HELP Posterior???

[Kaileysmum]

Hi Everyone

I went to my OB yesterday and he said that my bub is posterior. Which Ive read makes the labour longer and more painfull. Anyone got any advice or storys about their own experence with posterior labour???

FIRST BUB DUE 30/9/05

[drewid]

Hi

My bub was posterior at birth, although he kept swinging back and forth during the last few weeks, so I didn't know this at the time!

My labour, from first contractions to birth was 6 1/2 hours, and I managed it with no drugs, no intervention.

Don't let it scare you! It will all depend on what your bub does on the day - some babies turn before labour, some during. And it will depend on the position of the head at the time. I had a few tears (minor) that I didn't even feel at the time, as a posterior birth makes you stretch more than otherwise. BUT you wont' even notice that at the time. I promise!

It was only my first baby, so i can't vouch for whether it was MORE painful than a regular birth, but to me, I'd happily do it again. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as I'd imagined birth would be!

[meshan]

Both my boys were postierer until the day before the birth and they changed positons when labour started, which is apparently quite common. There are things you can do to help move the baby.

Spend some time on all fours

Avoid slouching on the couch, I used to sit on a kitchen chair with the chair backwards as this make you leave forward slightly which is supposed to help.

Good luck

[JanetF]

You can have a lot of effect on what position your baby is in. Ask your Ob why they didn't give you information on optimal foetal positioning. Here is some now.

Optimal Foetal Positioning - read the rest at the link.

http://www.horns.freeserve.co.uk/ourhome.htm


Optimal Foetal Positioning
'Optimal Foetal Positioning' is a theory developed by a midwife, Jean Sutton, who found that the mother's position and movement could influence the way her baby lay in the womb in the final weeks of pregnancy. Many difficult labours result from 'malpresentation', where the baby's position makes it hard for the head to move through the pelvis, so changing the way the baby lies could make birth easier for mother and child.

Also,

http://www.spinningbabies.com/

SpinningBabies.com
A site to discover how to improve fetal positioning for easier birthing - read the rest at the website.


Head down is just half the story!


Mother's job is to dilate, Baby's job is to rotate.
When baby's back is on the left and baby is facing mother's right hip, labor is more likely to go well, be shorter and less painful.
Here at Spinning Babies a mother can figure out her baby's position and learn things to make her birth easier! Remember, "easier" is a relative term. Birth is hard, glorious work. Something to be proud of, something worthwhile.

A sunny-side-up, or posterior, face-to-mom's-pubic bone baby aims the larger flat top of their head into the pelvis first, this can make a baby seem too big to fit the pelvis. Relaxing the pelvic ligaments, gravity-friendly postures and movement often help the baby flex (tuck the chin) and rotate to fit the pelvis better.

[vmills]

hi ewells

My yoga instructor recommends the "modified child's pose" to encourage your baby to move into an anterior position:

Sit on your knees on the floor and spread your knees wide enough apart to allow you to lie your upper body face down with your forehead on the floor. Stretch your arms out above your head. Do this for a few minutes a couple of times each day.

Don't know if it really works, but it's excellent for relaxing a sore back, to you win either way :)

My baby was posterior (due 28 Sept) until a week ago, so you never know, yours might still change position. Good luck :)

[schmell]

I found out my bub was posterior late in my pg and I worried myself silly about it (there is a thread in here about it) but she turned during labour and was born after 12 hours of niggly pains (not really painful, just annoying), then my waters broke and it was 40 mins until she was screaming in the labour ward!! I had no pain relief and no intervention. I did try the down on all fours thing, scrubbed the floors in the end! The day or so before she was born I had a check up and she was still posterior so she turned sometime between then and birth.

[RuthK]

I didn't know that my daughter was posterior until afterwards. Compared to my first labour, which was 9 hours and pretty much textbook, my labour with her was 13 hours, the contractions were erratic and they stopped altogether at 7cm dilation (I commanded an epidural at this point). They gave me syntocin to re-start the contractions and I dilated quite quickly, but was pushing for a good 3 hours (after 2 the epidural wore off). The midwife likened a posterior birth to trying to push an S the wrong way around the S-bend.

Go for the epidural, it might save you havign to have a caesar.

[JanetF]

Ruth I'd be careful about recommending epidurals as c-sec savers. 2 recent Australian studies have now shown that epidural use gives women a 60% chance of having a c-sec. Moving about in labour not only helps babies move into optimal positions but decreases the likelihood of surgery.

[pregasaurus]

As someone who's baby was born while still posterior my advice is GET THAT BABY OFF YOUR SPINE!!!
I know other people have delivered posterior baby's just fine, but compared to my son, who was anterior, my daughter was like giving birth to a truck.
I would sit backwards on a chair from now on and try very hard not to slouch. But, if your baby is posterior when you go into labour, don't panic, most of them turn and it's quite uncommon to deliver a posterior baby. I only ended up with 3 stitches, so that was good. Just try and keep upright in labour and it should turn.

Good Luck!!!

[Rainbowbrite]

We didn't know MJ was posterior till I went into labour, and she stayed that way. Just caused really bad back pains, i didn't feel one contraction in my stomach.

It was 10.5hrs from first contraction till birth. I had gas for the first 8hrs, then nothing. Only pushed for 40mins. No tears, just a graze & no complications.

Hope that helps a bit. Seeing as MJ is my first I have nothing to compare it too, it still wasn't as bad as I expected.

[JanetF]

For some women it is just another position and perfectly fine! You just never know till you're in labour which one you are ;)

[Crazyfamily]

I have given birth to 2 posterier bubs both in under 3 hours and with only using gas. Everyone is different. I am very lucky. I think this baby I am having now is going to be long and hard cos i have had it tooo easy.

[Kat]

Hi there,
my DD was posterior (or so I was told when we turned up to the hospital).

We ended up having a CS after 24hrs of labour *however* my family are known 'long labourers' so I was expecting that type of time frame to start with.

I think that the things that went wrong had more to do with nursing staff being 'worried' and anxious than about the position of our girl. She was doing a great job of trning and working her way down, but being first timers it is only in hindsight we can see how unneccessary our cs was.

My advice is to not allow anyone to tell you that there is anything scarey, or hard about a posterior bub when you are in labour!!! The truth is that it apparently DOES hurt more, and it hurts more in your back than your front, that contractions can stop and start and that it can 'take longer' however if this is your first baby - like some of the Mums here have said - how are you going to know?

Its the 'helpers' you have to worry about - they do know what is 'average' so they are aware in a different way to you and also I learnt from our negative experience that staff do get nervous about posterior bubs because the 'signals' of your labour can get 'confused' - e.g. contractions close together when you are still in early labour; v. early feeling that you need to poo / push as bub presses on your spine; its harder for them to find heartbeats coz they're used to anterior babies positions. None of this should be your concern, however it is useful to know in advance that the experts aren't infallible and THEY face certain challenges with posterior babies during labour - that is what we experienced first hand.

What I think too is that when your bub is posterior it is handy to have 'back up' - to rotate your support people (I didn't and in the end the cs partially came about because my DH and support person were both so fatigued that I was faced with not having that physical assistance if I continued on); it would have been also helpful for us to have some reminders of positions for different stages / reasons - I stayed upright, but towards the middle of my labour when things were intense it would have been good to remember to get on all fours and get my head down and take some of the pressure off my back / cervix for a bit (not to mention DD's head)

If you can get your bub to face the right way before labour that is ideal, but if you can't it doesn't mean that you are going to have complications - make sure to have a really assertive person you trust with you as I belive that with my posterior labour that is the no 1 ingredient that I think might have made the difference.

good luck

Kat
PS until I had an epidural at around 18 hrs into it I had no pain relief other than v. hot towels and I also had another V.V.V. painful condition going on at the same time. Our labour hormones do so much for us. Also I found being intimate with my DH made a huge difference - we basically lost that sense of togetherness when we went to hospital tho :(

[philippa.s]

I felt to reply to this post as I too have been in this position. First time around though my ob did not tell me I could change it, second time around I had done my own research and the site www.spinningbabies.com that janetf posted is great.

But most importantly having the knowledge you can prepare. Are you aware that one of the biggest causes of emergency c/s is failier to progress because of posterier baby. This is real for many women. There are women who can have great labours with OP(posterior) babies but many dont. I have experience my own & a number of women have far more painful & long labour than they otherwise might have.

It is worth trying to turn the baby now & if it doesn't happen try during the labour. The contractions are very different.

Regards :)

[jaydensmum]

I had a posterior birth with my 6 month old DS. I was induced and no one realised he was posterior till later in the labour. I dont want to scare you but my labour was 30 hours! :eek: He turned at the last minute with assistance. Most babies will turn during labour. Dont worry to much, the baby might turn between now and then. The pain that I had was only in my back, I didnt have any pain in my belly until the end. They should of picked up that he was posterior by the pain that I was having. If your little bub is posterior during labour, it does take a little longer and the pain is more in your back than your stomach. Like I said before dont worry, I went through it ok and without drugs!

jaydensmum. :)

[PinkBinkie]

hi ewells
I didn't know my bub was posterior until I was in labour. I had strong contractions that I felt in my back but my partner rubbed my back really hard and the midwife gave me a hot pack. A hot bath or shower work wonders. I had a small tear that didn't require stiches and had gas and pethidine. Before having bub I did crawl around on all 4's but it didn't work for me. Even though she is my first and I have nothing to compare it to I got over it pretty quickly when bub was laid on my chest. You'll be fine.

Jodi

[rynosmum]

I found out that my son was in posterior position about 3 weeks before he was born. I spent hours in all of the recommended positions every day to try and turn him around and apart from giving my husband something to giggle at :mad: , unfortunately it didn't coax him to move.

I went into natural labour and went to full dilation with heat packs and a little bit of gas. He was both posterior but also not engaged so I decided to have an epidural at the last minute as vacuum intervention was needed.

I have absolutely no complaints about any of the delivery - I'm not sure that it was anymore uncomfortable than any other mum would have experienced and it was pretty fast - about 6 hours - only 4 in active labour.

As the epidural was only in for about an hour, I could get up and walk around afterward but felt completely in control for the labour and wasn't affected by the intervention.

Don't worry too much - just enjoy the day you get to meet your little bubba and go with the flow ! :D

[BecH]

I had a posterior baby also and was a 30 hour labour. But as I say bub arrived healthy and I didn't have any drugs, so it can be manageable. I was recommended to try acupuncture to turn bub but I went into labour before i could, it might be worth a try.
In early labour lying over a beanbag on all fours doing hip rocking really eased some of my back pain, although my husbands massage was the best.

As soon as you see them you do forget, enjoy it it is amazing,

Bec

Ruby Grace 27-8-05

[Michele Crocker]

Hi,

Three out of my four have been posterior. My babies are fine until I go into labour and then they turn posterior. My doctor says it is because I have a funny shape pelvic region.

My first born Christopher was the easiest out of the four because he is the only one that was not in a posterior position. Luke was induced two weeks early as I had severe back pain. I had a drip, epidural and petidine needle with him and I was in labour with him longer than I was with Christopher.

Melissa was the quickest labour because my waters broke by themselves. The first stage was easy compare to the second stage which was the longest part of labour. I was pushing for nearly two hours before they decided that they had to use the vacumn extraction to get her out, because she was stuck.

Jayden was a better delivery, even though I was induced again because my waters would not break. I was dilating and was 5cm for about a week before the doctor told me he was going to induce me. The labour virtually started straight away and the pain was incredible even though all I had was a petidine needle and I was in the shower most of the time anyway. My doctor had to manually turn him around so he could be delivered.

I am now pregnant with number 5 and I know this will probably be another posterior birth.

Michele
Mother of Christopher, Luke, Melissa, Jayden and baby girl due in November

[FamilyMum]

Hi there,

I didn't find out my little one was posterior untill I was in labour and the midwife asked me if I wanted anything to subside the pain. When I replyed no, she looked at me funny and asked, Is this your first baby? I struggled out a yes. Then she said first baby! and posterior! you will not go through this labour with no pain killers. We'll call for an anethetist now, so he can give you an epidural. When he arrived I asked him if he could just give me a mobile epidural (which means I can still push). I found it to be excellent. At first I didn't think the epidural was working but at the end of the labour my obstetrician said, well if you think that was painfull, imagine if you didn't have the epidural?

Your baby still may move into position, hopefully before you go into labour. Otherwise start looking for pain killer options now and write out a birth plan to take to the hospitial. Also discuss what you want for the labour with your husband. In case something happens he knows what you want and will be able to communicate your wishes to the midwive and doctors.

Goodluck with everything
Theresia mother of
Iwan Jan04
DH Shaun

[red crayon]

l'm echoing a lot of other mums here. I didn't know my baby was posterior until the labour started and I also didn't know you could try to change the baby's position until I read this thread! Anyhoo, the contractions are felt in your back and they are painful but as I have nothing else to compare them with, I don't know if they're more painful than anterior one. My labour started Friday morning and Spencer arrived Saturday afternoon. I wasn't dilating and the contractions were very uneven. When I did dilate, Spencer got stuck and I ended up having an epidural block and was taken to the operating theatre so that my ob could try to turn him and forcep him out. If this hadn't worked, I would have had a c-section. Luckily all went well and Spencer came out kicking and screaming. It was long but it wasn't too bad - of course, I'm sure the epi block helped :)