|
42 Weeks Pregnant (Two weeks past your due date! Counting from the first day of your last menstrual period)
 The Baby By now your baby weighs, on average, about 8 ½ pounds (3850 grams) and he is almost 20 inches (50 cm) long. He's a big kid just waiting to be born. His nails are already so long you will need to cut them as soon as he is born and the skin on his hands and feet may have gotten flaky. Sometimes, the placenta may stop doing its job of making amniotic fluid as well as it had been, and your birth team might start getting a little nervous. They may already be talking to you about inducing your birth. Often, with a baby at 42 weeks, the offer of induction is enough to make the labor start. Natural methods of inducing labor include sexual intercourse, stimulating your nipples, herbal remedies your midwife might recommend, eating castor oil to cause diarrhea, acupuncture, and chiropractic care. A little bit more intervention involves "stripping the membranes." The midwife or doctor inserts her fingers into your vagina and up into your cervix. It feels like having a really vigorous vaginal exam - in other words, not great! The purpose is to separate the outer layer of the amniotic sac from the cervix and to stimulate the production of prostaglandins. The risk is that the procedure itself may introduce germs into your vagina and, if done too strong, may even rupture the membranes.If you've tried all of the natural means and you and your birth team are anxious for labor to start, medical means of jumpstarting include placing prostaglandin gel on the cervix to cause it to soften and dilate, inserting a catheter into the cervix and gently inflating a balloon inside to stimulate the production of oxytocin, and getting an IV drip of a chemical form of oxytocin known as Pitocin. Pitocin causes extremely powerful contractions very fast, before your body has had a chance to build up its natural endorphins. Many moms find it a real challenge to cope with a Pitocin induction using the relaxation techniques they've been practicing! If the baby's been cooking a long time and he's gotten pretty big - and a baby at 42 weeks may have added quite a bit of weight and be up to 9 or 10 pounds - his head can also get a bit bigger than you planned on. If his head has a hard time descending through the birth canal and gets a little stuck, the doctor may assist his passage using a small tool called a vacuum pump. Your baby might have a pointed head or bruising after the birth with a vacuum pump, but this will resolve itself quickly. Very rarely, when a baby is truly "stuck" and not descending, a doctor will use a tool called forceps to grasp the baby by the head and pull him down. This may cause bruising on the baby's head and is not so gentle on your vagina either. If the baby's heart rate is slowing down and the doctor feels the baby may be in distress, if you've been pushing a really long time and your perineum seems not to be stretching, or if the doctor feels that forceps are really going to help the baby be born, in rare cases, the doctor or sometimes midwife will perform an operation known as an episiotomy. In earlier times when all mothers were completely anaesthetized for birth and all babies were delivered with forceps, all mothers had episiotomies. Now research has shown what mothers have been saying for years - episiotomy is best reserved for true medical emergencies! When you are bearing down during a pushing contraction, the pressure from the baby's head briefly pushes all the blood out of your perineum and "numbs" the sensation there. The doctor quickly makes a small incision in the perineum. Most mothers describe this sensation as "someone cut my pants - I couldn't feel the incision but I felt the pressure." Directly after birth, the snip is sewn back up.Luckily, these types of interventions are rare and it's good to know the birth team has these handy tricks to make sure that all goes well. Consider that no matter how the birth of your child goes, the fact that he grew in your belly and arrives on this earth remain a miracle!
 MotherIt feels like, for quite a while, you've been walking around thinking it can happen 'any day' but officially you are only 'overdue' after the 42nd week. If all of your check-ups have gone well and it is clear that your baby is still doing great and your placenta is still functioning well, the health care provider will not intervene. In many mothers, some time during the 42nd week, the placenta can start functioning less well and produce less amniotic fluid, creating a less happy environment for your baby. In that case, your birth team will discuss with you whether it is time to induce your labor using one of the methods described above. But probably all of these measures are completely unnecessary and by now you have given birth the natural way. Most likely you already are the proud parents of a beautiful new human being. Congratulations! |
Bookmark page
Print this page
Tell a friend
