Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Dec
7
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…Don’t Worry, Almost *Every* Woman Gives Birth Before Her Due Date!”
“We’ll just make sure you deliver by 40 weeks! Don’t worry, almost *EVERY* woman gives birth before her due date!” – OB to mother.
There are 55 comments to this post.
Cassaundra had this to say,
Dec 7, 2010 @ 4:48 pm (Quote)
NO they don’t! but don’t worry, almost “every” doctor learns more about normal physiology if you smack them in the face with a 20 pound textbook enough times
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 4:59 pm (Quote)
Either that, or they sustain head trauma and a bit of brain injury.
I’ll let somebody else step in and finish the cheap shot for me… 
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Well considering how many women actually beg to be delivered as the clock strikes midnight on their 37th week I wouldn’t doubt if this wasn’t a conversation about how the mom doesn’t want to go late because of some asinine reason like “needing the tax deduction”
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Dreamy Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 8:46 pm (Quote)
Yeah, no. Not many. That’s a divide-and-conquer myth perpetuated by induction-happy OBs FTMP.
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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 5:34 am (Quote)
I’m not so sure. Based on the women I’ve read comments from ALL over the internet, there is a big grain of truth to Dy-Anne’s comments. We can’t assume they’re all like that, of course. But I think they are because they have NO idea what the risks of induction are, and their doctors aren’t telling them. I’m working on a blog post on this subject right now – check back later!
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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 5:43 am (Quote)
Dreamy, I came across this appalling comment just the other day:
“I feel every woman is different and if she is at least 38 weeks she should be able to make her decision rather to get induced. it shouldn’t be the doctor’s choice as long as the baby is healthy.”
Uninformed much?!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 6:03 am (Quote)
In the ethereal, abstract realm of reproductive freedom and the philosophy thereof, yes, this is a truthful comment. Every mother should have the right to determine her birth circumstances.
In practice, yes, pretty horrible. Obviously the large amount of information about the dangers of elective induction, especially before the fortieth week of pregnancy, hasn’t circulated everywhere.
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devil is in the details Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 6:10 am (Quote)
And yet if more doctors would say “that would be unwise because it increase your risk of blah blah blah rather than “Okay (to self: now I will make that golf game Wednesday.)” Then I would say bad inpatient new mothers. But as long as the Doctor is secretly doing the happy dance because now he gets a full night sleep and triple the fee for the c-section. I have to say bad doctor! Do you give your 2 yr old candy all day just because he wants it? No, of course not. So why do the doctors hold themselves up as the experts and then blindly follow the patient’s wishes when the results could be disaterous?
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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 7:25 am (Quote)
I didn’t include this one, from the same forum:
“Women should have the right to choose whether to induce or not, without others telling them what is best for them.”
Does that include your doctor??
I’ll agree, doctors do not do enough, it seems, to accurately portray the risks and disadvantages. And there are lots of women out there who have been told and don’t believe it or don’t care. I would say they’re equally to blame, in many cases.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 10:49 am (Quote)
Women SHOULD have the right to induce. Choice is absolute.
Because it involves a baby, women do NOT have the right to make choices in a void. Other people have the right and obligation to provide them with information about their choice, and yes, chastizing and judging is allowed, too.
Part of wearing my big girl panties and being a mom is putting up with the opinions of other people about my choices in pregnancy, birth, and parenthood. I don’t have to conform, I don’t have to be meek and grateful and silent, but I do have to allow that other people have opinions and the right to speak up if they take issue with something I am doing.
I don’t tell people they have no right to disapprove of my homebirthing, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, selective vaccination, etc. I might disagree with them, but I don’t tell them to simply shut up.
I don’t expect support for, or ask approval of, the abortion I had sixteen years ago when I was developing heart problems. It was my own personal tragedy and my own decision, but it was also my baby, and I would frankly be shocked if not a single person in the whole wide world disapproved.
Taking responsibility for our decisions, especially the bad ones, and not being thin-skinned in the face of criticism is part of growing up. We need to develop rhino hide. We’ll face plenty of criticism and perhaps even vitriol regarding our parenting decisions from our own children, when they’re opinionated adolescents. Better to start practicing the “I made my decision, it might not have been perfect, but it was informed, and I stand by it as long as it makes sense to me” pose early on.
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Laura Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 2:44 pm (Quote)
Yes, yes, yes.
It would be crazy to expect everyone to agree with my decisions, but I so wish that my decisions (and yours and everyone’s) could be framed this way. Is it really so hard to say, “Here’s the information, make the best decision you can with it, and then live with the consequences”??
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i went exactly 8 days overdue w/ my first. i was scheduled for an induction at 41w, 1d b/c i didn’t know any better, but lo had different plans. he arrived EIGHT MINUTES before my induction was supposed to start. my doc wanted to induce at 39 weeks w/ baby #2 b/c i had gd. i said no way. i refused to schedule it b/c i figured, what could they do? they weren’t gonna come to my house and drag me out to induce me. i ended up going into labor on my own and had my lo at EXACTLY 39 weeks – the day before they wanted to induce me. my children are super cooperative, as you can tell. i refuse to see a doc who is gung-ho about inducing for non-medical reasons before 42 weeks.
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Oh what a lie…
“In 1990 Mittendorf et Al. undertook a study to calculate the average length of uncomplicated human pregnancy. They found that for first time mothers (nulliparas) pregnancy lasted an average of 288 days (41 weeks 1 day). For multiparas, mothers who had previously given birth, the average gestational length was 283 …days or 40 weeks 3 days.”
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Bonita Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 6:53 pm (Quote)
Reading those stats makes me chuckle… My dd (firstborn) was 41 weeks 1 day my ds (second born) was 40 weeks 4 days. My kids are good with their timing.
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Dawn Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 9:44 pm (Quote)
Funny that, I had my first baby at 39 weeks 5 days because I made my OB change the due date, otherwise I would have come out at 40 weeks 1 day. The next baby was 40 weeks 3 days, then I had one at 38 weeks 5 days. The next was in the 39th week, my next was exaclty 7 days earlier than EDD. My last two babies have come 40 weeks 3 days by the OB wheel thingy. So, well, I guess sometimes babies do come before 40 and sometimes they come after in my history. I don’t think babies care about that due date thing at all, and they don’t have an “expiration date.”
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Cara had this to say,
Dec 7, 2010 @ 6:05 pm (Quote)
Well, yes, almost every woman who is *induced* gives birth before 40 weeks.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 6:06 am (Quote)
Although about fifty percent of those give birth through strategic cuts made to the abdomen, because they weren’t ready yet, and inductions tend to be more successful when the mother’s Bishop score is favourable.
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Cara Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 5:55 pm (Quote)
This was another reason I didn’t want to take an induction. I had a Bishop score of 5 out of 13 and I didn’t have it in me to go through 3-5 days of unmedicated pit labor, only to need an emergency section after watching my baby’s heart rate crash.
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Oh, crap…hide me. I am 40 weeks tomorrow (with my 5th baby!!) and no signs of anything happening…
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Hallie Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 6:57 pm (Quote)
well, make sure you hurry and get induced, and don’t forget to have them break your water. Oh and you have to get vaginal checks every hour, cause the baby won’t come out if you don’t…. so I’ve heard….
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Cmat Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 8:13 pm (Quote)
And you must be monitored.. constantly! And be laying on your back. Otherwise you’re not doin it right 
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SistaC Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 8:19 pm (Quote)
And I hope your baby isn’t bigger than, say, 6 pounds or you’ll need an episiotomy. If your baby is bigger than 7 pounds, you’ll have to have a c-section. If your baby’s head is bigger than 10cm, you’ll need to be rushed to surgery because it won’t know how to be born. Or is that if your water doesn’t break? Or if you need to wee before you go into labour? I’ve forgotten, so you’d better book yourself in for a c-section now, just to be safe 
PS. I hope you have a wonderful birth!
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Mindie Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 4:48 am (Quote)
QUICK, someone grab the twinkle lights!!!!
My home birth midwife won’t do any herbal interventions until 42 weeks as long as my urine, blood pressure, and baby behave. Which all have so far.
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Cmat Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 5:43 am (Quote)
Oh and if you poop, it could be sucked into your vaginal canal. You know.. since we have vacuum power vaginas.
lol
And yes, good luck on your birth! I hope its wonderful!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 6:10 am (Quote)
Bring some aromatherapy drums and have your doula pound on them while she performs a ceremony to appease the evil spirits. That will prevent your vagina from creating a vacuum that sucks up poop.
Good luck! Happy labouring!
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Elizabeth Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 8:29 am (Quote)
Vacuum power vaginas! Hoover’s got nothing on me! ROFL!!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 10:53 am (Quote)
Not Hoover. Black and Decker. Not only will they then suck up poop and meconium, but if you put on the optional vagina dentata attachments, they’ll become Black and Decker Pecker Wreckers.
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Ruth Jaeger had this to say,
Dec 7, 2010 @ 7:10 pm (Quote)
That’s interesting about the studies about gestation in first and second babies. My kids fit the stereotypes nicely, my daughter was born at 41w5d, my son at 40w1d, both homebirths.
That is a scary doctor, if he will hardly ever let people go past their due date!
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This is mine. I’m pretty sure she was actually referring to her patients, since this OB was really induce-happy. I’d had two readings of elevated blood pressure by 24 weeks and was labeled “high risk” by the hospital, so I had to see OBs in addition to midwives. By that point, no home birth midwife was available, except for one who didn’t seem interested in taking me as a patient. Anyhow, this statement was made after telling that my blood pressure looked good and there weren’t any concerns, when she followed it up with “and we’ll just make sure you’re delivered by 40 weeks!” When I confronted her about this because I felt threatened, she told me that nearly all women deliver before their due dates.
I did end up getting preeclampsia, but I was not diagnosed until I was 39 weeks and 6 days. Sometimes I wonder how “dire” the situation really was, considering that one of the midwives outright said that they had to do whatever the OBs ordered them to. I can’t help but think that the results of my tests may have been exaggerated, given that I was one day away from 40 weeks.
I ended up not taking the induction and just had a c-section. I am not comfortable with losing control of my body or having someone else control my labor and quite frankly, I had been so worn down by hospital staff pulling the dead baby card that I didn’t even want to try anymore. Even as I was crying and refusing Cervadil, one of the nurses stood there and argued with me and told me that I had no right to be afraid. My husband had yelled at me for having a panic attack in the car on the way to the hospital. The only one who cared about how my birth went was my doula and that was only because I was paying her. I feel like everyone who was supposed to help just went against me.
Wow, that got off topic. But anyhow, long story short, that doctor was a douche and I requested that I never see her again.
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Sheva Reply:
December 7th, 2010 at 7:36 pm (Quote)
Wow. You had every right to be afraid. And you made your own choices, and that’s your right, too. Good for you!
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brige Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 12:50 am (Quote)
So Sorry Mama… I can completely sympathize with the people who were supposed to be supportive, it blows when you feel like you’d just be better off alone and not having to handle everyone elses baggage along with your labor~ Lots of Love and I hope you’re able to come to peace with the whole experience… I had an amazing first birth complicated by a husband and mother who suffer from foot in mouth disease, and I still have bad feelings about the things that they said… anyways… enough about me… but no woman should ever be yelled at in labor or made to feel inferior or like she is doing something wrong… We all labor perfectly for ourselves and what we are going through… anyone who wants to doubt that or criticize should be lit on fire and then told how to cope, or how they’re doing it wrong… (not to say that birth is like being lit on fire at all… but maybe you get my drift)
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
December 8th, 2010 at 6:14 am (Quote)
Next time make your husband give birth. Yelling at you for having a panic attack, while you were in labour no less, was way out of line. 
And about the rest… so sorry. May you have better luck next time.
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Louisa Reply:
December 11th, 2010 at 2:33 am (Quote)
I am so sorry OP that you weren’t supported during your birth by the people who should have been there for you.
My doula was/is wonderful and was a great resource after DS was born (c/s) and I got PTSD. Please tell me you found a wonderful councillor who helped you work through this. ((HUGS))
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LizzyTish Reply:
December 12th, 2010 at 1:11 pm (Quote)
All Cara is, is a complainer!!!! She complains about everything!!!! If it’s not her way or thoughts it is wrong to her!!! She has tunnel vision!!!!
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Cara Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 11:12 am (Quote)
I don’t know if you used enough exclamation points!!!!!!!!!
I have no idea who you are. I googled your screen name and the closest I can find to someone who may know me is someone who works at the hospital my son goes to…creepy. Anyhow, way to class it up by insulting someone while they’re sharing their traumatic birth story. You look awesome.
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Sheva Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 8:16 pm (Quote)
This website if for supporting mothers who went through birth trauma. If you disagree with her perception of her experience, you’re entitled to your opinion (not that I think it makes any sense, since you weren’t there… and you’re not the mother in this story…). No one asks you to agree with every opinion here. We just ask you to be respectful.
Thanks.
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Either that, or they sustain head trauma and a bit of brain injury.I’ll let somebody else step in and finish the cheap shot for me…
Can’t damage what isn’t there!
On the upside.. if they do have a brain, they may absorb SOME of the information through osmosis!
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Funny, I did end up having my first at 39 wk, 3 days. Went into labor on my own. Guess it is unusual for a first time mom to go early because every nurse asked “When WAS your due date?” I was already back at home with my kiddo on my due date. Plus, I knew the due date was 100% accurate because my kiddo is an IVF baby. I knew the hour of conception. LOL!
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Cindy had this to say,
Dec 8, 2010 @ 1:08 pm (Quote)
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