Hello, congrats on the impending birth o...

Kiersten - April 29th, 2009 12:41 PM
[Original Comment]

Hello, congrats on the impending birth of your little one! I think I would discuss your concerns with your midwife. That's what they're there for. As to membrane sweeps, you might NOT be offered one. As a general rule, midwives are all about letting your body do its thing in its own timing. I have two children, both were with midwives. I've also had a membrane sweep. With my firstborn we had to move less than two weeks after my due date (out of state)and I had a membrane sweep the day before my due date so I would have as much time to recover from the birth as possible before moving. With my daughter I wanted to let nature run its course and went four days over before she was born. In my experience my second delivery was SO much better. There was no intervention and I had a totally natural birth. It was awesome! The membrane sweep did put me into labor with ds, but that's still an intervention and started things off differently than if I'd been able to let it be. I handled the pain much better with my daughter's birth. All that rambling to say, call your midwife, share your concerns, ask about how long she'll "let" you go overdue before wanting to induce and what induction options you have. If I were you I would refuse a sweep if it's offered tomorrow and wait it out. My midwife didn't want me to go more than 2 weeks over, so we had a date set for induction if I ever made it that far. Odds are good that if you let your body go into labor on its own it won't be more than 2 weeks from now anyways. I know it's so, so hard to be patient and wait, but your labor will go LOADS smoother if you go into labor naturally. Good luck and I hope your baby doesn't make you wait too long! :)

p.s. Yoga balls and hot rice packs are AMAZING during labor!! Just bounce away with your hubby keeping the pack on the small of your back or wherever it hurts most. Also, taking a shower and "hosing off" your stomach can relieve the contractions up to a certain point. The key is to keep moving; laying down on a bed will make it harder! Good luck girl.


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