Should you be worried if you are 39 weeks pregnant the baby hasn't even dropped yet and the doctor says he's 2 weeks ahead of what he's supposed to weigh?

Answer 1

Please educate yourself on brachial plexus injuries. Go to injurednewborn.com There are other links from this site. what does a birth injury have to do w/ anything? If you are a first time mom you would have a right to be concerned. Often when the baby does not engage (drop) in a first time mother it is because the baby is too big for the mother's pelvis. If you have had a baby before it is not uncommon for the baby to stay high right up until you are in labor. Good luck! Very occasionally a large baby will have what is called 'shoulder dystocia' where the shoulders get stuck in the pelvis. This may lead to brachial plexus injury. Not very reassuring for you as a first answer. However as one of the answers says, it is quite common for second and subsequent babies to not 'drop' until labour. Sometimes the head does not descend before labour because the baby is facing forward with a straight neck, more commonly they face backwards with the chin on the chest. You can help the baby turn round by spending time on your hands and knees. Once you go into labour the head may rotate and descend. (This happened to me) If you are a first time Mom the doctor may give you a 'trial of labour' to see if the head will descend when you start contracting. If not, as the head is not engaged you should be prepared for a C-section. I am not sure why the doctor says the baby is 2 weeks ahead of what he should weigh. There is such a variation in baby weights at birth that this is a nonsense. If he has measured your abdomen with a tape and you measure 41cm (usually cm measurement is the same as the number of weeks)this is because the baby hasn't 'dropped'. If an us scan is showing a big baby this is more accurate but not always. 2 personal experiences. I have been a midwife for 25 years and early in my career I was looking after a woman who was in hospital because her baby's head was not dropping at all. Every time she was examined her baby was a different way around. Sometimes up, sometimes down and occasionally crossways. One Saturday afternoon her husband came and asked if he could stay with her as she had been contracting for 2 hours. I quickly examined her (worrying that she had gone into labour with the baby crossways, lo and behold the head was down and had dropped. She got to the Delivery Room with about 15 minutes to spare. I was induced with twins at 36 weeks partly because a scan showed that my second twin was not growing properly. After quite a quick labour my first twin delivered, a little skinny boy (4 pounds 15 ounces), 10 minutes later my daughter appeared, a chubby pink 6 pounds 3 ounces. Good luck.