Pregnancy Update – 37 Weeks

I am in the final few weeks of my pregnancy, and this week has been an eventful one. On Tuesday, I saw the midwife who confirmed that my baby, is indeed breech. It’s what I expected following our scan last week, but not the news I wanted to hear. I guess there was a small part of me that was hoping she would have turned in the meantime. At 37 weeks, the chances of her turning into a ‘normal’ position are getting slimmer every day! My midwife has booked me in for a consultants appointment at the hospital on the 3rd September, where we will discuss my options, of which there are basically three.

The first, is to attempt to give birth naturally as normal. My hospital, unlike some, will allow breech delivery, but obviously the chances of complication are slightly higher than a routine head first labour. My baby appears to be in some kind of pike position (Tom Daley of the future?) and therefore is likely to come out butt first. Having needed an episiotomy to get Erin out even when she was in a favourable position, my body pretty much cringes at this prospect. I cant see it happening somehow, so probably not a realistic option. The second is that they try and manually turn the baby, where they give a muscle relaxant injection before hand to allow my uterus to be relaxed and an attempt at turning to be made. This procedure has about a fifty percent success rate, but does come with some risks. I saw a video on Huffington Post of a successful ECV procedure  last week and it was simply fascinating, however I have to admit I hate the thought of what could happen if the cord was around the babies neck or something equally unknown. Again, I  am not sure if I will go for this option or not. I feel like I need to know more in order to make an informed decision.

The third option, and the one that I didn’t want to have to go for was the elective section. These are generally booked in a 39 weeks, which means I could have my baby a little earlier than planned. I am not concerned about the procedure itself, but wasn’t keen on a caesarean birth due to the longer recovery time and the fact that I would be away from Erin for longer and take a while to get back to my cuddly mummy self! I also want to breast feed again, and have heard that milk can take a little longer to establish after sections.

Overall what will be will be, and I have to accept I have very little control over what comes next. That said, I haven’t ruled out attempts of turning her naturally, by getting on all fours regularly and even the whole icepack at the top of the bump procedure. It has to be worth a try!! 🙂

On Thursday, I broke up for the bank holiday, and officially start my maternity leave on Wed 31st August (although am not back in the office at all now). It is a very surreal feeling packing up your desk and handing over your workload knowing that you wont be back in the office for 12 months. It hasn’t quite sunk it yet, and I checked my emails around 5 times on Friday, and had to resist the urge to respond to things I knew how to resolve. Easier said than done – I am not one for sitting still!! 🙂 I also have total FOMO- something which I need to get over or I will be checking my email every day lol 🙂

So, my baby, in theory could come any day now, and her route into the world is yet to be determined. One thing is for sure, our world is going to change quite significantly over coming weeks, and I am excited and terrified in equal measure!! 🙂

Will keep you informed!

Lucy x