Week 41 onwards

It’s just not fair – you have already had to wait 40 weeks and now you have gone over your expected due date! However there are things you can do to while away the time:

• Snuggle up on the sofa and watch DVDs
• Read lots of books
• Lie around in the garden (if the weather’s good, naturally!)
• Visit friends and family (take your maternity notes with you, plus your mobile)
• Take up knitting
• Spend time with your partner
• Spend time with your other child/children
• Give in to your nesting urges and spring clean
• Visit the Chat Forum on the HiPP Baby Club
• Fill up the freezer with home cooked 'ready meals'

Did you know?

• Only 5% of women give birth on their EDD (expected due date, or estimated date of delivery)
• Approximately 80% of women will give birth within 10 days of their EDD

So what happens now...

You are likely to have an appointment with your midwife or doctor at 41 weeks. They will examine your tummy – checking your baby’s size and position - and they may with your permission give you an internal examination (to check the softness/stretchiness of the cervix and its readiness for labour). They may also offer you a membrane sweep - although not all hospitals/surgeries offer this procedure.

They may want to discuss the option of induction with you.

Did you know?

• In England, induction takes place in approximately 1 in 5 pregnancies

With induction, how are contractions started?

Contractions are started by either inserting pessaries or gel in the vagina, by artificial rupture of membranes (ARM) or by hormones being given intravenously in the arm. It may take a little time for the labour to start following induction – but it should proceed normally once it has started. It should be noted that induction doesn’t decrease or increase the chance of requiring a caesarean section during labour.

Old wives tales

Rumour has it that the following may help to start labour off (although we do not endorse or recommend you trying any of them!):

• Sex
• Stimulating the whole of the nipple area for at least 15-20 minutes several times a day (although you may become very bored/sore!)
• Eating spicy food
• Eating fresh pineapple

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