Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
17
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Every Day Past 40 Weeks, A Baby Dies More and More.”
“Every day past 40 weeks, a baby dies more and more” – Family Practitioner on why they needed to schedule a mom’s induction at 39 weeks and 6 days.
There are 45 comments to this post.
Jennifer B. had this to say,
Jan 17, 2010 @ 4:29 pm (Quote)
He’s only somewhat dead… (queue Princess Bride music)
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That’s weird. By his reckoning, since I was born at 44 weeks, I am apparently a zombie having been born mostly dead (with all dead, all you can do is go through the pockets and look for loose change).
My somewhat dead child born at 41 weeks 5 days is three years old, likes pizza, orange juice, singing Julie Andrews tunes, and dancing to Irish music.
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Jennifer B. Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 1:12 am (Quote)
I wondered if anyone besides me thought of th Princess Bride when reading this on…
lol
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The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Jan 18, 2010 @ 4:33 am (Quote)
Ack! The sheer stupidity is astounding!
Sadly, I hate to think of the people who fall for this and agree. And then end up with totally unnecessary c-sections. Disgusting. Just another tool in their arsenal to use your baby as a weapon to force you to comply.
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I dunno, to me it sounds like English isn’t the doctor’s first language.
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Jane Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 6:47 am (Quote)
Wouldn’t the mom have been aware of that?
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Tze Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 6:48 am (Quote)
Yeah, but it doesn’t say that it is. And some people aren’t so forgiving of that.
I mean, it just doesn’t make sense in English.
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Jane Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 7:03 am (Quote)
I had a practitioner tell me WITH A STRAIGHT FACE, and English was her only language, that “Just because you feel the baby kicking doesn’t mean it’s alive.” So I can believe someone would say this in English with English as his or her first language.
A lot of it would be the context of the whole conversation. If the doctor said this in the context of lots of pressure and exaggerations, then the mom would hear it as the ridiculous statement it is, as opposed to if the doctor were saying it couched in terms of her previous pregnancies, her current test results, and medical statistics.
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Kat Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 7:27 am (Quote)
“Just because you feel the baby kicking doesn’t mean it’s alive.”
Well then WHAT was the point of all those kick counts the doctors instruct every woman to do from around 32 weeks on?
That’s just as stupid as saying “Well just because ____ is breathing it doesn’t mean they’re alive…”
“Just because your heart is beating and you’re walking around talking to me doesn’t mean you’re alive…”
And just because you went to medical school and scraped out a passing grade doesn’t mean you are intelligent, apparently.
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Jane Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 8:01 am (Quote)
That woman was a piece of work. My baby had just been diagnosed with anencephaly, and she told me a number of patently false things, but that was the stupidest of them.
Her: Your baby is at greater risk for stillbirth than a healthy baby.
Me: So I should be extra-vigilant about kick counts.
Her: Just because you feel the baby kicking doesn’t mean it’s alive.
The next day I mentioned that to the ultrasonographer, who snorted and said, “This is a VERY active baby.” And during the next pregnancy, I mentioned what she’d said to my CNM, who also snorted and said, “Jane, forget about her. The rest of us have.” I don’t know where that woman is practicing now, but I feel for her patients.
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Jennifer B. Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 9:15 am (Quote)
At my last OB appt.(last Wednesday) The doc told me that just because the kicking is getting stronger and my belly is getting bigger doesn’t mean the baby is growing… she was trying to impress upon me the importance of getting WEEKLY ultrasounds done… I told her flat out I wouldn’t be getting more than 1 ultrasound a month.
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Jane Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 9:30 am (Quote)
Promise me the next time you go, if the doctor pulls that again, you’ll break down in sobs and beg for HOURLY ultrasounds because your doctor has so terrified you that disaster could strike at any moment. 
“Doctor Terror, just because I felt my baby kick at 11:01 doesn’t mean the baby is still fine at 11:02!”
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Jennifer B. Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 8:51 pm (Quote)
that would be hilarious… except that today…
I had an ultrasound and OB checkup. Lirum is measuring at 31 weeks exactly, 3 days behind “schedule”. She is in the 36th percentile for gestational age. Which the doc says is good news for my VBAC plans, but is probably due to the Atenolol I was put on at the beginning of the pregnancy… even though I was only on it for 3 weeks. She hopes that Lirum continues to grow at the same rate.
Amniotic fluid looks good… They did say I have a “Grade 3” placenta… which is the worst grade… meaning lots of calcification, but she said that was completely normal for someone with Diabetes Type II and Hypertension. As long as Lirum continues to mature, we wont have a problem… We have to have WEEKLY Biophysical Profiles from here on out… they want to see that placenta every 7 days. So I guess we wont be trying the NST’s again like I had hoped.
Lirum is getting big enough to “palpate”, which is really exciting. She is still breech, with her feet down by my cervix and her head behind my belly button, but they don’t expect her to flip till 35 weeks at the earliest. My blood pressures continue to be normal in the 130s/70s , so I am pretty sure that is not affecting the placenta, but my blood sugars need a LOT tighter control… and this past week I haven’t been on top of taking my insulin and recording my sugars like I should. I got chastised for that. The Diabetes is probably the biggest culprit for the calcifications in the placenta.
Bottom line – Still on track for VBAC. Though they are getting more and more uptight about me going into labor BY 40 WEEKS… they don’t want me to go even a day late… My “orders” for this week are to maintain a careful sugar log and take my insulin as directed. I have another Ultrasound and Ob checkup next Monday.
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I know three women who were part of the unlucky statistics and had their babies die in utero at 38 and 40 weeks. I was very glad my babies did not go beyond 38 weeks. I would not have been able to handle the stress.
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Kat Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 9:27 am (Quote)
I am so sorry. My deepest condolences to your friends, and to you. It’s true that scary and sad things happen. Babies can die due to unforeseen circumstances during pregnancy, during birth, after birth due to infections, SIDS, undetected internal anomalies…
All we can do is look at the evidence and make choices based on our own risk factors, and what has been proven most safe for others with similar risk factors.
For some specific conditions, close monitoring and induced labor can be safer than waiting.
For most low risk pregnancies, induction or surgical birth at 38 weeks would be a higher risk than waiting. Normal gestation is between 38 and 42 weeks, so stating without any evidence to back it up that ALL babies die a little every day past 40 weeks is absurd.
I am very glad that your babies are OK, and that the circumstances of their birth didn’t contribute to your stress levels.
I suppose if you want to get technically accurate, since EVERY living thing eventually dies, we all get closer and closer to our eventual death each day that we live, but that’s more macabre than I care to focus on for daily living!
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anon Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:46 am (Quote)
Kat, my babies are not Ok, but both were born in spontaneous labours. I imagine the first could have come early due to the stress I was feeling as 38 weeks approached. The second was born at 36 weeks. Early births are common for children with her genetic condition.
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Jane Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 9:32 am (Quote)
I’m so sorry for your friends’ losses. Pregnancy after someone else loses a baby is nerve-wracking.
But keep in mind that just because there’s one risk by doing one thing doesn’t mean avoiding that risk avoids ALL risk. Increasing the big risk in order to avoid a perceived small risk doesn’t help anyone in the long term.
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Michelle Potter Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:41 am (Quote)
That’s awful; I’m so sorry for your friends’ losses. 
Clearly it is important to pay attention to any actual medical indication that a pregnancy might be in trouble, and to induce or perform surgery whenever medically necessary. And yet, even then some babies will tragically be lost. It’s horrifying — the kind of stuff that definitely keeps me up at night every time I am pregnant.
However, all five of my babies have gone past 40 weeks, and three of them went to or past 42 weeks without any signs of having been in “too long.” My longest gestating baby, born at 42w3d, was also one of my smallest. Had I had an induction or c-section at 39 weeks, I would certainly have been among the unlucky statistics with a baby in the NICU for breathing problems caused by underdeveloped lungs.
To me, what this says most is that women and babies do not fit into cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all patterns, and that moms and caregivers need to treat each pregnancy based on the best evidence and the actual circumstances of THAT pregnancy. Don’t induce ME because your last patient needed it, and don’t ignore HER feeling that something is wrong just because I was fine, and both of our babies will have a better chance.
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anon Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 10:54 am (Quote)
Michelle, My friends had no indications that there was anything wrong with their pregnancies. There is no explanation other than perhaps their baby was large and compressed their umbilical cord.
My second child was born at 36 weeks and had no breathing issues. You don’t know that your child would have ended up in the NICU.
I am all for natural childbirth and was lucky to get two. I think it is great if people get natural births but I also understand why OBs get nervous at term, they cannot predict which babies may be the unlucky ones.
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Michelle Potter Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 1:31 pm (Quote)
You are right that there is sometimes no way to predict which pregnancies will suddenly, without warning, go horribly wrong. I am very sorry if I seemed to be implying that your friends or their doctors must have missed something — that wasn’t my intention at all. Sometimes bad things happen with no warning; it’s the stuff of nightmares.
However, while you are right that I can’t say for absolute certain, I do feel very confident in asserting that my three 42-week children, who were all born healthy and with no signs of post-maturity, would not have benefited and would likely have suffered had I been induced at 39 weeks — *three weeks* before they were ready to be born.
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JulieAnna Reply:
February 10th, 2011 at 7:15 pm (Quote)
My beautiful and perfect son Vaughnie was stillborn Jan 2nd 2011. I went in on Tuesday- heartbeat was 135…. a week prior to that it was 180… by Thursday when I went into spontaneous labor FINALLY at 41w 6d…. there was no heartbeat at the hospital. I am an emotional wreck- medicated to the high hilt- had to drop all my college classes-job- etc. I can’t even drive myself anywhere from all the meds I’m on. I am changed for the rest of my life. Listen to your dang doctor- they know ‘you’ and they know ‘your’ situation. My doctors didn’t listen- and I’m going to sue the crap out of them. Don’t put yourself in my situation if you can help it.
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Michelle Potter had this to say,
Jan 18, 2010 @ 10:45 am (Quote)
Apparently my 7 and 6 year old sons were born a “little bit dead,” my 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son were “even deader,” and my 4 year old daughter was born the “most dead” of all my kids. Weird how much noise and mess they make, considering.
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Amelia Sunderland had this to say,
Jan 19, 2010 @ 2:45 pm (Quote)
My daughter was born at 41w5d making a ton of noise for a “more dead” baby.
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Wow, I think I must have one of the most dead babies I have ever heard of. Surely by 43 weeks and 5 days she should have been much deader than she appears to be?? very loud and messy for a dead person ans she seems to be growing too?? not sure how or why?
And like Michelle Potter said, I am confident that if my daughter had been induced when “they” said she should come then she would have needed NICU or SCU. She wasn’t baked until nearly 44 weeks (according to “their” dates, more like 42 by mine)
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Lil had this to say,
Nov 2, 2010 @ 1:34 pm (Quote)
My third child was born 29 days late! I was living in Germany then, and was very frustrated at the constant ‘haven’t you had that baby yet’ comments! On return to the UK, I was very worried when I was told that UK policy isn’t to go past 42 weeks (by THEIR dates mind you) because the baby is likely to die suddenly and with no warning….it’s amazing how different places and countries come up with completely different ideas!
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JulieAnna Reply:
February 10th, 2011 at 7:07 pm (Quote)
Mine did. 41w 6d… my beautiful and perfectly healthy baby died of ‘cardiac arrest.’ on Jan 2nd 2011. The autoposy listed his death as ‘unknown causes’.
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Lil Reply:
February 11th, 2011 at 8:24 am (Quote)
I am so sorry JulieAnna. There is so much we still don’t really understand about birth – despite the centuaries the human race has been doing it! I was obviously very lucky with my 29 day late daughter. I too have had still births, and I wish I could say all the pain will go away, but it doesn’t. However, it’s like a deep injury, although it’ll never go away, and you’ll be left with a deep scar, the pain will ease a little and you will learn to live with it. My thoughts and prayers are with you and all those effected by your son’s death.
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My 2nd son is only a *little* dead, as he came along at 4 days ‘late,’ but his older brother was nearly 2 weeks late (just shy of that magical 42wk point).
My MW offered to strip my membranes with #2 when I was just shy of 39 wks. I declined. When he came on his own, a week and a half later, he was a bare 6.5lbs, *covered* in vernix.
So, he was *barely* term *and* a little dead?
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My baby son was born stillborn on Jan 2nd 2011 at 41w 6d. He was perfectly healthy… or so they said. Even though his decreased fetal movements started around week 38 and his heart rate averaged 180 on Dec 21st. I applaud your doctor. The placenta starts dying after 40 weeks- not the baby…. but some placentas are strong enough to still support the baby for another 2 weeks. Some are not… as in my case. Listen to the doctor that knows you and your body. My doctor didn’t listen when I pleaded and pleaded to get induced at 40 weeks- I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG! He was alive on Tuesday- dead by Thursday when my body went into labor naturally. Having a stillborn- will change your life FOREVER.
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W. T. F. Seriously?! I know (s)he is a child dr but where ever (s)he got his/her degree should call and let that dr know it was just revoked for utter stupidity! **SMH**
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