persistent op at birth

[SammyRo]

my little one is 3 weeks today and i was just thinking about my birth again and i've got a bit of a query.
Alyssa came into the world sunny side up - she was persistent op (posterior) throughout my labour. howver, the week before she was lying with her spine on my side, so wasn't fully posterior. during the week up til i went into labour (and actually i'd been doing it most of my 3rd trimester) i made sure i didn't sit in a reclining position, i sat on the fitballl a lot and did alt of the yoga positions to encourasge her to the front. even during my labour the mw wasn't completly sure that Alyssa was op, although she did suspect it due to spontaneous rupture of membranes followed by contractions that didn't establish tiil a good 18 hours later. i may be wrong but from what i understand she just turned the wrong way at some point. Is this right and could i have done something else to prevent this? as i said, i did alot of the positioning stuff. I'm not too worried, as I still managed a drug free birth and no intervention, its more of a curiosity and what can i do next time.

thanks in advance

[BellyBelly]

What you described - the waters breaking then a slow labour - very typical of OP labours. They come in all shapes and sizes OP labours - some get that overwhelming urge to push early, some get excrutiating back pain that can only be helped with an epi, and some don't go into labour and need synt - so they are all different.

It is very hard to say what you could have done differently, we are certainly seeing alot more OP labours in the birth world, and I think we'll continue to see more. A theory my teacher has is that a strong core will help - so doing things like pilates etc to help with core strength. Optimal fetal positioning should be started around 30 weeks (I think thats what they recommend) and also something like the Pink Kit can give you tools for working with a posterior labour. There are certain things you can do to help encourage the baby to move, sometimes it works well, sometimes the baby is just stuck there... but trying is better than nothing. Acupuncture can help with positioning too, chiro or an osteo with cranial sacral experience which is great for pregnant women. Clare in our centre says she has seen much success with it on preg women.

[SamanthaP]

I think sometimes babies just choose the way their going to be born, and no amount of OFP exercises are going to change this. I wonder if there might be a reason for this that only the baby knows. Who knows? Sometimes this stuff happens and we can't do much about it. It just is

[Tobily]

Agree with all of the above, and sometimes too there is just something about the shape of your pelvis that makes your babies fit better that way. A friend of mine had OP babies all three, and all three were actually born face up...they never turned at all. So I'd guess there was an anatomical reason for that - it would seem more than chance in her case.

Posterior labours can really suck - I had one recently with a first time mum, she contracted like a steam train for 20 hours and only dilated 2cm. Jeez it was hard work

[paradise lost]

My DD was "a bit" OP throughout the prelabour. It felt like real labour to me! I had the pushing urge but was only 2-3cm. Then i tried going on my knees and elbows for 2 particularly strong ctx and she turned suddenly (and painfully for my cervix!) and within 3 hours i'd dilated to 10 and delivered her without any pushing. I don't know what kept her OP, from 4 months into the PG i sat in the office chair back to front to encourage her to lie anterior, we had no sofa so i sat always on the floor or a beanbag, i walked 4 miles/day and swam 2 miles/week (no backstroke! LOL) but it made no difference. I have a dodgy sacrum, and an aquired leg-length discrepancy (most people have one to some extent, i only notice mine when i run 5 or more miles) with my left leg seeming longer (because my pelvis is tilted down on the leftt). DD was facing the back of my left hip throughout early/pre labour, perhaps the slightly uneven sway of my hips made that the comfiest place to lie when her head had to be against bone all the time? No idea.

I obviously have plenty of room in there because once she turned my labour was a million miles an hour and she SHOT out of me, so i'm not too worried about the next one - i'll definitely try knee-chest if i'm having strong ctx and back pain but not dilating.

Bx

[Trillian]

My 3rd and 4th births were OP ones and even though I had all the *tools* for my 4th birth to firstly try to stop him getting OP in the first place and secondly to deal with another OP labour if I had to, it didn't go at all to plan and he moved back to OP after being LOT/LOA for most of the pg. Sometimes I think despite our best efforts that they are just going to choose to stay in that position, even though it isn't the easiest for us to birth them in. I think all we can do is be prepared, try to stop it happening if we can and if that doesn't work, know how to work with an OP bub in labour.

[SammyRo]

I was hoping this was a one off, but i suppose like you said Trillian at least i know how to deal with it, and hey, if I've done it once, i can do it again!
Kelly, i had like you said the overwhelming urge to push early. my hubby kept telling me i couldn't push and got told to go away in a few certain words! my mw was fantastic and kept encouraging me to move around and change positions.
Hoobley, I also sat in all the right positions running up to my labour and spent time during on my knees and hands but there was no way this lttle bubba was turning!! i think she's going to be stubborn
like her dad!

[paradise lost]

I think it's good to remember that in general babies are smart, they come out the way that will work best for THEM on the day of the birth. I know one woman who had persistent OP's (2 kids) and eventually had a pelvis x-ray for another reason which found the inside of her pelvic outlet was damaged in some way (she'd been in a lap-belt car-crash as a little girl but never been told about her injuries) which made OP the only realisitic way for her babes to come. You also often hear of babies in persistent OP coming out all tangled in their cord - turning would have put them in danger of compression, so they didn't. Most babies will choose the safest position for labour - might not be the fastest though!

Bx