Normal gestational period=39 weeks?
USA Today reports on a March of Dimes study which shows a decline in the average gestational age of newborns from 40 weeks to 39 weeks. This might lead some to wonder if our species is evolving; but study co-author Nancy Green doesn't think so. More likely we are just intervening early in more cases than ever (C-sections and inductions).
In addition, the percentage of babies born between 34-36 weeks is increasing.
Brave new world?
mary
posted by mary at 7:58 PM
2 Comments:
Well they didn't interview THIS mother, who had one at 42 (!) weeks (yep, the dates were exact), one at 39 weeks and one that came smack on her due date!
No inductions. C section on number one because she was huge!
C section on number two (elective) because I was sole provider at the time at had to be back at work in 5 weeks.
C section number three should have been a vback but the nurses couldn't find my cervix (!) and flat out discouraged me after about six hours of labor. My doctor called me a "wimp" at the nurse's station and my husband heard her.
I had a loooooong talk with her after my daughter was born about (1) calling a patient a wimp and (2) the effect of nursing lack of support or encouragement.
I think we understood each other after that
Had we waited two more hours, my favorite nurse (this was a facility I worked in), who was from India and was the most soothing person I had ever met would have come on duty and I bet you I could have made it through.
Hubby was supportive but it had been 10 years since I had last been in labor and he was listening to the nurses
Labor and delivery stories! My favorite way to pass the time with fellow women!
:-)
No, I'm serious. Can I tell the one about how I told my husband who had been left alone in the room with me to "get the nurse, the baby's coming" and who replied, "Now honey, they just checked you, it's going to be awhile" and who has never yet recovered from the string of profanity (and crowning baby head) that emerged from me at that moment---and who did run to get the nurse, who ran in and then out to get the doctor, who was otherwise engaged, and so a passing resident caught the baby and not a moment too soon!
Oh, I just did.
Now seriously again: I also had to speak to nursing staff later and ask if it was REALLY a good idea to leave the room when the baby was crowning to go in search of a "doctor".
Sorry to hear about your foiled Vaginal Birth After C-section (to translate "vbac" for the non-medical among us).
mary
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