thread: does back labour always = posterior?

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1

    Dec 2007
    Australia
    1,095

    Question does back labour always = posterior?

    I had DD2 five days ago (a wonderful homebirth) and I suspect that she might've been posterior. She'd been in the correct position throughout my pregnancy and my midwife didn't say she was facing the wrong way but from the start of my labour, I had back pain. The pain was sometimes constant, sometimes only appearing during a contraction and sometimes, even at the end of labour, all I could feel was the pain in my back and I couldn't feel my uterus (or rather the surrounding whatnot) hurting at all. So basically, if you had a "back labour" does that automatically mean bubs was posterior? She was also enormous, 54cm 4.4kgs and my midwife said I had the biggest placenta she'd seen, so perhaps the backpain was caused by the general lack of space in my uterus? XD

  2. #2
    Registered User

    Jul 2008
    summer street
    2,708

    Congratulations on the birth of your little girl!!!

    I also had loads of back pain and nothing in the front, but dd wasn't posterior. When I (used to) get periods, it was always cramping at the front, so I was surprised labour was all back.

    I would have thought the middie would mention if she was posterior...?

    Congrats again!

  3. #3
    Registered User
    Follow Pandora On Twitter

    Jan 2005
    cowtown
    8,276

    No it doesnt. MIL had back labour with all her children and none were posterior. She described it as feeling like period pain though, not the normal pain descripton youd associate with a posterior labour.

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Dec 2007
    Taking a ride on my grdonkey :D
    2,716

    Congratulations
    My second baby was posterior and I had the 'numb' feeling in the abdomen that you describe, for some reason nobody picked up on it until her head was delivered and the whole time I'd been freaking out that something was seriously wrong because I couldn't push properly and was completely devoid of sensation at the front of my body.
    My first baby was also a back labour, born facing the right way, but I still had sensation in my tummy - the pain, however, was all in my back. So... I guess no, a 'back labour' doesn't necessarily mean a posterior baby, but if there's very little/no sensation in the front, then chances are it is, kwim?
    Sorry, that wasn't helpful at all, was it lol? :/

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Apr 2007
    gold coast
    1,759

    i had a back labour and my DD was faceing the right way.

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Apr 2008
    The Purple House, Sydney
    1,811

    Two back labours here, and both the right way round. I felt the bh cx in my front, but once I was in proper labour, all the pain was in my back.