Pregnancy beyond term

During the first visit a woman has after taking a pregnancy test or a beta hCG test, she is told when her due date (DPP) will be. From that moment the countdown begins and never exceed this date! You would be considered as “out of time” and from that moment every day seems to never pass.

Usually this fateful date comes out by making a calculation based on the last 40 weeks of menstruation or based on the size of the fetus during the first ultrasound .

80 % of mothers give birth after 40 weeks . Furthermore, even if we base the date of delivery on the basis of the average length of a menstrual cycle, which is 28 days, we know that not all women have a cycle like this. Some women have a longer cycle and some have a shorter cycle.

The ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) advises against any intervention before the end of 42 weeks in a physiological pregnancy. And we all know that almost no hospital respects this thing, so if you are under pressure to induce childbirth, use these recommendations because it is harmful and useless to intervene if all goes well, on the contrary, important damage could be caused both during labor and during delivery .

Has anyone thought that a baby born before its time could be premature?

In some hospitals, a health balance is made in the 36th week where an interview is held, the tests are checked, the hospital is visited and an appointment is made again in the 41st week, there on that occasion the famous checks begin, which consist of in a gynecological visit, an ultrasound visit, a tracing and a new appointment after two days and again after another two days until you arrive (if you’re lucky) at 41+5 day in which you will be hospitalized and somehow you will be induced childbirth.

Checks after dpp

Why are these controls intensified? Why isn’t it enough to evaluate fetal and maternal well-being with movement counts and measurement of the fundus symphysis? Why should a mother begin to ask herself the question: “Why isn’t she born?”, “Why is my child lazy?” “Will she be okay?”, “Why doesn’t labor start?”, “Do I have something wrong?”.

I find all of this very bad because the ability to wait, to listen to one’s body, to feel one’s child, to live the last moments together with joy and serenity has been lost. Every child knows when to be born, how he knows how to form perfectly, he knows what his moment is and how to unleash all the hormones necessary to start labor.

Increasing checkups increases stress and this inhibits the onset of labor. The ideal would be not to think about the deadline, but to get in touch with your child, work on your breathing, imagine the child in your arms and wait.

The pharmacological inductions that hospital protocols offer to parturients (at 41+3 or +5 or +6 depending on the structures) can be calmly refused, agreeing to undergo only checks on the state of fetal well-being. Doing anything from administering castor oil, to detaching the membranes, to administering oxytocin or prostaglandin, has a high probability that it will all end in a C-section.

Pharmacological induction

Precisely what is offered to the woman:

• Propess : vaginal tape that locally releases prostaglandins. It stays in place for 24 hours. A tracing is carried out before and one immediately after applying this tape. It is removed in case of onset of labor, fetal distress and secondary effects such as nausea or vomiting.
• Prepidil : vaginal gel that locally releases prostaglandins. 1 dosages can be made every 6 hours up to a total of 3. A trace is performed before and one immediately after applying the gel into the vagina. As soon as it is positioned, you have to lie down for 30 minutes.
• IV oxytocin .

The pressure exerted on a woman who goes beyond the deadline is very high, and refusing to plan an induction or even a caesarean goes against the opinion of many doctors, but the woman needs her freedom and not to have external influences that prevent you from arriving at the start of labor serenely and independently. An example: a woman who wants a VBAC, a spontaneous birth after a cesarean, has planned a trial labor, this wording can already throw the pregnant woman into despair.

Pharmacological inductions don’t always work

This is because the main hormone, protagonist of labor, is oxytocin and is produced with physical contact, with pleasant physical contact. Which hardly many vaginal visits, hours of tracings, membrane detachments and continuous hospital appointments can be.

Entrust yourself to a midwife for the entire duration of the pregnancy and be supported in your informed choices and be informed about your choices and make sure that it is she, together with the hospital where you have chosen to give birth, who monitors the fetal well-being and your so as to arrive serene and aware of any road you choose to take.