You just never know..

I was backup for a delightful woman who was due between Christmas and New Years. Her first baby was large: 9 pounds, 14 ounces, but she had no trouble with delivery.

Second babies are often larger.

At each appointment, we measure the uterus with a measuring tape by starting at the pubic bone and going to the fundus (the top of the uterus). The number of centimeters should roughly correspond to the number of weeks of pregnancy, or at least a steady growth. During mid-pregnancy she was measuring large, and neighbour midwife and I could envision this massive baby... But what to do about it? Well, besides doing testing for gestational diabetes, neighbour midwife had to do an OB consult (a College of Midwives guideline which I personally think is quite ridiculous, because what are you going to do about it? It is not good medical practice to induce labour for macrosomia [literal translation: large body], so basically they say, "Yes you are having a large baby, good luck!").

She went into labour on Monday evening, and I was paged to assist at quarter to two. She had a beautiful birth - no concerns with the delivery at all... an 8 pound 14 ounce boy! It was one of those " what a beautiful birth" births.

So you just never know.