Swollen Anterior Lip. Failed UC

[FreeLove]

DH and I had planned for a UC waterbirth but had to transfer to the hospital after 18 hours of labor and upon seeing a mysterious piece of purple fleshiness in the canal. I really wanted to have our baby at home but since this was our first we didin't want to take any chances. It turned out that the fleshiness was my anterior lip. Apparently it got so swollen that it came down and actually blocked part of the passage in the birth canal. Long story short I had to have an episiotomy to help my little one get through. The labor and delivery ended up being 22 hrs in total.

Has anyone had this happen to them or have they heard of a similar situation like this? It would help to hear some similar feedback cuz I've been feeling sort of let down and guilty about not being able to give my baby a homebirth.
I was although very happy to have labored at home for as long as I could.

[Rockies5]

Amanda.

I've ocassionally heard of a homebirth transfer (or even a tranfer c-section) and the cervix swelling was cited as the cause.

I honestly don't know enough about anatomy to have an opinion on cervixes swelling. I've never heard of the mom saying she saw it, but then again most women don't own their bodies and births the same way when there is an attendant.

Peace and healing. and congratulations on what you did accomplish!!

maybe ask this in Birth Professionals to get some more opinons, too?

[flapjack]

It's OK to feel negative feelings about a birth that doesn't go according to plan. It's OK to grieve the loss of a dream. We live in a culture that regards pregnant and birthing women as sacred vessels for that precious cargo, our new babies, and assumes that all that's important is a healthy baby. I don't think that's the case

I'm glad you're both well and safe. Yours is the first time I've heard of an anterior lip swelling so much that it's visible, but you're not the first person I've heard of to transfer because of one- the others were both midwife-attended here in the UK, though, so there was help to diagnose a little earlier than you did. I had a small anterior lip myself with DS1, and yeah, it changed the feel of the labour after it was massaged and stretched and pushed back out of the way. Generally, an episiotomy isn't needed, but in your case I can see why it would be.

[josephine_e]

i have no advice or experience with this but wanted to lend my support and

and i don't believe there is such thing as a "failed" UC. you aren't in this to win the UC prize, you're in it to bring your baby into the world in the best way you can with the information you have! you can own your decisions, and even if you feel that you made a decision that you would have made differently, now, with more information (not that you do, just saying if...), you shouldn't feel guilty or shameful about that decision because you did what you could.

fwiw, we transfered after ds's birth because his face was blue. turns out it was just bruising. i kick myself so hard for not listening to my intuition which told me he was fine. we had a terrible time at the hospital and i know that i'd make a different decision now. that being said, i don't feel guilty because i know i did what i could for my baby and he is wonderful and happy and beautiful! all you can do is reflect on your particular situation and learn from it, whether you "should" have transfered or not.

you didn't fail at UC, you succeeded at bringing a new baby into the world! GO MAMA!

eta: i do agree with pp about the negative feelings being okay, too. i don't think it's selfish of you to have wanted that "perfect homebirth" [that we all want!], and i don't think it was selfish of you to transfer. i think you're just doing your best for you and your babe.

[FreeLove]

Thank you for the support. I have realized that things happened they way they needed to in order to have my little miracle I call Evie.

[BirthFree]

I've heard of swelling being a big deal sometimes. Esp. if there is an urge to push before the cervix is done getting out of the way. Trouble is, sometimes even if you're not 10cm, if you push, the cervix may move out of the way. I think following the urge to push is important... but I would say that if there was no progress of baby down the birth canal, I'd advocate breathing through and moving to hands and knees (chest down, rear up) to get the cervix to stop swelling.

I know you can take arnica (homeopathic) and I know there are a few others (to reverse the swelling) but I'd have to go look them up and I can't find that list right now (I searched all of yesterday)...

It's ok to feel sad or even bad - but I don't think you should feel guilty. I was horribly sad we transfered from our homebirth to the hospital with my son - I was exhausted, dehydrated and without good support and was stalled at 7.5cm with transition-ctx for the last 12 hours... it was a good choice in some ways, not a good choice in others. I can say that it taught me a lot and gave me oomph and education for the next births - but we never have that one that is 100% perfect you know?

If you daughter is healthy and happy and in a loving family - THAT is what lasts a lifetime. Give yourself time to process through, but remember that it wasn't failed, it was transfered.

[FreeLove]

Originally Posted by BirthFree

I've heard of swelling being a big deal sometimes. Esp. if there is an urge to push before the cervix is done getting out of the way. Trouble is, sometimes even if you're not 10cm, if you push, the cervix may move out of the way. I think following the urge to push is important... but I would say that if there was no progress of baby down the birth canal, I'd advocate breathing through and moving to hands and knees (chest down, rear up) to get the cervix to stop swelling.

I appreciate the information you gave me on cervical swelling. Your right, I believe feeling like pushing before the baby had progressed down the canal had alot to do with it. I did although spend an hour or so on my hands and knees chest to the floor and hiney in the air. I think the slow progression was making me anxious and stalling her progression so I guess I just should've relaxed and did several boughts of hands on knees with just some breathing through the pressure. There is just so much I now know about how I labor.

[AugustLia23]

I had a UC that was complicated by many things, among them a swollen cervical lip. The cure for a swollen cervical lip isn't an episiotomy. My labor was a good bit longer than yours(29 hours, both labors), baby's do come out. I was very thankful that my very dear friend cam over and kept me from going into the hospital.


Congratulations on your new baby girl!

[kittywitty]

With my 1st dd, I got the urge to push early and ended up with a swollen lip, too. They had to maneuver inside me to push it back and I pushed for 3 hours. Luckily I haven't had that with either of my births since.

Congrats on the baby girl!

[mataji4]

Amanda, congratulations on the birth of your baby girl- Evie is such a sweet name!

Please don't use the word failure!!! Try not to beat yourself up. Swollen anterior lips happen. I've seen them cause problems at births before. Sometimes they are caused by pushing before the entire cervix is dilated evenly, which usually happens because a baby's head isn't applying even pressure to the cervix with contractions (maybe the baby's head is asynclitic/crooked or the mother is in one position too long where the baby's position isn't optimal). I've seen waiting it out in a position that keeps the baby off of the cervix to work...also I've seen the swollen cervix iced, which mothers do NOT like at all (especially during contractions) but which does work well. I have seen this dealt with at home and followed by fine births.

To be clear, the episiotomy didn't have anything to do with the swollen lip. The swollen lip made it harder for the baby to come through the cervix, but would not effect the actual birth (though sometimes prolonged pushing due to a swollen lip can also swell up the yoni/perineum as well and can make it harder to get baby out so I could see an episiotomy happening in that situation).

First births are such a learning experience! Really, most first births are more "eventful" than following ones. Luckily, the birth learning curve is really steep!!!

[2bluefish]

My experience last time was so bizarre I just don't even think about it too often. I was pushing, I was dilated, I had a lip - everything stalled out, I closed back up - 2 days later I went in for pitocin, never saw a lip with pit. What in the h-e-double hockey sticks happened? At the hospital, they said I was just never dilated - cause there is "no way" I was dilated and closed back up. But I don't buy it - but it is too bizarre for my head to wrap around, so I don't think about it or talk about it much...

FWIW, I don't think lip is going to be a problem this time. I'm seem to be doing my effacing before dilating at all, so I think labor is going to be straightforward dilating.

[mataji4]

Oh man! Women certainly can dilate, then un-dilate! It happens- I've witnessed it. It seems that anything in labor/birth is possble, though for some reason some people want to keep it all within the textbook guidelines! Yes, un-dilating doesn't hurt anything. Often it seems that when something isn't right- mom is too tired, baby isn't in good position or something- the body will just stop labor, undilate, and then go into labor at a later time. It could be seen as a gift, really- time to correct whatever wasn't right. Probably your baby just moved into a better position so the lip wasn't there when your labor started again.

[2bluefish]

Originally Posted by mataji4

Probably your baby just moved into a better position so the lip wasn't there when your labor started again.

I feel that this probably is the most likely explanation. The day after I felt contractions that felt like afterpains, and I felt him move back up rather than stay way down. Our bodies are pretty amazing!

ETA: My story makes a good case for keeping the hands out of the vagina after the water is broken - and to not be trying to manipulate that cervix manually. If there hadn't been the risk of infection, I would have been more comforatable waiting a few more days after labor stalled out. The assumption when you are in active labor is that you will have the baby soon - but I have proven that is not always true!

[Romana]

I had a very similar UC. Labor progressed well, transition was about 20-30 minutes and then ctx spaced out to one every 5 min for about 30 minutes or an hour . . . then picked up again, but no pushing urge. All of these contractions were incredibly painful and intense, like transition contractions. At 19 hours (after 6 hours of being stuck at 9cm+ in extreme pain), we transferred. MD was able to push the lip of cervix out of the way, I was told to push, and dd was born 25 minutes later. Total 21 hour labor.

It took me a very long time to process the birth and my feelings about UC. It has been an incredibly learning experience and journey. First of all, I don't consider my UC to be a failure. Maybe I needed to transfer, maybe I didn't. I think I did, because I waited so long and I was exhausted and worn and felt that the baby should have arrived by then. In a way, it's a UC success. UC is not about staying home at all costs or under all circumstances. You have to be able to transfer if you need help at some point. There is no shame in that. There's no manual for birth (okay, there are a zillion, but there's no manual for how you'll birth for a particular birth). Birth is unpredictable and different for every woman for every baby. Most of the time, everything goes off without a hitch. Sometimes, something unusual happens, and it's beneficial to have assistance. That's what it's there for.

You waited, you did beautifully, you took care of yourself. You transferred when something unusual happened that you did not feel you could handle yourselves. That's success, not failure. You gave your baby a healthy birth. You gave your baby a healthy labor and a safe birth. You only sought medical care when you needed it. I think you and your dh did a wonderful job.

Take plenty of time to absorb what happened and process the birth. Take as much time as you need. It was 7 or so months until I wrote out my birthstory. I needed that much time to work through it before I could bring myself to write it down. I felt a lot of betrayal and disappointment. I feel good about the birth now - I accept the bad and celebrate the good. I use it to help me plan for the next birth. And I don't feel like a failure, for myself or for my baby. I did what I needed to do (maybe not what the next woman would need, but what I needed) to give her the healthiest possible birth. I'm glad we went the UC route and had the long, unassisted labor at home. I'm glad we made the decision to transfer. I'm glad we had a good backup plan in hand for just such a situation. For a time I second-guessed the decision to transfer and even felt regret, thinking, "If I'd just . . ." But the thing is, I don't know what would have happened if I'd done something else, and neither does anyone else. You can speculate to help you learn from the experience, but I think at the end of the day, finding a definitive answer to a "What if I'd just stayed home?" question isn't really out there. It's one of the mysteries of the universe that will never be revealed. And so you have the birth you had, and you did beautifully, and you have so much to learn from.

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more. I really do understand. Be gentle with yourself and take as much time as you need to process.

[georgia]

There is just so much I now know about how I labor.

Birth really can be such an amazingly journey of self-discovery ITA with the above mamas....go gentle with yourself. Your feelings are totally valid and emotions very real--whatever they may be at the moment

Congratulations on your sweet Evie

[FreeLove]

Originally Posted by Romana9+2

I had a very similar UC.

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more. I really do understand. Be gentle with yourself and take as much time as you need to process.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. All the feelings that you were having to process in the past are the same ones that I'm processing now. All this loving feed back is definitely speeding up that healing. I don't feel my UC is a failure anymore.

Thank You

[Adasmommy]

Romana9+2, your story is wonderful and made me realize that someone who plans a UC and then transfers, when talking about it later to people who maybe think UC is crazy , can really put a good spin on it. Because the fact is, you got medical help when you needed it, you did not endanger yourself, there was no disaster as a result of UC.

You know, like someone who thinks it's so dangerous, just tell them your story (or maybe I'll tell them your story ) and point out that there's no reason to go to a hospital without cause when it's perfectly simple to go if cause does arise!

I hope I'm coherent. I think I learned a lot from both of your experiences and I'm happy for both of your successful births!

[Marlet]

My first was a UC transfer. I understand the feelings of it being a failed UC. I refer to it like that all the time. In our case though we went in for pain killer only to have it go wrong. Feel free to pm me as well. I know it's not the same as yours but I had an episiotomy too..so that with the feelings of failure I can relate!

Congrats on your baby! I love the name.

[FreeLove]

This has trully been such an up lifting thread. I'm so glad I finally got over my own shame and got around to posting it. I wasn't sure how much it would help me. I hope that the support I've gotten here will help others who have had similar UC's or help those planning their first UC. I feel so much lighter now.

Much Love to all the strong women of the world.

[ScarletBegonias]

you are a strong mama Freelove!

congratulations on the birth of your baby girl Evie!