I think my baby wants a csection

[SeattleRain]

So first I had placenta previa, which is almost resolved. Then I got GD, which ups my risk for csection. Now my baby is breech. I feel like he's trying to tell me something, like he doesn't want a vaginal birth.

I feel like even if he flips, there's going to be something next that ups my risk for csection.

[Buzzer Beater]

Seattle, I don't know much about the other things you mentioned, but my babe was breech and/or transverse until a week or ten days ago. Now she seems settled in head down. There's still time, think positively!!! My mw would say it's still very early on position.

How are your previa and GD now?

[*mama moose*]

I think sometimes babies DO send us messages that they need to be born certain ways or that something is going on that needs attention, but some babies just like to give mama a hard time.
I agree with Buzzer, there's still time for babies to move at this point, so hopefully that clears up and then it will be smooth sailing from there! I think babies that give us a hard time in pregnancy should then go on to be calm, easy babies and toddlers....don't you think that's a fair trade off??

[NicolleLynne]

I'm reading a great book called, "Bountiful, Beautiful and Blissful" by Gurmukh, a famous Kundalini yogi who specializes in prenatal yoga. She says, "Every baby is the author of their own birth." Perhaps you're right and your little one is already attempting to call the shots but maybe too, it's just a matter of wait and see. My little one was breech at 34 weeks and now, at 36, is very much vertex. Her head's so far down there I feel like there's a melon in my nether parts...

I wish you all the best and hope you get the birth of your dreams.

[blessed2bmommy]

Lots of time to turn! We had an ultrasound last week where DS was breech and the next day a midwife appt and he was head down! Don't worry yet.

That said, DH and I always said that if something happened that required a c-sec or hospital birth we would just believe that was God's way of preventing something from happening we couldn't see.

[Aka mommy]

My little one was breech last night. But then, i don't mind birthing a breech baby vaginally!

I say listen to your little one, they are very capable of communicating (i believe) in their own ways.

[GoBecGo]

Aw hun!

What will be will be, with babies, as with life, you can only ever plan the things you hope for and wait and see. I agree that some babies are just difficult. My DD gave me a tough PG with high BP, an un-dx thyroid condition and stayed in until 41+4 (long enough to have the obs twitching over the scalpel tray!) and in fact my labour was really wonderful and she nursed like a champion, so even though i spent the last few months thinking she was determined to come out how i did (i was a csection baby back in 1980) in the end she did what she was always going to do, and it turned out to not be SO different to what i'd hoped for (a bit quicker than i'd anticipated perhaps!). I have to be honest, she was not an "easy" baby, she was exactly what i'd expect from her pregnancy, but she is the most joyful, wonderful person to be around. She can be high needs, but she is very high rewards too.

I think with birth we don't really get the final final say, but look, you've done your research, you've made the choices which will optimise the kind of birth you believe is best for you both and you're doing everything you can to keep that on track. You and the baby are a team, which means he can trust that his mama will do her best for him, and you can trust that if he needs to derail you for his own good/needs he will.

Really, what i keep coming back to in my mind, through any fears or doubts i have had, is that this baby knows what is ahead, and all i can do is my best. If my best results in an outcome other than what i'm hoping for, then i think that was probably always going to happen anyway. We cannot know what is before us, that's what makes the birthing woman such an awesome, courageous, powerful creature. That's part of what makes women so strong i think. We cannot know what lies ahead, and yet we tread the path, for our babies, our families and ourselves. We're amazing!

I hope your LO gives you some peace from the ongoing am-i-aren't-i-coming-out-the-vagina drama soon, so you can settle down and prepare for labour/birth.

Big

[CorasMama]

Originally Posted by Aka mommy

My little one was breech last night. But then, i don't mind birthing a breech baby vaginally!

I say listen to your little one, they are very capable of communicating (i believe) in their own ways.

Neither would I, but unfortunately, the OP lives in WA state, home of breech=automatic c/s.

SeattleRain: Total anecdata, but DD was breech until the day before she was born. In fact, she turned in the car on the way to the appointment for the version! (It was kind of like a scene from Alien going on under my shirt, frankly.) This baby keeps curling into a semi-breech/semi-transverse position, but she has to be born by c/s for other reasons, so I told her to hang out however she's comfortable! My suggestions would be spinningbabies.com and if you can find a chiro who knows the webster technique, try that, too. Also, it doesn't hurt to come up with a c/s birth plan, just in case, so you can be prepared for however this birth is going to happen.

Good luck! You'll do great, either way! (where are you birthing, btw? home, or elsewhere? I'm just being a nosy fellow Seattleite.)

[nicolebeth]

I hear what you're saying! Good luck--I hope yours turns very soon!

I finally got the unexpected greenlight from an OB at my practice for vba2c (the midwives had said it wasn't possible)...and then, a few weeks later, come to find mine is in a transverse lie (making me wonder if that wasn't the case all along--though, I've been going to the chiro, and they've thought he's been head-down).

Similarly to others, I feel like babies do choose the position that is safest for them. Having had two malpositioned babies in the past, it certainly seems that way for me.

C/sections aren't terrible. Even while DS's c/section was going on (#2), I said this isn't awful: I could still have another child some day. And, here I am!

Once again, good luck to you!

[bjorker]

Originally Posted by CorasMama

Good luck! You'll do great, either way! (where are you birthing, btw? home, or elsewhere? I'm just being a nosy fellow Seattleite.)

Haha, I'm curious too.

Hang in there, lady!

[Burnindinner]

I agree they tell us what we need to know. Not saying you'll need a c-section, but it never hurts to listen to what they're saying! I've heard of some babies who couldn't turn due to short cord, etc. Maybe this LO is doing whatever s/he needs to do to be safe. They are pretty amazing like that.

[lisko15]

SeattleRain - Hopeful for you that he turns!

I'm sort of in the same "boat" position-wise. DS-to-be is transverse and REALLY likes that position. He is rarely not in a SUPER tight sideways curled up ball.

At my OB appt yesterday we discussed our options... right now we'll just continue to wait and see if he turns (my OB assured me he does have time to do that still). We've been doing the inversion exercise from Spinning Babies nightly.

After that, we'll do an u/s to verify position and possibly at 37 weeks do an external version. (Which sort of freaks me out, but she said versions for transverse 2nd babies have a high success rate.) However, the version could necessitate an emergency C-section - or send me into LABOR!

So, yeah, I'm with you in hoping for some BABY TURNING movements!!!!

[SeattleRain]

Thanks for the support. I was having a really rough night and I really needed the hugs.

I'm not so much "bummed" about having a c-section. I know that's not the "crunchiest" thing to say, but it really doesn't bother me a lot per se. I think it would bother me if I felt it was totally unnecessary, but all of the things I have going on make having a csection more necessary (particularly the previa and the breech). It's sort of a bummer in terms of the fact that I've spent hundreds of dollars taking classes and researching methods to cope with natural childbirth and my intuition tells me its all for nothing. I know, that's really shallow.

My ultrasound for the previa is tomorrow and I'm pretty confident that it will have moved the extra 2mm it needed 6 weeks ago to be cleared for vaginal birth. My OB seems to have a really liberal view of how far away the placenta needs to be from the cervix for vaginal birth, so for that, I am thankful. Other women in my same boat are having to get to 3cm away from their cervix (or Burnindinner who needs 10!!!) and I only need 2cm and I'm almost there.

The thing that gets me is literally THE SAME APPOINTMENT where we pretty much crossed off the previa and cleared me for vaginal birth, I was diagnosed with GD. My OB has been SO great about it and absolutely does not believe this is going to mean that I need more interventions (other than my baby needing to be tested for glucose intolerance after birth), particularly if its just a big baby they're worried about. In and of itself, GD should not MEAN a csection, but I've been noticing that my GD is getting harder and harder to control with food and exercise. If I have to go on insulin or glyburide, my chances for induction are MUCH MUCH MUCH higher because the baby's chance of developing GD related problems later in pregnancy are MUCH higher (as I understand it).

The fact that the baby is breech is pretty much the icing on the cake at this point. I know, I'm a wuss, but I have no desire to birth a breech baby vaginally. This is my first baby which makes me a less likely candidate for successful vaginal breech birth. I'd rather just have the csection. I'm interested in chiropractor work, though. So I'll try that before I give up all hope of this baby coming out of my vagina.

For all the "nosy Seattleites" (he he he) I'm birthing at Swedish-First Hill. I'm so in love with my OBGYN (she's out of Seattle OBGYN practice) and her committment to staying hands off is higher than MY committment to her being hands off. Also, even if I had planned an out of hospital birth, I'd have lost it by now with all my problems. I'm really happy that I'm a hospital like Swedish where they have lots of things available for me to labor with like the jacuzzi tubs in every room, labor balls, and rocking chairs and the 1:1 ratio of laboring mother to nurse. The woman who gave me the tour said that there are lots of nurses who are really excited about natural childbirth and that I should specifically ask for one in labor because they'll all probably jump to help out! I was really surprised to hear that after what a lot of people say about hospitals on this site.

So there, thats the saga of the baby who will not leave via vagina.

[Burnindinner]

Wow, SR, that is a dramatic pregnancy. I hope it will work out exactly the way it is supposed to.

Oh, to get a vaginal birth in the hospital the requirement is much less stringent than 10 cm, that was what our hb mw had originally said.

[SeattleRain]

My baby heard my complaints and got his little tushie in gear! The ultrasound today showed a baby in the 60% of weight (GD totally under control!), placenta 3.6cm away from the os, and head down in LOT position. He has perfect amniotic fluid and he's poised for a VAGINAL DELIVERY!

[Paige, CPM]

Yey! Good for you mama! I am glad to hear about your GD being under control. I remember, I think it was you...were talking about doing the at-home testing...so it really was GD or was it just looking like GD because of diet and exercise?

My baby is head down now too! Those little buggers were just teasing us! The first of many taunts I am sure! LOL!

[CorasMama]

Yay for your placenta and baby getting on board with the plan!

(kinda OT, but funny anyway, my baby turned vertex the other night, and I was right pissed about it. See, I have to have a c/s no matter what, and I'm much more comfy when she's in this transverse/breech little curl she usually does. And I tell her she's fine to stay however she wants. Then she turns head down, sticks a foot in my ribs, and I'm all, "no. no. no. Young lady, you're not coming out vaginally anyway, so getcher foot outta my ribs or you're grounded! She's now happily back where I prefer her.)

[GoBecGo]

Originally Posted by SeattleRain

My baby heard my complaints and got his little tushie in gear! The ultrasound today showed a baby in the 60% of weight (GD totally under control!), placenta 3.6cm away from the os, and head down in LOT position. He has perfect amniotic fluid and he's poised for a VAGINAL DELIVERY!

WONDERFUL!

Now you must remember this when he's 3 and doing something crazy/unwise - remember that he DOES get it together in the end.

[Climbergirl]

Originally Posted by SeattleRain

It's sort of a bummer in terms of the fact that I've spent hundreds of dollars taking classes and researching methods to cope with natural childbirth and my intuition tells me its all for nothing. I know, that's really shallow.

Having done a c-section (sorry board crashing , those labor techniques can come in helpful during the c-section.

It sounds like things are going to be fine though, so good luck!

[*mama moose*]

I'm so glad things are looking good now~ And your OB and hospital sounds awesome, that's very refreshing to hear