Prodromal Labor/Posterior Baby?

[BanditaMamacita]

Anyone with any info/experience on this? I feel pretty strongly that my baby's PERSISTENT posterior position is holding up true labor. I've been having all the prelabor signs for weeks, and have had multiple false starts, complete with diarrhea, bloody show, and regular contractions, but it always dies off after a few hours. I cannot seem to get this baby unstuck, no matter how many tips I try from spinningbabies. I figure, if i'm wrong and she's just not ready to come, there's no harm in having her in a better positon... but there could be very real harm from NOT going into labor when i'm supposed to(think deteriorating placenta, large baby, induction, cascade of interventions... you know the drill), so I'd really like to do what I can. So First of all, does anyone have any good info/articles/experience on prodromal labor caused by poor positioning? I can't find a lot of info, bc most of the mainstream articles i'm finding basically say the baby will come when they're ready and they'll probably turn in labor... But I know lots of midwives and doulas have claimed that drawn out prelabors are often associated with poor positioning. Secondly, any tips on what I can do? I think i'm going to try a chiropractor on Monday, but if there's anything i can do over the weekend, it would really be helpful. Thanks!

[Hedgehog Mtn]

Subbing - you posted my situation to a T.

[Veritaserum]

Chiro helped my persistently posterior babe. After a few adjustments my baby could finally spin to an anterior position. She would go back posterior sometimes, though. I went into labor and got to 6cm when everything stopped due to her flipping back to a posterior position. I called my chiro at that point and she gave me instructions for specific exercises to do. Labor started back up again about 9.5 hours later and she was anterior. I asked my midwife to break my water at 7 cm to keep baby anterior and baby was born in an anterior position.

Anyway, yes, in my experience posterior positioning can draw out/prevent full labor.

[sharr610]

This was my experience with DS. I was in prodromal with him for 2-3 weeks(he was born 3 weeks past EDD) and he was stubbornly posterior. I DID go into labor on my own, but it was stop/start and a wild ride that I won't bore you with.
BUT, some things that helped/I learned from it all.
You may have to "make" yourself have contractions which will really just feel like lots of pain. For me it was the toilet or a birth stool. I needed to concentrate and kinda make it happen for a while.
NO SUGAR. At all, of any kind. Thats all going straight to the babe at this point and making it bigger and harder to flip around.
Walk, walk, walk and when you think you can't do it anymore, walk again, preferably up steep hills or stairs.
I've heard wonders about the chiro. I wish I had done it and plan to this time.
Don't lose faith. You can have this baby.
. Its miserable. I know and feel for you mama!

Good luck!

[crunchy_mama]

I just had a babe 1.5 weeks ago w/ several starts and stops to labor starting at almot 38 weeks- baby ended up coming at 10 days late. When we checked position at 39 weeks it was anterior, but the baby never would engage well, when she finally came she had her hand by her head. So, not posterior so much, but definitely not optimal positioning. The mw was also concerned that her head was not in there well as my belly was hanging quite low and the babe was hanging out as well instead of up and down, so we bound my belly to help w/ that. Not sure if that brought her down or if it was just time and a coincidence.

[emnic77]

I wasn't exactly prodromal, but a similar experience, and both mine were posterior. Chiropractor, yes...but in the meantime, what my midwife with my second told me is that because it was my second, the baby was leaning forward and not putting enough pressure on my cervix. She recommended belly binding to pull him back in towards my spine, and that did seem to help. Have you tried that?

hah, posted without reading all the posts, I see someone's already suggested that
Also, my DS had his hand in his mouth/near his face all the time too, so that was also our problem. He was born with his hand up there too.

[Hedgehog Mtn]

I think what gets me the most is that baby #1 was posterior and he came at exactly 37 wks. I got out of bed at 5 with no labor signs, my water broke as I got up....contractions started at 6:30 an he was here by 9 which was pretty good for a first labor.

Since this is #5 I NEVER would have expected this. I've never had prodromal labor with any of them.

[BanditaMamacita]

Thanks for all the tips and support, guys... and i'm so sorry so many of you have experienced equal misery, lol. Hedgehog Mtn, that's exactly it-- This is baby #3, and baby #2 was posterior and came at 37.5 weeks with no problems.... So i just didn't really expect that another posterior baby would give me such problems!

The belly-binding tip is great, I'm gonna have to try that... I had read that before, and i've been trying to kind of pull my belly up during cxns, but maybe the constant belly-binding will help put more constant pressure on my cervix... My belly is kind of pendulous this time. 3rd baby in 3 years and all.

I don't think engagement is the problem... She's SOOO low. She dropped around 32 weeks and has her head WELL into my vagina, so I think she's actually just too wedged to spin easily. I've been trying to do some tilts to back her out a lil and give her space to turn, but no luck yet. I do feel tons of movement around my cervix, so I think there's very likely a nuchal hand issue.

I just never thought i'd have to deal with any of this! I had such early, easy, fast births before... I never realized how completely unique each pregnancy/baby is.

Anyway, I'm going to go bind my belly and walk around the mall for hours... Hopefully with some results, cuz I've been having painful and completely unproductive cxns allllll day. I'll let you guys know if it did any good.

[thismommy]

I have a lot of bh contractions while pregnant, starting very early, so the early labor contractions don't bug me much. With my ds2 he was posterior most of the second half of the pregnancy. He flipped once in a while, and I did some of the spinning babies exercises to try and get him to flip, but I read somewhere that a woman decided that her baby was in the position it was in because it was the safest for him/her and she wasn't going to continue to try and flip the baby. I wondered if that's what God was telling me by the persistent posterior presentation and I decided that if he was going to flip he'd do it on his own. He was born at 35w6d. The first 3 days of labor were contractions averaging 11 minutes apart, though they'd speed up and intesify greatly when my dd would nurse a few times a day or when I'd walk around a bunch. The 4th day they were 7 minutes apart not long after I got out of bed. By noon they were about 5 minutes apart, and he was born at 4:25 posterior and with a nuchal hand. He was a good size for his gestation, 6lb5oz. I was satisfied with my decision to leave him be even though it certainly prolonged labor for me (dd was a 4 1/2 hour labor including pushing at 39w3d and 6lb12oz, I don't compare ds1 since he was a hospital over-intervention birth). I was about 3-4cm when labor began and by about 2pm the day he was born I was only 6cm and had been since earlier that morning. I'm sure it's because of his positioning, but it all worked out in the end and once I got past that it went pretty quickly. Back labor sucked big time, but it was really only awful (like where I needed dh to put major pressure on my back) for about the last 2 hours. He didn't come home from work until 2:30 so I'd worked through most of the labor myself.

[Kidzaplenty]

[BanditaMamacita]

Still no luck, in spite of increasing amts of show and diarrhea. Uggh. Hopefully the chiro can help me in the morning. Thanks guys, i hope those of you in prodromal misery have reached active labor and will soon be cuddling your baby!

[Hedgehog Mtn]

BanditaMamacita I've been thinking of you all day, sorry to hear you're still in the same boat.

I made a belly binder belly badit style but narrower to stay below my belly button. My contrx were stronger today than ever for about 3 hours but fizzled out.

Here's hoping they pick up soon.

[BanditaMamacita]

no real time to post, but after getting her to flip this AM, she arrived at 1:52 after a 3.5 hour labor. 8 lbs 7 oz birth story to come. thanks for all the tips!!!!

[Kidzaplenty]

Oh! Congratulations!

[Hedgehog Mtn]

Oh BanditaMamacita I'm so happy for you!!

I had contx again last night but nothing so far today. I think I'm just going to have to accept that this baby isn't coming. Ever.

:-)