41 weeks tomorrow. How bad would it be to request my doctor to let me go into labor naturally?

Question

My doctor basically said last Monday that if I'm not dilated by today (shooting for a VBAC) that he would recommend we schedule a c section. He doesn't think an induction would be successful with no dilation. I am really not trying to have a c section again, first one my water broke at 30 weeks and ended in  emergency bc he was breech and it was awful.

Answer

I don’t think it would hurt to ask but by 42 weeks I think they will schedule induction

Answer

I dont think itd be bad, but expect some pushback. Doctors dont like going that long because the quality of the placenta goes down.

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If you schedule a c-section you wouldn’t have to go through the drama of waters breaking, labour etc. you just go straight into surgery...
But of course if you want to wait a bit longer and try and go into labor naturally then definitely ask for it! There may be a medical reason why dr wants to do a c-section if you haven’t gone by now, if not, there’s no harm in waiting a few more days

Answer

My Dr is very vbac friendly. A vbac is not a regular birth situation. Mine wouldn't let me go past 40 weeks because my baby was getting big. Not unreasonably big, but a bigger baby will put more pressure on your uterus, and you have to be careful of rupture. My 3rd baby was a c section, when I had my 4th I really wanted  a vbac. I was 2cm dilated but not dropped and my dr recommended a c section by my due date. I begged for an induction, he only agreed because my 1st 2 births were successful inductions, but he said it was unlikely to be successful because they can only give a very low dose of pitocin for a vbac. But he agreed to try. He was right. I labored for 14 hours and never got past 4 cm and ended up in another c section. I'm not saying the exact thing will happen to you of course, but your drs opinion seems very concurrent with my drs opinion, and he was right in the end.

Answer

My first was an emergency c-section. My second was 8 years later so I wanted to try for a vbac. We waited until just under 41 weeks but I wasn't dilated at all. We decided to have a c-section for a second time. I was really disappointed but I can say the second time around was so much easier. Way less pain, I was more relaxed, it was better in every way. I really wanted a vaginal birth but baby #2 was 10.5 lbs so who knows how that would've gone anyway.

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The problem with going much further past your “due date” is the placenta can start to deteriorate. But also you definitely can be induced without any dilation. I was and had my son vaginally a little over 2 years ago. Just be prepared for c section in case.

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I wasn’t trying to ever have a csection again but sometimes you gotta weigh up what is the safest way. I ain’t willing to even risk another emergency painful csection - elective is a completely different situation. Still painful but I feel like if I tried VBAC the same situation is inevitable. 
It depends entirely on your circumstances... I would ask if you can book a csection for anywhere around 42 weeks if you’ve not started naturally

Answer

I don’t think it’s bad to ask. I do wonder though because this is what I’ve heard since you had a C-section already don’t they make you have a C-section again? If not then I see no problem asking but if they do you may as well just have them do it sooner rather than later.

Answer

Not bad at all, have them sweep you.

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Hello. I spoke to my doctor about this and they said that they would really only do this when you’re very close to 42 weeks. You’re not even close to overdue yet really. If you don’t want it just say you want to wait until you’re close to 42 weeks. Most people actually go into labour during their 41st week so I don’t know why he is expecting you to give birth immediately or to have done so already but it seems a bit inappropriate of him if there are no real medical concerns since it’s perfectly normal for you to still be pregnant right now. You will probably go into labour naturally any time now :) x

41 weeks tomorrow. How bad would it be to request my doctor to let me go into labor naturally?

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