Dialation stops because baby is "too" large?

[Synchro246]

So, I've been sucked into baby week on discovery health and TLC and I heard a new one. "The mom's body stopped dialating naturally because baby was too large to come out. . .doctors call this failure to descend"

First of all, I *thought* failure to descend was when a woman was 10 cm and the baby wasn't coming out despite pushing. Secondly, HOW in the world would a body naturally know how large a baby is and therefore decide not to dialate any further??? Mechanically this makes no sense to me.
Tell me I'm not nutz. Or tell me I am and I will have learned somthing new.


FWIW, the baby was, IIRC, 7lb 14 when she stopped dialating "naturally" at 5cm and had a c-sect.

[soso-lynn]

From http://en.allexperts.com/q/ObGyn-Pre...easons-c-s.htm

When you are in active labor, your cervix should dilate approximately 1cm per hour until it reaches full dilatation (10cm). If you do not progress to full dilatation, this is called "failure to progress". Usually, we first try to stimulate the labor by giving pitocin to give you more effective contractions. However, if there still is no further dilatation, a cesarean section is performed due to "failure to progress in labor". If you do reach full dilatation, and start to push. The baby usually will come down and go through the birth canal to effect a vaginal delivery. If the baby's head (cephalus) is larger than your pelvic bones and it cannot negotiate the passage through the bones, a cesarean section is done for cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD), because the baby's head could not get through. If you reach full dilation and push for 2 or more hours, and the baby's head has not moved down (for whatever reason), it is called failure to descend and a cesarean section is performed. The reasons for failure of descent can be due to a large baby, an umbilical cord problem, deflexed head, CPD, etc.

That is the general, albeit completely ridiculous, definitions that OBs use. So, technically, it would have been Failure to Progress even though we all know what that really means.

[aurora_skys]

hmm, sounds like a load of bs to me.. its not like the moms body thinks "oh, i can stop dialating and just get a c section instead!" lol. a lot of medical professionals think we are dumb dumb dumb

doesnt labor just sort of stall out sometimes anyways? maybe her body just wanted to take a breather

[honeybunch2k8]

Sounds very dumb to me, and it makes no sense.

Dilation can go back and forth for whatever reason, and I doubt "baby too big" is one of them. IMO, I bet "baby too big" is OB code language meaning labor isn't progressing fast enough for them and their ready to go home so give her a C-section.

What's really sad is that many moms are ill informed and may not know this.

The 1cm per hour rule is really dumb, and I doubt it's based on concrete evidence. I may have to read Pushed again, but my understanding is that some OB pulled that rule out of his arse and for whatever reason it stuck.

If OBs were so concerned about failure to descend they wouldn't make those poor women push for hours against gravity.

I had to give up what little TLC health channel i could. When I want to watch a birth I go to youtube and find a physiological one.

Sorry, I'm on my soap box.

[sapphire_chan]

First time mom (or at least first vaginal birth)? I suspect the 'technical' term for it is actually "impatience during the shaping of the head".

[Synchro246]

Ok so I'm not insane. Thought so.
These shows. . . :

Now, who wants to tackle why the woman who gave birth on her back in a snow bank didn't get back into the car OR put her baby skin-to-skin? No, it's much better and totally reasonable to wait for an ambu for 15 minutes in sub-zero temperatures. . .after alll it's hard to walk with an umbilical cord between your legs.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Synchro246

Now, who wants to tackle why the woman who gave birth on her back in a snow bank didn't get back into the car OR put her baby skin-to-skin? No, it's much better and totally reasonable to wait for an ambu for 15 minutes in sub-zero temperatures. . .after alll it's hard to walk with an umbilical cord between your legs.

Kindest suggestion: because she was cold before she got out of the car and hadn't had much to eat that day and those combined to impair her judgment and the effort of labor and the additional cold from getting out of the car finished off what little reasoning ability she had left and it's a miracle she was able to call 911 out of pure instinct from years of having it drilled into her head? If there was someone else with her, I hope she sues them.

[kitkat5505]

Originally Posted by Synchro246

Ok so I'm not insane. Thought so.
These shows. . . :

Now, who wants to tackle why the woman who gave birth on her back in a snow bank didn't get back into the car OR put her baby skin-to-skin? No, it's much better and totally reasonable to wait for an ambu for 15 minutes in sub-zero temperatures. . .after alll it's hard to walk with an umbilical cord between your legs.

OMG I watched that once and was like WTH?! Why was she giving birth out in the snow when she could be in the warm car, and why STAY there?! I rarely watch birth shows anymore, they just make me mad.

[Synchro246]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Kindest suggestion: because she was cold before she got out of the car and hadn't had much to eat that day and those combined to impair her judgment and the effort of labor and the additional cold from getting out of the car finished off what little reasoning ability she had left and it's a miracle she was able to call 911 out of pure instinct from years of having it drilled into her head? If there was someone else with her, I hope she sues them.

Well, her husband was with her. She said she "felt the need to get out of the car" which I totally understand. It'd be hard to birth in a car. Plus she said she felt hot. The excuse after the fact was the husband's "I couldn't move her because she hadn't delived the placenta yet". I am guessing some kind of shock-linked or nutritionally-linked imparment was at play.


FWIW, I was shouting at the TV earlier when the DH knew that DW was a quick laboror due in the blizzard months and asked the docs for "whatever I need if the baby comes unexpectedly" and they gave him cord clamps and a bulb. Too bad no-one thinks to rec Emergency Childbirth




ooooh I'm feeling ranty as all heck tonight. Sorry.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Synchro246

ooooh I'm feeling ranty as all heck tonight. Sorry.

Common side effect from having too much (read 5 minutes) of those shows. If you don't have a condition which counterindicates doing so, I recommend a large dose of good chocolate to balance your system.

[Synchro246]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

Common side effect from having too much (read 5 minutes) of those shows. If you don't have a condition which counterindicates doing so, I recommend a large dose of good chocolate to balance your system.

Have I ever said that I love you?

Screw chocolate. I'm onto wine tonight. Same tannins or something, right?

[Synchro246]

I should also admit that in YELLING at the TV I totally scared the little 18 mo old boy I watch. He was scared. I had to explain to him that he didn't do anything wrong, our culture is just F'd. Don't worry, His dad is pro-swear word.

[FREEmom1120]

Well actually the cervix can swell which may make it seem like dilation is "stopping" or even going backwards. I don't think it has anything to do with the size of the baby though.

[Belle]

Originally Posted by Synchro246

Now, who wants to tackle why the woman who gave birth on her back in a snow bank didn't get back into the car OR put her baby skin-to-skin? No, it's much better and totally reasonable to wait for an ambu for 15 minutes in sub-zero temperatures. . .after alll it's hard to walk with an umbilical cord between your legs.

Ha! I still can't believe that I what I was seeing the first time I saw that. Hello, let's sit out in the blizzard instead of getting back in the nice warm car.

Back to the original topic.

First of all, I *thought* failure to descend was when a woman was 10 cm and the baby wasn't coming out despite pushing. Secondly, HOW in the world would a body naturally know how large a baby is and therefore decide not to dialate any further??? Mechanically this makes no sense to me.
Tell me I'm not nutz. Or tell me I am and I will have learned somthing new

Because they wouldn't win any brownie points if they called it "failure to wait" They have to blame the women for them not fuctioning like the machine that they should be and cranking 'em babies out at the clockwork pace of 1cm an hour. "Failure to progress", "Failure to decend", "CPD" All the blame is put on the mother and Doctor comes in to save the day. I don't know how many women have told me that their baby would have "died" if it hadn't been born in the hospital. I wonder if they think that the contempt for the system I have is directed at them.
:

Stepping down from soapbox...

[UnassistedMomma]

That's dumb. He probably just got to used to telling that lie to get his c-section that he eventually started to believe it.

[BetsyS]

When I labored with my son, I got stuck at 9.5 cm for about 10+ hours. It was technically called "failure to progress" because I didn't start to pushing. But, his head didn't really move down much, so it was also "failure to descend". He was large, too large for me to birth, certainly in an OP position (IMO). Had he been anterior, he might have fit through my pelvis.

Anyway, it's not unheard of to stop dilating because of a large baby. The baby is just too big to continue descending and putting pressure on the cervix to finish dilating.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

When I labored with my son, I got stuck at 9.5 cm for about 10+ hours. It was technically called "failure to progress" because I didn't start to pushing. But, his head didn't really move down much, so it was also "failure to descend". He was large, too large for me to birth, certainly in an OP position (IMO). Had he been anterior, he might have fit through my pelvis.

Anyway, it's not unheard of to stop dilating because of a large baby. The baby is just too big to continue descending and putting pressure on the cervix to finish dilating.

I don't know. Seems it'd make more sense for the show to say that the baby wasn't about to come out that way than to say the baby was "too big" to come out at all. Of course that wouldn't have the right tone of doubt about the functioning of womens' bodies.

Come to think of it, I was born via c-section for this same reason (30 hours back labor) and Mom always said it was because I was in a bad position. And that was back in 1980. So there's no reason for a doctor today to not know that positioning causes those problems--not just size. (Really there's also no excuse for them to continue to have a mother push on her back when something like that happens.)

Was your baby actually "big" out of curiosity? Where positioning would've had to be basically perfect for him to come out? Or was it more a case that if the baby's OP only small (like under 6lbs) babies have a chance of making it through?