Just back from my 38-weeks appointment. Didn't get an Internal, but I was scanned, and Joey is still head down, amazingly his head is now 2/5s engaged, his BPD is 94.2mm, his AC is 337.1mm, his estimated foetal weight is a hefty 7.4 pounds!

The doctor predicts that I’ll be giving birth to an 8.6 pound baby in around 2 weeks time, so no induction for me ... But the wee man's healthy, so it's all good.

glad all is well bet you cant wait now to get it all over with and meet baby joey good luck for the birth xx

That is wonderful. Joey will be here soon

Hey, thats great!
I was thinking about you yesterday, wondering if you had left me and Sam in the running to see who was likely to drop first! (as u said u may be induced)
So glad to hear lil Joey is well he's 2/5's engaged? my notes say my kiddo is 3/5's, but I dunno what any of it means lol, so will you explain please? if you dont mind.
Not good with maths, and certainly no good with obsteric notes! x x
Once again, great to hear you're both doing great!

Louise,
In late pregnancy they look to see how much of the baby's head has dropped into the mother's pelvis. They determine progress by seperating the head into 5ths. In the 'relationship to birth' part of your maternity notes, they had probably been writing 'free' for a long time, meaning that none of the baby's head was in your pelvis, but then in late pregnancy the baby drops down into the pelvis, but it's a gradual process.

When they write that the baby's head is 4/5s engaged, it means that only 4/5s of the baby's head is outside of your pelvis now, and 1/5s of the baby's head has actually dropped down into your pelvis, and so on.

So if you're 3/5s engaged, it means 3/5s of Nicky's head is outside of your pelvis, and the rest has descended into your pelvis. With me, it's 2/5s. So now most of my baby's head is in my pelvis. His head should be fully in my pelvis or 'fully engaged' by 40-weeks.

Did I just confuse you even more????

And yeah, doesn't look like I'm going to get an induction! It was a different doctor I saw yesterday from the one who suggested she might induce me 3 weeks ago. Always is with the NHS! Yesterday's doctor didn't even mention induction to me. But I do have a hospital appt booked for 2 weeks time, when I'll be 40-weeks. They'll probably schedule an induction then for 41-weeks or whatever.

Ohhhhh how exciting Gillian - You don't have long to wait at all!

Well I thought 4/5ths engaged meant the head was engaged in the pelvis 4/5ths and 1/5th was free????????

When they say 4/5ths palpable it means they can feel 4/5ths of the head, therefore 1/5th engaged??????

Louise with first babies the head can be fully engaged weeks away from the actual birth. With subsequent babies they can engage during labour itself.

You explained that very well.everyone seems to get confused with that one, I definitely did at first.

Come on Baby!!!!

The race is on!!!

Thanks for explaining the head engaged thing......I was also confused by it too!!

I went for a big long walk last night, ate pineapple and sat on my ball for hours........and nothing I even tried (you'll prob all think I'm crazy!) Walking with one foot on the kerb and the other foot in the gutter! Yes I looked like I'd just escaped from a mental home but apparently its ment to do something? .....it didn't!!! Doh