Past Due Date, Want a Natural Birth, Getting Anxious, HELP!

My oldest was three weeks overdue and weighed 7lbs7oz. Had they induced me shortly after his due date, he would have been too small. Your body knows what it is doing, and barring any obvious signs of distress, your baby is fine :)

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Honey. One day over due is nothing :)

I'm sure that's not what you want to hear.... my kids were 9 days over (induced), 11 days over, and 5 days over. Babies #2 and #3 were all natural waterbirths... my second weighed 9 lbs 7 oz., and I managed to get him out without any drugs in just a few big pushes.

Your baby will come when ready.

Get rest. Drink lots of water. Go for long walks. Take a yoga class. Relax...

I was never dilated passed 1 cm until the day my babes came into the world.

You'll be fine.
J.

6 moms found this helpful

My answer for you is a two-parter.

First, one day overdue is exciting and also not really a lot to be concerned about. To us, that is. I remember being where you are, feeling like I just wanted to be able to get my son's feet out of my throat and stop waddling everywhere. I wanted to meet my son, first and foremost, but a close second at that time was wanting him out, and preferrably with a natural birth.

(I'm going to interrupt myself here, before part two, and suggest that should number three come along, you work out a birth plan which includes the possibility of a Cesarean birth and medical interventions, because we never know.)

Part Two is this: there is a way to induce naturally. When I was 10 days over, I visited a midwife who also was an acupuncturist and received an acupuncture induction treatment. I was checked internally for dilation and effecement and then the acu/midwife adjusted the treatment so that the dilation/effacement would work in conjunction with the stimulated contractions. I chose to go this route as A. we were trying for a homebirth and my midwifery team did not do homebirths for new moms past two weeks and B. they had recommended the acu/midwife and passed my medical information to her and C. I was familiar with acupuncture in the past and knew I'd be a good candidate for this.

This isn't for everyone. You will have to hustle to find a qualified acupuncturist who does induction (I'd call midwifery services first, because the midwives will know which acu's are more successful at this) and then you may have to get medical records to pass along to the acupuncturist, esp. if they do not have a background with your OB/GYN. And for what it's worth, my impression (at the time, from my midwives) was that acu inductions may only work up to 20% of the time. I was lucky to have a woman working with me who had an 75%+ record of success with induction and who is known in our community as an amazing and gifted midwife. Our son's birth was medically uneventful and the best thing I've ever experienced.

Done sharing now. I do hope you have a good birth, no matter what happens.

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You do not have to succomb to induction. If they start pressuring you, ask them why they believe you need an induction. If they cannot give you a verifiable reason, then don't do it. They can do ultrasounds to check your water levels, the health of your placenta, etc. Even 3 weeks post dates is normally safe for you and the baby. I was induced with one of my children at 2 weeks after my due date. When they dated him, they said he was only 38 weeks gestation. I knew my dates were right, but apparently, my cycle was not by the book that month. All of my children have been born late, by the way. If I had induced him earlier, he may have had health issues. I was naive and uneducated on this, and just did what I was told. I know better now. Blessings to you! Congrats on your impending birth!

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My boys were BOTH a full week late.

It's nothing to worry about. Go out and walk a lot. Let baby come when he comes. I've never met a woman whose baby didn't come eventually, despite her impatience!

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"One day overdue" is not overdue. Your estimated due date is just that... estimated. You can go two weeks past the estimated due date and still be on time. A full term pregnancy is 38-42 weeks depending on the development of the baby.

At this point you have absolutely nothing to be worried about. One of my sisters-in-law and one of my cousins went to 42 weeks twice. That same cousin's mother went to 42 weeks with twins (and delivered them at 6 and 8 lbs!). Two of my best friends delivered babies at 41 weeks.

The best thing you can do for yourself and the baby is to rest. Drink plenty of fluids. Walk when you feel like walking. Eat when you feel like eating to keep up your energy. The baby will come when it's ready, and most of the commonly believed ways to "induce" labor are just old wives tales and some are flat out dangerous.

So remember you're not really "overdue." Your pregnancy is right where it should be.

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Your baby has 2 weeks past the due date before he/she is actually "late". Your body knows when your baby is ready to come out. Don't let the 1 cm thing get to you. Women can go from 1 to 4 (or more) cm in an hour. I would skip these checks if I were you-as personally I find them to be completely unnecessary. My babies were early. I went on long walks (6 miles) and scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees--that's what put me into labor the 1st time. I'm not sure if I actually "induced" my labor or if it was just coincidence...but it worked for me. Good luck to you. Stay positive, trust your body, and listen to your instincts. :)

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I was one week overdue and WANTED to wait another week. My ob/gyn was induction happy :-(. Stand your ground on this! Good luck.

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I had my membranes swept at 3 days past due and my beautifully perfect daughter was itching to get out less than 24 hrs later - it is technically an 'intervention' but Im sure no where near as invasive as being induced
You could ask your OB to try it before you are scheduled to be induced and cross your fingers - Apparently sex is suppose to have the same effect so you could try that too
Good Luck and Congrats on the baby

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My first was born 2 days early. My second was quite late -- 3 weeks 1 day late. I had been planning a homebirth, and my midwife was comfortable waiting as long as I had biophysical profiles done every 3 days to check on the baby and the placental function. So, I did. And they kept coming back just fine except that the ultrasound part of it kept reading her as very small. In the meantime, I did everything I could to induce naturally. Lots of sex, castor oil, nipple stimulation, acupuncture, eating lots of nightshades and very little dairy. My midwife offered to strip my membranes, but then we discovered I wasn't dilated at all, and you need to be a little bit for that. None of them worked, though the nipple stim (I hooked myself up to a breastpump for an hour) gave me mild contractions 10 min apart for almost 24 hours. But those biophysical profiles kept coming back saying she was small but fine, so we waited.

Eventually I went into labor the day after my husband's birthday, and my daughter was born 5 hours later... and that small baby was 9 pounds 6 ounces. After the birth, my midwives said she didn't look like she was overdue -- overdue babies have a specific look to them from having "cooked" a bit longer, and they said she looked like she couldn't have been over 41 weeks. Perhaps our dates were off.

Talk to your birth attendant, and see what they say about being overdue. Bring up the idea of biophysical profiles. See what they are willing to do.

Good luck.

-B.

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My friend just had a natural birth at home with the help of a midwife. She went 6 days past her due date with no talk of inductions. She ended up giving birth to a 9 lb. 10 oz. boy, all in less than 3 1/2 hours! If I were her, by that point, I would have been worried my child would get stuck given how much babies grow in those last few weeks. I'm assuming the midwife checked on the baby's heart rate to make sure he was ok and as long as that's the case, they would have let him stay in there until he was ready to come out.
I have heard that using a breast pump can help stimulate contractions if you're looking for a way to kick start labor. There are also pressure points that you can work on that are supposed to do the same thing (you can google and I'm sure you'll find them). That being said, don't know if any of those things work, but it couldn't hurt. I'm sure baby will come when ready and hopefully things will get to go your way, but if they don't, don't let it get you down. Whatever brings your baby into this world will be wonderful even if it's not what you were expecting! Good luck!

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Try taking a long walk...thats what I did with my youngest and I went in to labor the next day. I've also heard (not sure if it's true) that getting a pedicure can cause you to go into labor.
I too was only dialted to 1 on my last OB appt (on my due date). And I went into labor that evening. I was dialated to 5 when I got to the hospital and had her 4hrs later.
Good luck!

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Hi jahjahsmom-

Hope all goes well with your impending birth!!

With my third child, my mom and I were shopping for bathing suits!! And the contractions began in earnest! lol

I think, at the time, it was merely the scary thought of ever WEARING a bathing suit again that did it!!!

Best luck!
michele/cat

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I've always heard that 2 weeks give or take of the predicted due date is perfectly natural.
One day past is nothing to be upset about (although that whole last month you want it to be over already).
As long as the baby isn't stressed, try to wait it out.
Go for walks, do stairs - that's what a nurse at the hospital recommended to get things moving along.

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My son (firstborn) was 10 days past due date when I finally went into labor. They monitored me with stress tests regularly near the end. On Friday (day 9 past due date) my doctor said to meet him at the hospital first thing Monday morning to begin induction procedures, if nothing happened over the weekend. Labor started Saturday morning, and he was born in the wee hours Saturday night.

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Go easy, sweetie. Due dates are as much art as science. Some little ones just take a little longer than others. Take a breath. You -- and your baby -- will be OK.

Sounds like there are a lot of good suggestions here. I started going on half-hour walks, ate spicy-for-me food (normal chili or taco with jalepeno strength), sex, and nipple stimulation. They say if you are going to use sex you need to have sex twice a day as the concentration of prostaglandins in the semen isn't that high. I also read the prostaglandin precursors are in kiwi and fresh pineapple too, and I love kiwi so I started eating a few a day. I actually started having very mild contractions a few days after starting this. They were mild for 4 days! Then my water broke and I thought they would finally pickup, but nope. After a while the doctor convinced me to go on a pitocin drip since she didn't want me going over 24 h with my water broken. I took to the pitocin drip and my daughter was born about 4-5 hours later. So my "natural" ways to induce to avoid being unnaturally induce didn't quite work. Although it did get me half-way dilated before the pitocin. And other than the pitocin I did have a natural labor.

I was 7 days late. My induction (which I was not looking ofrward to having) was scheduled for 6am Monday morning. At 10pm, I decided that the Baby's room needed to be vaccuumed before I went to bed. Unfotunately, the vaccuum was in the basement and I didn't want to bother my husband in the garage to go get it, so I went and carried it us the flight of stairs myself. With the first stip of the vaccuum, my water broke. I don't know if I'd recommend it, but it worked.

My third baby was 10 days overdue. We were having a homebirth but I also saw the CNM at the birthing center I would need to go to in case things didn't go well. They did the usual stress tests and ultrasound and took the baby's measurements. The readings they got were not "within the norm" and they started to freak out. I went home and reflected on how I was feeling and how I thought the baby felt and determined that nothing was out of the ordinary. and I wasn't going to let them freak me out and intervene.

My midwives suggested I see an acupuncturist and they set up the appointment. After an hour with her I went home and had my daughter that evening in the room we had prepared. Her measurements were fine and she was completely healthy at 8lbs, 12oz.

I had also used the black cohash tincture with my first child that Pamela +2 mentions below. That worked also.

Don't let the doctors freak you out. Listen to your body and relax.

Good luck.