Big Babies and Homebirth

Do 9-plus pound babies need to be born via C-section? That's the thing that stood out for me after reading Samantha M. Shapiro's story in this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine. I read this reprise on the homebirth debate with interest (and some dismay, since I talk about a visit to Ina May Gaskin on the Farm in my book). There are several things I liked about the article (the tone for instance), and several I didn't (the title - ugh). But undoubtedly the strangest thing about the story was this:

"When I reached my due date, an ultrasound estimated that my baby weighed 9.4 pounds. I didn’t have gestational diabetes and had gained an average amount of weight, and fetal tests showed my baby was thriving. But the baby’s estimated size, combined with the fact that he hadn’t yet descended into my pelvis, worried my midwife.

She wanted the baby out by 41 weeks, and to my surprise, she suggested I consider going straight to surgery without labor. She sent me to be evaluated by a doctor she worked with. “One way or another, this baby will be a C-section,” he said."

Shapiro doesn't go for the prophylactic C-section, and that prophecy comes true: