can you dialate to a 6 then shrink to a 3

[auntieMimi]

My sister is almost 40 weeks pregnant. Last week he dr put her in the hospital to be induced because the baby is getting big. They gave her cervidal then potocin. They put in a foley cath to help ker dialte. When she was @ 4cm they were going to break her water, but the baby was to far up. They gave her a epidural and kept her on the potocin, adjusting it up and down. After 16hrs she was dialated to 6 cm but the baby would not drop. They released her. I thought it was weird that she was dialated to a 6 and having contractions every 2 min and they woulf let her go. She went to her regular doctor a couple days later and he said she was dialated to 3cm. Is it normal to go from a 6 to a 3 in a couple days? She is still having contractions and is miserable.

[Ashelen]

amn it sounds like the foley cath pushed her open to 6CM but the cervix contracted after it was removed - that would be my guess.

As for the rest...very very bizarre. No reason they should've stopped the induction at 40wks after 16 hours even with no progression - they would've had other options. I know that if the baby isn't engaged they can't break her water, and since the baby was still too high up that's probably why they stopped the induction - maybe to avoid a c-section by letting her labor down on her own at home? Not sure, sounds like they just needed her bed to be perfectly honest.

It's pretty much too late to find another doctor, but I'd raise hell if I were her until I got some straight answers.

[amn702]

I also have small hands, but to be off on a cervical exam that much is very strange. It may not sound like it, but there is definitely an evident difference between 3 and 5. There will be some variation, but usually just by a half a centimenter or maybe a whole centimeter. Two doctors/nurses can check back to back and one may say 3 and one may say 3.5 or 3-4 but it shouldn't be that far off.

[tata6684]

I had a baby on 11-11-11 I waxes 3cm when I went to the hospital hours later I gt cked they told me I was at 5cm the about an hour later I gt cked again and I was at a 3.. The previous dr made a mistake her fingers was short she said..

[amn702]

I have worked as a Labor & Delivery nurse for quite a while now, and have never heard of or seen anything like this before. A cervical exam can vary a centimeter either way depending on who examines you, but as petitewonder said, a difference of 3 cm is a very large difference. Also if you are in labor, your cervix doesn't close back up. After you give birth, obviously, your cervix slowly closes back up from being completely dialated, but definitely not during labor. It is very strange to me that she would be released at 6 cm. That is again something I have never heard of, especially with her having an epidural and everything. Also, I don't understand why they would say "by law" they can not do a cesarean since she had delivered 2 babies and the baby was not in trouble..... I have had patients who had delivered babies vaginally before but failed to progress and/or the baby failed to descend and were delivered via c-section. If she was dilated to 6 cm (IF that's truly the case) and the baby was not engaged in the pelvis and was too high to rupture her membranes, then it sounds like the baby may be too big and/or she may have CPD (cephalopelvic disproportion - meaning the head and pelvis shapes aren't compatible...you can't put a square peg in a round hole kinda thing). This is very fishy to me.

[auntieMimi]

We tought it was crazy too. She begged for a c~section and they told her by law they could not do it because the baby was not in trouble and she had already had 2 children vaginaly.  The delivery dr measured her at a 6 when she checked her b4 her release then she went to her dr with in a day or two and she was back down to a 3. It was the weirdest thing I have every heard.

[PetiteWonder]

i dont think you can go back down.. they usually wouldnt release you at 6 cm.. they would have opted for a c-section in that case if they couldnt get the baby moving...    they only let active labor go on for so long before they would opt that...  

there can be some variation in how dilated you are depending on who checks you.. but a difference of 3 cm is huge....  

I am really surprised they would not have suggested a c-section after 16 hours .....