Successful face presentation homebirth!

[2+twins]

Hi - I just wanted to share that my friend gave birth last week at home to a 9lb15oz baby girl who presented face first! The midwifes had thought that she was breech after the water broke and they felt her coming down, but as she crowned the father said "That's a face!". The midwife suspects that when my friend's water broke (which broke with a HUGE swoosh) that it forced the head into that position because prior to the water breaking they could feel that the baby was indeed in the typical position. I'm so happy for them and that they were home for this birth. I'm thinking that in the hospital a c-section would have been pretty recommended. This is their 2nd child (the first was just over 10lbs).

[pamamidwife]

yay! I have always heard, while LOOKING horribly uncomfortable to the babe, that face presentations are as easy as "normal" births.

[Peppamint]

Wow! A doula was telling me about a local (hospital) birth in which the mom had a baby with face presentation... no episiotomy or anything! (Same OB I had, guess I should've had a doula! )

PS- It does look terribly difficult and painful, but hey... it's no piece of cake pushing out a baby regardless.

[2+twins]

She said that it was actually a very difficult second stage because: 1) she expected it would be quick like her first (which was about 5 minutes - this one was about 2 hours) and 2) she didn't have an overwhelming urge to push and her pushing wasn't making much progress. Her midwife said that the baby's head wasn't putting pressure on the nerve that gives that impulse, so she actually pressed on the nerve for her during the contractions so she could push effectively which really seemed to work. I had never heard of that before so I found that interesting. My friend said when her baby was born she looked like she had been deprived of oxygen because of her face being all blueish, but it was really just swelling/bruising from the trauma - poor thing! Anyway, they're both doing great!

[Silliest]

Wow! Thank goodness she was at home!

I used to have dreams when I was PG with #2 that she would present face-first, but in the end <ha-ha> she didn't.

I saw a link a while back to some *amazing* pics of a face-first HB. Wonder where I put the link.... have to look for it tomorrow. DH just gave me that "are you married to me or the computer?" look and headed up to bed

[2+twins]

Originally Posted by MsCheetah

I saw a link a while back to some *amazing* pics of a face-first HB. Wonder where I put the link.... have to look for it tomorrow.

Is it this one?

[Silliest]

BINGO!

That still makes me wince to look at it, but it's amazing!