I am 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant, but my doctor says I can't be induced. Why?

In the days to weeks leading up to delivery, your body is doing some prep work. Your body starts to release prostaglandins, or hormones, that act on your cervix and actually ripen it. That is the medical term we use, just like a fruit is ripe. So this means that your cervix starts to soften, it moves forward in your pelvis, and it begins to thin out. And then at some point, your brain will start to release oxytocin, which is a hormone that acts on your uterus and tells you to contract. Now these contractions, once they get intense and frequent enough, will act on cervix and it will begin to dilate. Usually this prep work, like I said, happens in the days to weeks leading up to delivery, and most first-time moms deliver between 39 1/2 and 40 1/2 weeks, but for an unfortunate few, they get to 41 weeks and they still haven't delivered. And of course, the problem is that their body hasn't done any of this prep work.

If you get to 41 weeks, then you have to be induced, and here's the reason why: placentas have expiration dates on them, but they're just not stamped anywhere we can see them, which means that they will eventually stop feeding your baby like they should. This can lead to a deprivation in oxygen and cause problems for your baby. Studies have shown that nothing good happens after 41 weeks - there is no benefit to you still being pregnant. So we induce you and get your baby out. Of course, most moms are up for this, because they're sick and tired of being pregnant. The induction process can be long and hard in these circumstances, because we have to do what your body should have been doing in the days to weeks leading up to delivery. We just try to squish it into a day or two. So we bring you into the hospital, and we give you medications to ripen your cervix and to mimic what would naturally happen. And then after this ripening process, we give you pitocin, or it's also known as oxytocin, and this causes your uterus to contract, which makes you dilate, and puts you into labor, and helps you have your baby.

Now you mentioned that you're 40 weeks and 2 days, and your doctor says that they can't induce you yet. And that's probably because, until you get to 41 weeks, it's not medically indicated. And we don't usually just induce first-time moms for fun, because your body is stubborn. So in most instances, we wait until it's medically indicated, which is at 41 weeks. Now if you have more specific questions about your circumstances, your OB provider will be able to give you the best information, because they know the most about you. And seeing that delivery will probably be at least in the next few days for you, I want to congratulate you ahead of time, and I hope that everything goes well for you. If you have any other questions for me in the future, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IntermountainMoms, and recommend us to your friends and family too.

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