Looking for some input re: postdates

[rebeccav]

I am almost 5 days overdue with my second child. My midwife last week offered to strip my membranes, but I've heard that can start things within 48 hours, and my DS's birthday was two days after seeing the midwife, so I declined, since I wanted to be with DS for his bday and because I wasn't quite at my due date yet.

Well, I have had no signs of any impending labour so far, and I'm considering asking her to strip my membranes tomorrow. Here are my concerns:

1) Baby is still fairly high - higher than she was at my 37 week appt., and even though I know that second babies can usually "drop" during labour, I'm concerned that getting things started while she is still quite high might make for a longer labour.

2) That it won't work. I talked to my doula and she said if I decide to do it, it can either work or not - and that if it works, your body was probably somewhat ready and that was the "push" it needed to get labour started. If it doesn't work, your body just isn't ready, but you're not "breaking anything" or causing some issues that will lead to intervention.

3) Based on that last comment, I have heard of infection being caused by stripping membranes. I don't need that either.

I'm not overly desperate to get it over with; compared to many women in my situation, I'd say I'm fairly at peace with being overdue. But I am mentally ready, (as is DH) and we have everything done we had planned to do before the baby came. BUT I do NOT want to go much past the middle of next week, because then we're talking possible induction and I don't want to do that, nor do I want to go to two weeks overdue. (I was 6 days overdue with my son, so I kind of expected to go a few days over with this pregnancy as well.)

Thanks for sticking with me if you've gotten this far! Thoughts?

[CatherineS]

How exciting! Your sweet baby will be here so very soon. :)

If I were you, I would just let my body and baby do their thing and let nature take it's course. I think that, much like other mammals, when it comes to birth, our bodies work best when left alone.

Of course, having your membranes stripped is a lesser evil when compared to being induced. Maybe you could hold off as long as you can, and keep that in your pocket.

Looking forward to reading your baby's birth story!

[miche]

I had my membranes stripped about 4 times starting around my due date. Being a vbac going too far post dates was a very scary prospect for me because it is not "allowed" as you all know :( Sean came 9 days after my due date after a low dose of prostin gel which kicked my prodromal (weeks of it) labor into "real" labor. I wasn't completely thrilled about it, but it was the best decision at the time with the results of the NST and such.

The membrane strippings did not cause an infection, didn't rupture my membranes and it wasn't painful. The last two were quite vigorous and after the last I had quite a bit of bloody show, but still lasted two days before the gentle induction I believe. The risks of problems are fairly minimal compared to many other things, but the possible gain is also very questionable. I know one woman who has had 9 children who gets her membranes stripped then mall walks (or park walks depending on the season) and within 2-4 hours she is in labor usually. A couple of times she has had a second stripping. She chooses to do this because she is very far from a hospital and once labor starts it goes fast for her so child care and getting to the hospital would be a huge issue for her. She has done it for every baby after #2.

All ancedotal here I know, and if you are fine with waiting I'd wait - at least until it got a little closer to your "overdue" date (meaning that 42 week paranoia mark ;)).

I hope little Camryn decides to come soon...and listen to Catherine! She had much more patience than I did with her hbac!

[hedra]

My midwife said she'd strip my membranes if I wanted, but in her experience, it has nothing to do with when labor starts. There's not much research supporting it actually making a differnce. It just makes you feel like you've 'done something'... but that's her opinion.

If you are comfortable waiting for now, I'd personally wait. For me, it hurt. A lot. More than contractions. And it made all the contractions afterwards hurt more, too (though they were still managable by a good margin). And it didn't have any impact on labor that we can tell (I'd been in labor for two days with no dilation, and didn't start dilating until another 14 hours or so after that, after a position change shifted my son's slightly offset position).

It sounds to me like you are not really interested in doing it, but don't want to be wrong. I'd go with your instincts.

Also, keep in mind that almost everyone goes into labor before their overdue date. An OB I know told me that they expect 90-some % of post-dates inductions to be cancelled because the baby arrived beforehand. So don't panic if they want to schedule an induction - take the schedule date as far out as you're comfortable, and expect to go into labor before then anyway. (Once it is scheduled, then you can discuss taking other actions, like stripping membranes.) I got them to actually schedule the induction for 16 days post due (a Monday), with a biophysical profile at 13 days post due (a Friday) to check if he was doing okay - if not, they'd induce then. If he was fine, we'd check back once a day for another biophysical profile (sat and sun), and induce if anything looked bad. Otherwise, I couldn't see being induced 'early' (before 42 weeks) JUST because it happened to fall on a weekend. They agreed. And I didn't get induced. Went into labor at 1:15 on Thursday morning.

What worked for us? No idea, because we tried it all. We bd'd, I had a glass of ruby port, walked a lot, danced for three hours (belly dancing), rode over a bumpy road (that one was a waste as we took my mom's car - good suspension!), and had a spicy mexican meal. That night, I went into labor. Two days before my 2-week mark.

Good luck!

[hedra]

Oh, and IIRC, women of northern european descent average 41 weeks 1 day gestation. So if that's your heritage, you aren't REALLY late yet - not even average!

[Jer]

I say wait. You'll go into labor just fine with out any membrane stripping. I know a lady who went 44 w with one of her babies, and 46 (!!) with another, and everything was fine. The doctors and their stupid numbers game... :rolleyes: Don't worry, Camryn knows what she's doing, and so do you. Go with your heart.

{{{Hugs}}} and gentle labor vibes--

[Katey]

(((hugs))) Hope you are in labor and can't read my post! :)

I'd say just to wait it out. You've put yourself in a great mindset...that she will arrive late. I know it is tough but she'll pick her own perfect birthdate.

I'm looking forward to seeing your birthstory!