Any scientific ways to have a smaller baby?

[Dreamingofpinkafter2blue]

I'm a skinny boy mom (so far) but gain a lot of weight in pregnancy and have HUGE babies. I have a small pelvis but have barely managed to deliver both vaginally.

Went from 95-155 with boy 1 (60 pounds of weight gain). He was 9.1 ounces and 8 days past my did

Went from 114-150 with boy 2 (35 pounds of weight gain ). He was 9.5 ounces and 2 days late.


My second had should dystocia and a very scary delivery. He wasn't breathing for a long time. He's fine now.

Is there anything I can do to make this baby smaller? Besides smoke. Just kidding.

I'm 30 weeks. I was working out in my 2nd trimester but now I have no energy. I have been pretty hungry. Still gaining but the past few weeks I have really slowed down. I drink 2 cups of coffee a day.

Originally I had planned on just doing the GD diet even though I have never had bad numbers on my GD test. I was even tested twice this pregnancy. But then I worried that all that protein would just make a huge baby if I processed sugar just fine.

Thoughts?

I have gained 30 lbs at 30 weeks. My OB and midwife suggested a 25-30 pounds weight gain just to see if it would make a smaller baby (they said it was probably genetic and nothing I could do to change it).


My OB wants to induce me at 39 weeks. We will do an ultrasound at 38/39 to check size but we known those are not accurate. Although the MFM will do them and they were spot on with my first.

[atomic sagebrush]

I agree with the doctor and midwife that this is almost certainly a genetic thing and nothing you can do is going to fix it. I gained somewhere between 75-90 lbs (at some point I just didn't wanna know any more LOL) in one of my pregnancies and between 50-60 with the others and they all weighed nearly 8-8 1/2 lbs, no rhyme or reason to it. You can see that your second son was bigger even tho you gained less weight. Dieting is only going to harm your baby (although eating more healthy foods and less sugar will certainly not hurt) I would not try to limit your weight gain now. Protein will not make you have a bigger baby, it may help you have a healthy baby.

Personally, I think the newest evidence has shown pretty clearly that inducing before 39 weeks is simply not a good idea because of brain development (I know that's not what they were suggesting yet but they have a funny way of switcherooing it on people and you may walk into an ultrasound at 38 weeks being pressured to induce that day) Even that last week may make a difference according to the newest research I've read within the past month. I think you trade one set of risks for another in that scenario, because inducing when your body isn't wanting to go into labor may not work anyway, so then you're induced and still have all the risks of the dystocia and possibly OTHER risks including a greater chance of a C-section. They know that the dystocia is a risk and they can be prepared for it - I would really press them on whether the risks outweigh the benefits here because I think they are intervening in a way that may only INCREASE the risks.

[Dreamingofpinkafter2blue]

Thanks atomic. I did an acupuncture induction with my second and found it to be extremely effective. My acupuncturist is willing to try at 39 weeks this time (she did it at 40 weeks last time). Do you think I should just waive the medical induction at 39 weeks and wait for my body to go into labor naturally? And also try to acupuncture knowing that it may or not be effective at 39 weeks. I'm just soooooo nervous after the dystocia birth because it was so scary. It took them awhile to get him breathing but I was also at a small birthing center. This time I will be at a large hospital with tons of doctors and a NICU available. My midwife told me last time that the positioning of my son was fine but it was the dystocia was caused by his weight only. My first baby was 9.1 and didn't have dystocia but 3 hours of pushing.


Weirdly my shoulder dystocia baby was my only all natural birth without drugs or any interventions. Although I did get super tired from pushing and delivered on my back, which I know it bad for shoulder dystocia babies.

Also do you think 39 weeks is a bad idea to induce medically? Do you mean it's just bad before then? My first was induced at 41 weeks and my OB said since I had a successful induction that time, it's likely this induction would be successful? Sorry for all the questions! I just have heard so many different things.

[atomic sagebrush]

I can't tell you what to do on that but what I do know is that tons of people have gone to be induced at 39 weeks and it doesn't work and they end up having a c-section with issues for the baby in that scenario too. What if you go to be induced and have dystocia ANYWAY, yk?? What if you don't progress and end up having to have major surgery, possibly emergency, with risks to you and the baby both? What i really don't want to see you do is get bullied into inducing at 38 weeks above all else. 39 if you must, 38 is just not a good idea.

There is a HUGE difference between induction at 39 weeks and 41 weeks. The baby is "done cooking" by 41 weeks and your body is ready to go. It may not be even at 39 weeks. The way your body knows to go into labor is that it detects chemicals that indicate your baby's lungs are ready. If you typically go to full term or late, at 39 weeks your body may not want to go into labor then. There are risks to inductions and the closer you are to going into labor naturally on your own, the better.

Yes I personally think even 39 weeks is too early. I think that by and large our bodies "know" what they are doing and over the last few years they have found out more and more that there is some brain development that is going on even at the very end of pregnancy. But that is not my call to make, it's yours. I just wanted to mention that they very well may try and sell you on 38 weeks and it's better to hang on a little longer, both for the baby's sake and also hopefully to make it more likely that your body will respond to the induction meds.

I do want to mention that the more babies you've had, it does indicate that your body is a little bit more "used to it". Things are stretched, you know what to expect, etc. You know you can birth big babies, you've done it twice, and it very well may be that this baby is smaller than the last one (my 3rd was my smallest baby!) So just don't feel like you have to go rushing into an induction early if you do not want to.

Acupuncture is fine, if you think it helped you, that's great. I would advise against doing the evening primrose oil orally though. They suggest that a lot and I did it with my 3rd and had a lot of bleeding from the placenta that I think was caused by the EPO (and I did not go into labor early ANYWAY)

[Dreamingofpinkafter2blue]

Thank you so much for your advice! I know that my OB will def want to induce at 39 weeks. But can I just say no? I described my second labor to her and that I arrived to the hospital at 9cm last time so she claims I have fast labor so but I really don't. She doesn't understand that I wanted to labor at home for as long as I could. My OB mentioned that the baby just may be smaller for unknown reasons or that statistically if it's a girl (which we don't know) the baby might be a few ounces smaller.

I def won't do the primrose oil. My acupuncturist had me do the breast pump and have sex as much as I could at the end. But the breast pump made me contract so hard, that I wasn't really into it.


She also said that even though I am at risk for another another shoulder dystocia baby that since they didn't need to break his clavicle and he spent 0 time in the NICU it was a less drastic case.

It's just so nerve racking because I know they keep tacking on weight at the end. My last visit a month ago I did measure a week ahead. But I feel like i measured on time or a week ahead with my boys and they were both still huge.

[atomic sagebrush]

It's normal to measure ahead in terms of your belly (I'm assuming this was a tummy measurement and not an ultrasound) the more kiddos you've had. I think I was like 2 months ahead with my 5th LOL (exaggerating a bit but I was ALWAYS ahead on the tape measure)

You can always say no, but they may make your life very unpleasant. :/

Laying flat on your back to have a baby doesn't help, that's for sure. One of the biggest drawbacks of induction is that you do have to lay flat (at least I had to with DS 4, I had to be induced with him since my water broke and I didn't go into labor for a long time). Is there anyone else at the practice you can talk to about this???