Hip Labor

[Dot-to-Dot]

Just wondering if anyone here has experienced "hip labor" during labor and then went on to figure out how to avoid it for their next labor.  **Hip Labor: Excruciating, bone crushing pain in hips that overshadows any uterine contraction causing a continuous stream of pain, likely due to poor positioning like baby's head pushing on hip socket as he tries to descend.

I had this with my first baby and have found only a handful of women who understand what I'm talking about.  It was like after 6cm, I never felt a contraction again because this hip pain was so bad that contractions were nothing.  I thought my bones were breaking and I wanted to use different positions but I was paralyzed with pain.  All I could do was lay on my left side, lift my top leg in the air, grab my hips and scream at the top of my lungs (my throat and chest were swollen for a week after I gave birth from 6 hours of screaming).  I never got a "break" from the pain because the what I was feeling was continuous with no highs or lows like a contraction would have - just constant immobilzing pain for 6 hours.

Recently, I read something about standing in front of a chair, lifting your leg onto the chair and turning the pelvis toward that leg in order to open your pelvis in a way that gets the baby to quickly twist correctly.  My baby was born in the correct position and so she eventually made it...but it took a long time for her to find the right position.  I don't know if I'd have been able to do this chair thing if I'd known about it...but it's all I have as I go into my next labor (about 10 weeks from now).

Any advice?

[Dot-to-Dot]

*bump*

[Magali]

I'm wondering if we experienced the same thing.  Was your pain on the side of your body?  Everything else you wrote sounded so much like what I felt, but my pain was sort of towards the back and on my side at the hip level. 

[Dot-to-Dot]

It was definitely on the side of my body - not front like uterine contractions, but also not back labor.  Just HIP.  Like in my hip sockets.  I wanted desperately to rip my pelivs apart.  I couldn't lift my knee enough in order to open my pelvis enough....just wanted someone to rip the pelvis open for me.

[Dot-to-Dot]

Judging by the lack of response, I guess it's rare to find other people who went through this same thing and even rarer to find someone who knows what to do about it!  :(  Sigh.

[weliveintheforest]

I think I had what you are talking about!  It wasn't the whole time, but it was just one hip, and it hurt quite a lot even between contractions.  Time was so hard to track but maybe it lasted an hour?

My pushing stage took a long time (way longer than expected for my second baby) and the birth really hurt my tailbone.  I've always wondered if the hip pain had anything to do with either of those but I don't think I'll ever know for sure.  The only other person I know who had this, had it with her second child and as far as I know has not had a third.  

[Cutie Patootie]

I had excruciating hip pain with my first birth.  The last half hour of labor, I screamed about my hips, not the actual labor or baby coming out. 

I have chronic hip pain, in general, so I don't think it had anything to do with the position of the baby.  Mine seems to parallel with hormones during the month ect.  No one has ever been able to tell me what is going on. 

It hasn't been this bad during this pregnancy, but it has just started.  I can't lay on my sides, some nights.  I have to lie on my back, which is not too comfy when this pregnant, but way less excruciating than lying on one side or the other.  Some days I can't walk.  It's really odd.  It is not one side or the other, it switches back and forth. 

The pain is deep in my hip sockets and radiates down the side of my leg.  It's nauseating and I haven't found anything that relieves it.  :(

[Magali]

Originally Posted by Dot-to-Dot 

It was definitely on the side of my body - not front like uterine contractions, but also not back labor.  Just HIP.  Like in my hip sockets.  I wanted desperately to rip my pelivs apart.  I couldn't lift my knee enough in order to open my pelvis enough....just wanted someone to rip the pelvis open for me.

It was crazy pain that didn't stop.    I remember clearly when it started.  I was having contractions and I got up to move during one and then the hip pain started.  I fell onto the bed and couldn't move and started crying.  I still felt contractions down low in front but I was able to deal with those cause they would come and go.  I wanted to move around more during my labor but there came a point when I could only lie on my side, and eventually that didn't even help.  To me it felt like someone was pinching me and twisting my side with a giant wrench.  I did not feel this pain with my first birth, hopefully you won't feel it next time.  I really hope you get some answers. 

[Monkey Keeper]

Magali's description is pretty accurate for me.  The low wrapping contraction part was manageable, but the bone-on-bone radiating pain in my right hip (only my right hip) was absolutely excruciating; it wrapped from my pubic bone to my sacrum around the arch of my hip.  Mine started even before I was in "active" labor--my ctx were 3 minutes apart for 19 hours--and I eventually caved for an epidural.  Through which the hip pain broke, of course.  I too ended up on my left side panting/howling through contractions until suddenly the pain was gone, i.e. his head moved out of there.

My hip pain started a few days before labor, though--one night I rolled over, and that stabbing pain woke me up.  I could not lay on my left side at. all. and any rolling caused those jolting pains.  After 2 nights of that, I was so exhausted (I was trying to sleep half on my side in a recliner to try to mitigate the pain.) that my doula came over to massage my hip, got the baby in a different position, and I slept for 3 hours in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.  Even a chiro adjustment and another massage did not keep him out of that hip, though, when I went into labor 2 days later.

He was my third, and #2 was positioned exactly the same way.  I never got into a labor pattern with her because my water broke (my BOW dilated me with #3).

Just a few weeks ago, around 5m pp, I had a massage with my LMT who also is a midwife.  She says that it seems my hip pain may stem from an injury to a muscle in my pelvic floor (I cannot remember the name right now).  Apparently, this muscle often is injured when pushing with an epidural in the lithotomy position--which is how my DD1 was delivered under duress.  I did everything *right* with my most recent birth, though--exercise, yoga, massage, chiropractic--and nothing kept him from settling into the same poor position.  So I don't have any particularly good advice for avoiding it.

[Monkey Keeper]

PS--My (very seasoned) doula described it as "back labor but in your hip" and said she's rarely if ever dealt with anything like it.  Lucky us!  And when I described it to my mom (I was born sunny-side up), she said it sounded precisely like what she experienced in her back, but in a different location.

[Magali]

Originally Posted by PinkBunch 

 She says that it seems my hip pain may stem from an injury to a muscle in my pelvic floor (I cannot remember the name right now).  Apparently, this muscle often is injured when pushing with an epidural in the lithotomy position--which is how my DD1 was delivered under duress.  I did everything *right* with my most recent birth, though--exercise, yoga, massage, chiropractic--and nothing kept him from settling into the same poor position.  So I don't have any particularly good advice for avoiding it.

Hmmm.  My first birth was with an epidural.  Interesting.  Thanks for sharing that. 
 

[Cathypie]

I totally had this! My entire labor with my second was back labor. Then right before I started pushing it was my hips giving me problems. That labor was HARD. If I hadn't been at home I probably would've ended up with a needle in my back. That hip pain was awful. My baby was born with her fist by her face.

[Dot-to-Dot]

Okay, so it's rare, but it DOES happen.  Hey midwives and doulas???  Anybody out there know what one should do if they find themselves suffering from hip labor and they want a natural birth?   I made it through with my first, but I have to say that I was MAD.  Sure I was prepared for pain and endurance...but the way my labor felt was wrong and I felt really irritated that I had to go through an extrodinarily difficult labor.  It took me a long time to not be so mad.  I would LOVE to have some input from a doula or midwife who knows what to do in if this happens.

[Monkey Keeper]

Originally Posted by Cathypie 

My baby was born with her fist by her face.

interesting. We suspected my guy had an elbow up there though he came out head alone.

[Dot-to-Dot]

I wish I knew if something like that was going on with my dd (an elbow or a fist).  My doctor is a family doctor (though he doesn't specialize in obstetrics, he's amazing and I wouldn't have anyone else manage the medical side of my pregnancy).  I don't think he'd have known if something like that was ocurring unless she'd actually come out with the offending appendage.  She came out in the right position, head and only head first.  I almost wish I coulod have had an ultrasound as she was descending!  :)

[Dot-to-Dot]

A doula recently suggested to me that the baby might have been asynclitic.  I had ruled that out early on because I figured the doctor would have told me if she had come out with her head cocked to one side.  I didn't understand it well enough to know that A: the head issue might have resolved itself during labor and she came out normally or B: he is a family doctor and possibly just doesn't have the experience to have recognized this if her head was only slightly cocked upon crowning.

The more I understand about asynclitic labors, the more I think this could have been my issue...however...asynclytic is not uncommon and so I would thnk that a LOT more people would chime in about having had hip labor.  So then I think, maybe my issue wasn't asynclitic and was something a little more unusual.  I still don't know, but I can tell you that I am REALLY trying to learn about what I can do posture-wise this time around.  Several sources say it's unlikely that baby #2 will fall into the same position but just as many sources say that baby #2 is highly likely to settle into the same position especially if the reason Baby #1 settled there because of the shape of my pelvis.  It is soooooo hard to not have crummy posture sometimes.  Sometimes I just really want to chill on the couch however I can possibly get comfortable with this big belly and it's usually NOT a position that is good for fetal positioning.  Also, I am often rocking my dd1 and reading to her in her rocking chair...knees above pelvis, sinking back and sitting on sacrum instead of sit bones.  Bad news.  :(

[Monkey Keeper]

I think with 'hip labor' babies almost always would be asynclitic, particularly if the pain is focused in one hip only (as mine was).  

I had three different people do vag exams (and I really only had 3 exams!) all of whom commented that baby's head was "way off to the side"--that side being the side where I had hip pain.  I had a big cervical lip on one side because he was only on the right edge of my cervix. In fact (and this is going to sound like I had the world's most interfered-with labor ever which isn't the case), when they applied the internal monitor, it was above and behind his right ear!  If baby is normally applied to the cervix, it would be in the top of the head. So definitely my issue along with maybe an elbow and definitely a nuchal cord or two.

[Bubblette]

I know I'm late commenting but I had HORRIBLE hip labor.  DS was slightly asynclitic, my midwife commented his head was just a tiny tiny bit tilted.  Both of my hips hurt so so bad that I couldn't concentrate on the contractions.  The hip pain would build with the contractions so it was "worse" while i was in the middle of one, but it was always there.

What helped earlier on was counter pressure and firm massage.  Being in warm water was very very helpful.  Near the end (hour 44 or so of my 48 hour labor) my hips were becoming unbearable and I was, understandably, getting a bit exhausted my husband called my friend who is an acupuncturist.  It was a miracle.  My friend put on needle in my right hand and my right hip just STOPED hurting.  He put one needle in my left hand and it was 80% better, a second needle brought me to about 95% better.  He left and we kept the needles in until I wanted my hands in the water and after taking them out the pain came back but very very slowly and was totally bearable until DS was born.  I hated pushing :lol but that's a while other issue.

I had never heard of hip labor before mine, it's nice to know I wasn't the only one- not that i'd wish it on anyone!

[Dot-to-Dot]

Wow!  That's very interesting!  Do you think that what he did was something text book?  Like, would most any acupuncurist know where to put the needles based on the symptoms?  I'm just wondering if I feel this building in my next labor, if we could just look in the phone book and beg any or all acupuncturist to come do this!  I know that sounds desperate and maybe even crazy...but if you ladies experienced what I did, you know exactly how desperate a situation it is.

Heck, even if I'm not experiencing hip labor but I just want something to take the edge off contractions...would acupuncture do it?  We live in a smallish, conservative town where alternative medicine isn't really used much so I don't really have many, if any, resources to find out about it.  My local doctor can do acupuncture, but I don't know if she's all that experienced or good at it.  (She's the only one I know of in our city who does it which is why I chose her as my doctor.  She's tied to the local hospital and insurance and so that could possibly interfere with her willingness to offer services...like, how do you report an emergency visit to a laboring mother to the insurance company?  I doubt they'd go for it.

[Bubblette]

My acupuncturist friend trained in China for a while, and with Chinese TCM practitioner...  He's said he has a much more traditional approach than many others... He said something about using reflected points?  We chatted about it before and most western practitioners use points close to the area of concern, where as he used points removed from the area that were reflected (I think that's the term) points.  

For future pregnancies, if I were not in the same town as him, I would definitely be finding another that used the same principles well before labor.  I think acupuncture could indeed take the edge off!! and I plan on having someone in the ready for every future pregnancy.  The way I see it is that it cannot hurt and I KNOW it can help .   Insurance doesn't cover anything here.... well my insurance does not cover anything alternative!  You might be surprised to find practitioners near to you but not in the medical field, take a look.  

Good luck! I hope none of us have to deal with hip labor ever again!