Questions about Vaginal birth

Hello ladies,

I am 23 weeks pregnant with fraternal twins. I had a vaginal birth with my first child. Because she was posterior (she was facing my abdomen), I had to lay on my side for many hours during the labour to make her face my back. Luckily she was able to turn around and that's when she came out.
I am thinking things could be different this time since twins won't have that much room to turn around as compared to a singleton baby.

My questions are:
-If your baby A was posterior, were you able to turn him/her to face your back before giving birth?
-Or was your baby A born face-up? (I read that's possible and happens sometimes).

Thank you in advance for your reply.

 

i'm a L&D nurse and babies often turn during labor, it just takes creative positioning by the nurse. delivering face up or OP, as we call it, is possible but very HARD on you!!!

 

I had the same thing with my 1st and he finally turned after getting an epidural after being stuck at a 5 for hours. I am a L & D nurse too and at that point knew that getting an epidural would help my pelvic muscles relax and once I was able to, I went on my hands and knees and after about 20 minutes, he turned. I was complete in 30 min. and only pushed for 20 minutes after "laboring down" for about 10 while waiting for the dr to arrive. I have had the best luck as a nurse getting the baby to turn by getting the mom on all fours (yes it is embarassing but at that point, who cares). Whirlpool baths can also help. As the other mom said, you can deliver "sunny-side up" but it is torture for the mom and usually prolongs the pushing stage. I am very hopefully (basically because I am in denial that I might need a c-section) that I will have a non-complicated vag delivery with my twins!! I hope you have the same!

 

the majority of babies will turn to the correct position before or during early labour. the crappy part is that posterior babies often cause back labour (ouch!). a doula, your husband or an L&D nurse can help with that - there are lots of positions & techniques that can help with back labour (ex the double hip squeeze or labouring on all fours as these both help take the pressure of baby's head off of your back). the very few babies who don't get themselves spun around can be born in that position (sunny side up as PP said). it can be a longer, more difficult labour but it's not impossible! i have a very good friend who had an unmedicated vag delivery with her second who was born with a face presentation.

 

My Baby A was posterior and born "sunny side up." Take my details with a grain of salt because it was a while ago, I was a first-time mom, and I was having a homebirth, so things might be different in the hospital.

Since my uterus of steel was not budging at 38w 6d after doing everything I could think of to get labor going I finally took castor oil. Which did start labor. But sllloooowwwwlllllyyyy. Labor was long and unproductive. One problem was that my vertex-vertex twins were facing each other, hugging so that the chin of Baby B was keeping the shoulder of Baby A from descending. Baby A was posterior too. Another problem was that I was vomiting a lot, and couldn't keep anything down, so I was probably getting dehydrated. Good thing was none of this seemed to be a problem for my girls. Their heart rates were great all through labor.

Fortunately for me, my MW had to leave and I got her back-up. The back-up was more experienced and equipped with an IV. After 24 hours of labor, some active and some not, I took in a lot of IV fluids. After that things moved smoothly and quickly. Maybe 30 minutes of pushing, some on my back with the theory that would help with the posterior babe, but most on the birth stool, which I LOVE! It really helped that an assistant held Baby B up from the outside so Baby A could descend. So, 20 minutes or so of pushing on the stool with some support of my peritoneum and I birthed a perfectly alert little girl with no tears!

Tough labor, but successful vaginal delivery. Baby B was even easier. The placenta on the other hand . . . but that's off topic.

Sorry for the novel, thought you'd be interested.

Best wishes for your birthing!

 

My baby A was "sunny side up" as well and the doctor reached in, felt the suture lines, knew which way to gently turn him and did so successfully.

 

Thank you ladies for sharing your stories. I'm so glad to hear that they can turn the baby around even with twins or deliver successfully sunny side up. This is very encouraging!