How Big is Too Big?
In Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, author Susan McCutcheon explains several reasons why pregnant women are often suggested inductions or cesarean sections by their birth teams, one such reason being the baby's perceived size in ultrasound. She points out that a baby being truly too big for the mother to birth naturally ocurrs in about 1/2500 pregnancies. She encourages doctors to consider what Williams Obstetrics wrote: there are "no current methods to assess fetal size accurately" (2018, pg.262), and how a couple can respond to being told that their doctor wishes to induce because they do not want baby to get 'too big.' Other scenarios that can prompt suggestions to schedule an induction or cesarean are 'irregular' labor, 'prolonged' labor, Cephalopelvic disproportion ('pelvis too small'), and 'fetal distress' detected by monitor. McCutcheon goes on to give more reading suggestions and stories of couples' experienc