It's Almost Time!

36 weeks!
#1 on the left vs. #2 on the right

A week ago Sunday marked 36 weeks in this pregnancy. This past Sunday marked the start of my "birthing window," or the 5 week window where normal-term babies are usually delivered. When you hear about pregnant women, you always ask "when are you due?" They usually oblige and tell you a specific date. For me, that date is June 7th. What mother nature tells you is different. The "average" length of a standard pregnancy is 280 days. However, 280 days is just the average. What the actual length of a pregnancy is depends on the woman, her family history, the health of the pregnancy, the number of children she's carrying, and even if this is her first pregnancy.

Most first time mothers who go into labor spontaneously go just over 41 weeks gestation. That means no external interventions such as membrane sweeping, induction, breaking the waters, etc. With my pregnancy with Dan, I was certain that I would go to 42 weeks as I have a strong family history of "late" babies. My Mother was induced 2 weeks past my due date (which I'm happy about, otherwise my birthday would coincide with tax day). My sister was also induced 10 days past her due date as the doctors were concerned about how big she was getting. Funny enough, I was 8lb 1oz and my sister was 8lb 14oz (I think I'm correct on the ounces with my sister). Anyway, we were both very normal sized babies at our birth. Today, the average weight of a newborn is 7.5 pounds or 7lb 8oz. The range is between 5lb 8oz and 10lb. With more and more women being induced no later than 41 weeks, I can only imagine that this average weight is a bit skewed toward being lower than what the average newborn weight was before we had all these medical inventions and interventions being used in the maternal healthcare setting.

Don't get me wrong. I am so grateful for how advanced our maternal care setting has become. I find it rather unfortunate that many of today's doctors end up relying on the technology instead of actually listening to the mother and child and work WITH mother nature instead of pushing mother nature along faster than what is intended in some cases. I am a strong advocate for evidence-based practices not only in medicine, but especially maternal care. Upwards of 80-90% of maternal healthcare practices are NOT evidence-based. We are doing our mothers a very sad disservice all for policy, whether that policy is coming from the hospital or from the insurance companies.

This last statistic is my motivating factor to plan home births for myself. Under the careful eye of an experienced midwife, home births are just as safe if not safer than a hospital birth for normal, healthy pregnancies. I've been told many times how "brave" I am for having home births. I could say the same to those who plan hospital births. The thing is, there is risk in everything we do in life. It is up to each individual to determine their own perception of each risk, research and discuss those risks with their spouse and care provider, and determine what course of action they wish to take; what risk to take and which risk to acknowledge and pass over.

So, with all that in mind, back to how I've been doing with this pregnancy. We had our home visit yesterday with our midwife. She checked to make sure we have all the supplies that we need and checked on my health and the health of baby. We did the standard pee test plus we tested for GBS, or Group Beta Strep. If that test comes back positive, then there is a protocol that we use to eliminate GBS prior to delivery. If that test comes back negative, well, no worries! GBS can cause some issues in newborns who are not properly treated in confirmed GBS positive mothers.

Baby's heart rate was strong at around 120pbm. We didn't get the fundal height as our midwife misplaced her tape measure. Baby's head is still sitting snugly in my pelvis. Unfortunately he's a bit more posterior than anterior which I hope doesn't cause back labor when labor does begin. My blood pressure is still stellar. I believe it was around 110/68. Somewhere around there. When I was pregnant with Dan, my blood pressure was inching towards pre-eclamptic. It never officially got there, thankfully. Still retaining just a small amount of fluid, but again, nothing like when I was pregnant with Dan.

At this point, baby can come any day. Dan ended up being born one day before his estimated due date. Typically, subsequent pregnancies end up with labor beginning earlier than the previous pregnancy. I have a feeling that will hold true for this pregnancy. The question now is, will baby be born at the end of May or the beginning of June? He may really throw me for a loop and come after his due date! I doubt that it will happen that way, but you never know. What I do know is that I can't wait to get into the birthing tub again!

I hope everyone is doing well. Both Dan and Jason are well, as are the dogs. Looking forward to meeting our new little one. Hopefully it doesn't take long for the new chaos of being a family of four starts to become routine.

Take care!