VBAC after OP baby and narrow pelvic arch?

jcameron2010

Hi all! I had my son last May by unplanned c-section. I had wanted to go completely natural. And I did, until he would not come out. We knew that he was facing up and tried literally every position to get him to flip/come out. I even remember sitting on the toilet at one point. We ended up in the OR, with my DS being born within 3 minutes of the incision being made. It was crazy.

Well it turns out that I have a narrow pelvic arch. I don't know how much this would have been a factor if he was facing the right way. Has anyone had a VBAC after something similar? Or at least a VBAC with a narrow pelvic arch? We are beginning TTC this month and I am curious as to if anyone has some insight. TIA

Cornflakegrl

I wish I had insight.  I had positioning problems (OP with #1 and acynclintic with #2) so I'm trying to gather as much info as I can before my next delivery.  But I'm just curious about how you found out you have a narrow pelvic arch?  Was it something your OB told you?

selockar

I don't know anything about a narrow pelvic arch, but ds was op. I have been looking at the website spinning babies. It has lots of info on getting the baby in the right position. I'm 34 weeks and by following the mapping I am fairly confident the baby is in a better position for me to have a vbac. I know still plenty of time to move, but at least I feel in control a little. It's a great website!

iris427

I'm not sure specifically about a narrow arch, but my first was OP and I was told after my c/s that my pelvis was too small to have babies vaginally unless I had a preemie.  I found a new doctor and had no issues VBACing my second child, a healthy full-term 7 lb 12 oz baby.  He was even a little larger than my first baby who was supposedly way too big to fit.

OP position makes you significantly more likely to have a cesarean.  So there is a good chance it was your baby's position, not your pelvis, that led to your c/s.  

Jen524

Both of my babies were OP.  I was able to VBAC with my 9lb OP baby.  She was almost 2 lbs heavier than her sister who I had to have a C-section with.  I don't know if having two OP babies means there is something narrow with my pelvis, but I was able to get a VBAC with a bigger OP baby.  Her delivery was assisted by forceps, but we did get her out and my pushing was making progress with her before that.  With DD1, I did not make hardly any progress pushing and her heart rate would not recover like they wanted in between pushes so we went to the section.

nosoup4u

iris427:

OP position makes you significantly more likely to have a cesarean.  So there is a good chance it was your baby's position, not your pelvis, that led to your c/s.  

I agree with this! There's a decent amount of women on here who had OP/mispositioned babies the first time, and then went on to have successful VBACs. 

My first son was also OP, and I had a VBAC with my second son, who was 2+ lb and inches bigger than his brother. My VBAC baby was anterior up through labor. 

Spinningbabies.com is a great site, and I also found a chiropractor who specializes in the Webster Technique, and saw her regularly when I was pregnant with my second. I don't know if the chiropractics did anything, but I felt like it wasn't going to hurt anything if I tried it.

ETA: in regards to the pelvic arch, I wouldn't put that much weight into it...I don't think there is any sure-fire way to tell what woman's pelvis shape or size is (barring extreme outliers). And given the current state of maternity care in the US, I think a lot of OBs "play it safe" when it comes to diagnosing why a woman has had a c-section. And even a quick search on Google says that the whole "pelvic shapes" are from some sort of crazy outdated study from the 20s - not sure how true that is, though.

jcameron2010

Cornflakegrl:

I wish I had insight.  I had positioning problems (OP with #1 and acynclintic with #2) so I'm trying to gather as much info as I can before my next delivery.  But I'm just curious about how you found out you have a narrow pelvic arch?  Was it something your OB told you?

It was something my OB has told me. DS did had a nice line on his forehead from hitting my pelvis, maybe that is how they jumped to that conclusion?

 

 

jcameron2010

iris427:

I'm not sure specifically about a narrow arch, but my first was OP and I was told after my c/s that my pelvis was too small to have babies vaginally unless I had a preemie.  I found a new doctor and had no issues VBACing my second child, a healthy full-term 7 lb 12 oz baby.  He was even a little larger than my first baby who was supposedly way too big to fit.

OP position makes you significantly more likely to have a cesarean.  So there is a good chance it was your baby's position, not your pelvis, that led to your c/s.  

This is good to here. My son was small too, only 7lbs 3oz. Hopefully my next baby will be facing the right way. It seems weird too, to me at least, that even though I would be okay with another c-section, I would labor all over again to have a vaginal birth. As hard as it was, I'd do it again.  

catrinawaves

DS was acynclintic, and my MW told me afterwards during my pp appt that I had a "narrow pelvic arch". She also told me a RCS was a glamorous way to have a baby. So I went with a different MW group for my second pregnancy. 

I had a hospital, non-medicated VBAC with absolutely no issues. I got to the hospital around 9 pm, was dilated 5 cm, and had DD before 3 am. I pushed for less than 30 minutes, and she was 8lbs 5oz, 20 in.

Obviously, everyone is different, but based on my experience I wouldn't worry too much. I think my CS had more to due with DS' position, and since I had an epi, I wasn't able to move around and help him straighten out.

GL!