Babies too big to birth?

junie216 · December 2012

I have a question maybe this has been asked before, and if so please help me find the thread.

I think I've seen comments on this board saying something like "your body won't grow a baby too big to birth vaginally", yet I see in birth stories "the doctor told me the baby was to birth vaginally". So what connects these dots? Is it that birthing naturally you can move and that helps you birth big babies in a way that they wouldn't "let" you move once you had an epi in the hospital?

Thanks for all the knowledge and I love reading this board!!

ahcantrell90 · December 2012

I would like to know as well!

I do have a friend that was told she wouldn't be able to birth vaginally with her last because he was going to be such a big baby. But she had a water birth and everything went super well. She gave birth to a 10 lb baby and said it didn't hurt anymore than her other 3.

bdutton0005 · December 2012

It usually isn't the size of the baby ( unless yo have GD and have like a 15 pounder) but the shape of your pelvis. There are 4 pelvis shapes and even with this from what i see only about 5-10% of the population ( worldwide) would actually have a pelvis shaped that the baby couldn't pass and usually it is due to some sort of injury.

That being said sometimes babies aren't in the perfect position or do get stuck under the pelvis bone and yes there are things the provider/nursecan do to facilitate a vaginal birth. But sometimes they just don't work. As far as the epi goes I would say yes it is usually because you can't move to help facilitate the maneuvers needed to be done.

Hope that helps.

annabelle.27 · December 2012

Positioning, both mom's and baby's, matters more than size. Labouring and pushing in an upright or hands and knees position with an OA baby is easier than pushing an OP baby on your back.

With ds1, I pushed for three hours with no progess and got a csection. With ds2 I had a successful vbac. Ds1 was smaller but OP and I was pushing on my back. Ds2 was bigger but OA and I pushed on my knees.

Mrs E in Oregon · December 2012

Most women have the capacity for their babies to pass through, but we aren't giving birth they way we evolved to. Too many women are being told their pelvis is not big enough to birth their baby. There are women who have too small of a pelvis, but doctors might be more willing to say that a pelvis is too small than to say you're not in a good position and can't be moved because of hospital protocol or because you're paralyzed from the butt down.

When you are on your back your pelvis will compress, flattening out the otherwise round space your baby slides down.So if you are confined to your back because of an epidural and the typical pushing position, a big head or a head not in the right position can't come out as easy.

We recline more than we should in late pregnancy. Many women recline their seat in the car or sit in a recliner with their feet up because they are tired. Can't fault anyone for that right? Well the last few weeks of pregnancy, your baby can start turning sunny side up because the spine is the heaviest part of the body so it "sinks" to the bottom of your uterus. By that I mean it rolls it's spine to the low spot, against your spine. Now your baby is not presenting with the squishy part of it's head, and may not descend properly.

There is a true element to having too small a pelvis, but it is mainly in the poorest of communities in the world. Like in Africa where women start hauling heavy things like giant pots at age 3, they can life obscene amounts of weight from very young ages because of how they have to transport everything they need. These women are often 6-8 inches shorter than women in surrounding areas with more resources and start being married off at 12 and 13, so giving birth by 15 years old.

When rickets was more common in our nation there was a risk of malfomation but that is next to unheard of in our society any more. Any deformities like that are known risks before conception for women with those issues.

Celyn · December 2012

I have an android pelvis -- the kind that is the least likely to birth vaginally. I had two vag deliveries, both of babies over 8 lbs (not huge, but still that magic number when doctors start saying it's too big).

Very often, it's the willingness and skill of the CP to get a baby into good position, or manipulate mom's position to enact that, which plays a bigger part in whether or not a big baby delivers vaginally. I've only once seen a doctor suggest Walcher's maneuver for a laboring mom whose baby was failing to engage (and it worked right away). Instead what usually happens is they start pitocin and watch and wait. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

wifeofadam · December 2012

I think that a lot of it has to do with monitoring and impatience on the part of doctors or midwives. Back in the day women weren't put on the clock like they are now and so their doctors or midwives worked with them to birth their baby - got them up and moving to get them to progress or shifted them to different positions to help the baby maneuver through the birth canal. Now, people seem to be a little more impatient. You only have a certain amount of time after your water breaks or you have to progress a certain number of centimeters in a time frame. If you don't, you're given a c/s. Doctor's have to cite a reason for the c/s and so they will either say "failure to progress" or that the baby was just too big to fit and that is why it didn't want to come out. Add to this the fact that we monitor babies now and that has increased the c/s rate. So after the fact women may have an 8-9 pound baby and the doc says "the reason the heart rate was dipping was because the baby was just too big to fit".

Maybe if women weren't given epidurals and rendered immobile, these things wouldn't be happening.

My pelvis is shaped oddly and I am prone to having posterior babies (2 out of 3 have been OP so far). My mother was the same and 3 out of 4 of hers were OP. My labors were crazy with my OP babies - long and didn't fit the normal patterns. Pushing was crazy and long. An impatient care provider might be likely to tell me my baby just isn't going to come out that way because it isn't going to fit or something like that (and my babies have been 8 pounders), but luckily my MWs have been patient with me.

ncbelle · December 2012

You've gotten some good answers so I'll just add my personal story. Eleanor was 10 lbs (a bit unexpectedly as Callum was only 8lb6oz - although he did have a 99th head! and I measured behind by a week or two). She was a med free BC birth. I'm almost 100% certain had I been in a hospital with an epidural and a provider who wasn't skilled with encouraging movement in labor I would have had a c-section. My labor wasn't long but I did stall at 7 cm or so for a few hours as she was acynclitic - and being big, she wasn't coming out until she lined up! My midwife had me doing all sorts of positions - and she moved insanely in the 30 minutes before I started pushing. Had I not had that, no doubt I would have been "failure to progress" and off to a section.

Eleanor also had a minor shoulder dystocia which is of course more common with big babies. However, because I could move - and because I had midwives that knew what was up! - as soon as it was clear she was stuck (I was actually in the tub - had pushed once and gotten her head out - push two did nothing and they could see she was stuck) I was hoisted out of the tub flipped onto hands and knees - 1 more push and she was out. I'm confident that the ability to move and the knowledge of my providers prevented her from having any sort of birth injury related to the shoulder dystocia.

FWIW, Eleanor's birth was no "harder" than Callum's; I didn't even tear. I also about fell out when they weighed her since that's not at all what I was expecting

junie216 · December 2012

Thank you so much for the detailed responses and knowledge. It really helps and I will continue researching! THANK YOU

iris427 · December 2012

I had a c/s with my first (7 lbs 10 oz) and I was told that I would never be able to deliver vaginally unless I had a preemie. I went on to have a VBAC with my second, who was 7 lbs 12 oz. So while yes, I think there are legit cases of CPD out there, I think it gets overdiagnosed when something like the baby's position is complicating delivery.

Studies on women who had a c/s for CPD show that over 60% are able to have VBACs,

ateach · December 2012

My doctor has started to worry me with the big baby talk and "the head will come out but the body might get stuck." These were all encouraging. I am grateful that I at least have a doula to help me through! I am going to try to resist induction and especially c section as much as I can!

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