When is the Baby Coming?

When is the baby coming? I have the answer. And I will tell you. I promise.

The Questions

When is the baby coming? My labor patients, their families, and friends ask me this question all the time. Sometimes it is incessant. The same thing asked a variety of ways:

What time do you think the baby will be here?
Let me ask you something, what time will the baby be born?
How long is labor going to take? What time will he/she arrive?
You’re a labor nurse, you must have some idea when the baby will come, right?
When is the baby coming?

What the Labor Nurse Thinks

If I had a penny for every time. . . . .

I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t see into the future. Yes, I’ve been doing this job for 30 years. No, it doesn’t help me make predictions. It could come in two minutes or two days. It depends on lots of variables.

Variables

The number of variables to the progression of labor and delivery would fill a book. Here are just a few:

Is labor being induced? Are you due? Overdue? Did your water break? Is there meconium? Is your baby showing signs of fetal distress? Is the baby in the vertex position (head down)? Do you have preeclampsia? Are you bleeding heavily? What is the estimated fetal weight? How dilated is your cervix? Is it effaced? Are you a good pusher?

Do you have patience? These things take time. There is no need to beg for a c-section because you are tired or because you think it is taking too long. You’re going to be a parent. You will be tired for the foreseeable future and then some. And you will surely need patience. Time to start practicing.

The list of variables goes on and on.

Labor Defined

Are you actually in labor? Dilated? Six is the new three when defining labor vs. Braxton Hicks contractions. Here is the current definition of labor.