Shoulder Dystocia confusion.

[sharr610]

With DS, I ended up with a c/s for FTP, etc, etc. When I had the c/s, there was severe shoulder dystocia as they tried to get him out (yes, with the c/s). He's fine, everything is ok. There was no GD, he was not diabetic, despite many assumptions and fears (because I'm a big girl, of course ).

This go round, my mw and others are freaked out about me growing "another big baby."(he was 11 lbs, but also 3 weeks "past due"...) My mw otherwise brags about her small patients pushing out 12 pounders, sometimes posterior! So...that makes me wonder, why so scared with me?? Is there a fear of shoulder dystocia again? She did some vaginal exams before birth and talked about the "ample room" in my pelvis, so there is no fears of me being too small. From what I understand with shoulder dystocia, happening once doesn't necessarily mean it will happen again. Am I wrong? I've done some googling, but can't seem to understand...I'm meeting with her tomorrow and will discuss this with her more, but, at the same time, I like to be armed with my own information.

TIA for any clarification you can provide!

[sharr610]

Ok...getting more confused the more I read. So first, I now see that SD can be something that happens again and again to moms. Second, though, it seems that true SD only happens if the baby has engaged its head in the pelvis. Since DS wasn't able to descend even that far AND it was a CS, how in the world could it have been SD? And wouldn't that all depend on how the OB chose to take him out? I know she had a really hard time past the head getting him out, but she was pulling him from my abdomen, above the pelvic bone...so confused...

[nikirj]

The "shoulder dystocia" in the c/s was absolutely not the same thing it would have been in a vaginal birth. When a true shoulder dystocia happens, it is because the baby's shoulder gets hung up on the bones of your pelvis. I don't know what your baby was wedged up against in the c/s, but I'm assuming it's that your OB didn't extend the incision quite far enough to accommodate the shoulders. Totally different anatomical issues from what you'll see in a vaginal birth.

Other details of your birth could come into play when your MW says your risk is elevated, though, particularly the reason you had FTP in the first place.

[sharr610]

Thanks! I am slowly but surely, each conversation, getting bits and pieces from her as to what she thinks my risks are. I feel like I'm having to put a puzzle together. Hopefully, tomorrow, we will have a more frank chat than we have been able to thus far.