the way, if you don’t have a birthing ball you can pick one up inexpensively from just about any store, such as target/walmart/rite aid/etc It would be in the area with exercise equipment.

Michelle answers:

You sound like you are well on your way to becomming a wonderful mother 🙂
You may or may not get to the “miserable” point in your pregnancy. I never did! A good thing to keep in mind though, if you do get to that point, is that you are letting your baby choose his/her birthday. You are giving your baby an awesome gift by letting nature take its course… Every day baby is inside of you is best for your baby until he/she decides to come on their own.

I suggest you eat 80-100g of protein a day to keep your b/p under control. Calcium will also help, as well as taking cayenne pepper capsules and garlic capsules. Gentle exercise will also help. Www.blueribbonbaby.com
Edit:
I wanted to add; if this is your first baby, being induced increases the chance you will have a c-section by 50%… Yes, FIFTY percent. Also, *if* if comes down to being induced (which it very well shouldn’t!), make sure you research the method of inducement your doc wants to use. Cytotec is NOT safe, and should NEVER BE USED to induce labor. Period. It is not FDA approved for induction, and has caused many women’s uterus to rupture, babies to die, and mothers to die or have a hysterectomy. Many docs are using this now because it is much much cheaper for them than the alternatives.

Good luck.

Michelle answers:

I think its important for people to realise that 40 weeks just *isn’t* statistically the average duration of a healthy Caucasian woman’s non-induced pregnancy. It’s just a handily neat figure that people have been working with for decades, based on information that has IMO been proven outdated and incorrect.

Note that “due dates” are notoriously unreliable. 3.6% of women give birth on the date suggested by LMP, and 4.7% on the date predicted by ultrasound. So, having a “dating” ultrasound isn’t significantly increasing your chance of predicting when you’re due, and in both cases, over 95% of babies (not including c/s scheduled babies) will *not* be born on their “due date”. It’s a rough guess, not a guaranteed prediction.

Here’s some very interesting info: 1st pregnancies tend to last longer than subsequent pregnancies, and both first and subsequent pregnancies are longer than most doctors predict using Naegele’s rule (which says that pregnancies last 280 days from last menstrual period – 40 weeks exactly).

Here’s the abstract for “The length of uncomplicated human gestation”, by Mittendorf et al, published in Obstet Gynecol. 1990 Jun;75(6):929-32.

“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.”

So what does this mean, in plain English? That healthy white women with healthy babies, left to birth their babies without the interference of induction of labour, will tend to give birth *after* 40 weeks. A first baby will tend to be born at 41 weeks 1 day (from LMP), and second and subsequent babies will tend to be born a little earlier, at around 40 weeks 3 days. NOT AT 40 WEEKS!

When you realise the “40 weeks” guesstimate is just that – a wild guess based on antique studies done decades ago, not allowing for variation in the length of women’s cycles, or the influence of race*, how many children they’ve had, or their health status, or how few women birth on their “due date” anyway, then you’ll come to see just how appalling it is that women are pressured to undergo induction (medical or natural).

(*There’s small variations in pregnancy length for different races, though some of this variation may be due to differing standards of health or care provided, e.g. Pregnancy care provided to black women in America is typically poorer quality [for whatever reasons] than that provided to white women).

So, if you’re having your first baby, and you’re a week overdue, that’s *NORMAL*, and you’re not in fact really overdue at all.

The statistics on having your baby overdue being “risky” only starts to go up significantly after *2 weeks* “overdue” (past 40 weeks), and only really climbs dramatically after *3 weeks* overdue. 1 week is almost always perfectly fine.

Do some research for yourself! You’ll see its true.

My advice is to refuse induction – just say no.

If you go ahead with an induction, be prepared for a higher level of painful contractions, and a greatly increased risk of ending up with a c section.

If you want to look at natural methods of induction (which I wouldn’t advise until after 42 weeks, but hey, its up to you in the end), I’ve put some links below to some good websites on this topic. Also, some links to info on risks of inductions.

:)Bronwyn

Michelle answers:

They say walking and sex but I don’t think it really works. I’m 37 weeks and I went to the doctor today and he’s talking about inducing me next week!

I’m sure as soon as that baby is ready he or she will come.

And if it doesn’t come soon enough the doctor will just have to do it.