Has Jaime birthed that baby yet?
No.
The OB, Dr. Wiley, has the due date set at August 31 (cute story, David has a baby cousin named "Riley." When they were introduced on Saturday, David called him "Dr. Riley"). Jaime's calculations, based on being present at certain stepping-stones in the process, put her at August 11. However, Dr. Wiley trusts her instincts. If labor has not begun by the weekend, he is willing to order sonograms or measurements or whatever it takes to determine how big the baby is and induce if necessary. The goal is to avoid a baby bigger than about eight pounds--one that raises the possibility of needing an emergency c-section.
So, there are two issues at work here--uncertainty about the due date, and concern about the size of the baby. It is common knowledge that due dates are highly unreliable and nearly arbitrary. People often say to us that baby will come when it is ready to come, regardless of an established date. That may be true, but having a due date helps with addressing the size problem. If the due date comes and goes, then that will trigger doctors to monitor the size to be sure that the extra time is not causing problem. Having such a wide discrepancy as we makes it difficult to address this issue.
You may have noticed that white American people are having larger and larger babies these days. While certainly not a health crisis, it does pose interesting issues. We have gotten very good at promoting prenatal health to middle-class women--maximizing every opportunity for the fetus to develop as much as possible. They are so healthy that they are reaching birthing weight and beyond just a little quicker than they should.
What facts am I citing to support this supposition? You are clearly not familiar with the way blogging works. I'm just typing to kill some time. If you want facts, go watch Fox News.
It just seems to me like babies are getting bigger, that's all. I would be curious to know how many women of my grandmother's generation had to worry about an emergency c-section because the baby would be too big at the onset of labor.
later, big baby fans
No.
The OB, Dr. Wiley, has the due date set at August 31 (cute story, David has a baby cousin named "Riley." When they were introduced on Saturday, David called him "Dr. Riley"). Jaime's calculations, based on being present at certain stepping-stones in the process, put her at August 11. However, Dr. Wiley trusts her instincts. If labor has not begun by the weekend, he is willing to order sonograms or measurements or whatever it takes to determine how big the baby is and induce if necessary. The goal is to avoid a baby bigger than about eight pounds--one that raises the possibility of needing an emergency c-section.
So, there are two issues at work here--uncertainty about the due date, and concern about the size of the baby. It is common knowledge that due dates are highly unreliable and nearly arbitrary. People often say to us that baby will come when it is ready to come, regardless of an established date. That may be true, but having a due date helps with addressing the size problem. If the due date comes and goes, then that will trigger doctors to monitor the size to be sure that the extra time is not causing problem. Having such a wide discrepancy as we makes it difficult to address this issue.
You may have noticed that white American people are having larger and larger babies these days. While certainly not a health crisis, it does pose interesting issues. We have gotten very good at promoting prenatal health to middle-class women--maximizing every opportunity for the fetus to develop as much as possible. They are so healthy that they are reaching birthing weight and beyond just a little quicker than they should.
What facts am I citing to support this supposition? You are clearly not familiar with the way blogging works. I'm just typing to kill some time. If you want facts, go watch Fox News.
It just seems to me like babies are getting bigger, that's all. I would be curious to know how many women of my grandmother's generation had to worry about an emergency c-section because the baby would be too big at the onset of labor.
later, big baby fans
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