Posterior labour stories?

[Cricket]

It's looking like this baby is determined to stay on my right side, which is, I guess considered a posterior presentation, since babies apparently generally rotate clockwise in labour to the facing down position. (which means he's likely going to go from looking to the left to facing up, to looking to the right, to facing down.) Anyways, I've heard that this can be very quick and painless in labour, and it can be long, drawn out, and painful. Needless to say, I'm a little worried. I would love to hear from others who have had posterior or right-side babies, and how their labour went. Don't spare me the details, but I really hope there are some good stories too!
I have looked at the spinning babies website, by the way, and tried some of the turning techniques, but I think this bub is pretty stuck. He doesn't want to budge right now.

[StrawberryMumma]

Hi Cricket

My bub was posterior. But I didn't notice the common intense-back-pain labour that you always hear about with posterior births. It all went very smoothly. Of course labour/contractions were intense but very bearable. I didn't have to use any pain relief. I did have a short labour though, about 6 hours (I laboured at home until just before she was born, and there ain't no epidurals at home! and I didn't want to go to hossy until late so I knew I just had to manage!)

The only bit where bubs posterior position was a bit of a problem was when it came to pushing her out, she was a little stuck (but still only took 1/2 an hour to push out) and I didn't need any forceps or help to get her out and I'm pretty little! Just some good strong pushes! I did have a bit of a tear afterwards though.

I feel so positive about my experience, so no, posterior labours aren't ALWAYS bad!

All the best!!

[krisp]

My story isn't great but here goes!

Had an induction booked for the Monday morning (42w) but went into labour myself Saturday afternoon about 3pm. All was going just fine went to hospiatl at about 8.30pm where the OB broke my waters to help things along. It was very heavily mec stained and bub's heart rate was dropping with each contraction. I was GBS pos so was hooked up to a drip and now also to monitors for bub. Got to 8cm by about 4am and my cervix started to swell cause bub flexed his neck and apart from being posterior he was trying to come out face first! OB put up an induction drip at 6am to try and get me the last 2 cm but it didn't work. At 9am she said "I'm sorry but he's heart rate is too erratic and he isn't coping with your contractions (which were pretty much on top of each other thanks to the induction drip) I'm going to have to lift him out". So, sobbing because of my desire to have a vaginal birth off i went to have a CS. The spinal didn't work and my DS ended up arriving via an emergency CS with me under a general anasthetic at 10.30am Sunday morning.

We met each other and fell in love at about 1oclock as I was in recovery for a while. My DH stayed with him and gave his his first bath and cuddled him up closely till we could be together. BF was difficult but he did really well.

However, I have a friend who had her baby 4 weeks ago, he was posterior and she had him in just over 5 hours. No drugs other than 2 panadol (go figure!!!) and he weighed 10lbs! So just because bub is posterior doesn't mean horror labour.

My next birth is going to be a fabulous, empowering and wonderful VBAC and my little princess will be the star of the show I just know it!

[becmc]

I just cut and pasted mine from the birth stories thread. I did have a c/s for my first so that may have been why I had such a long labour too.

August 24th,2007, 6.30am, got up to go to the loo, got back into bed and had a strong braxton hicks with some period type pain at the same time, it was quite different to the other braxton hicks I had had during the pregnancy. Stayed in bed another 20 minutes and had another two in that time.
DS woke up early, so I got him up and had a coffee with DH and said I had some weird pains but to go to work anyway. I messaged my doula, and rang my midwife just to let her know things may be happening. As soon as DH left they got stronger and closer together, 40 minutes later I rang him and told him to turn around and come home.
He arrived home shortly after, at around 9am, at which time I was doing laps around the coffee table humming through contractions.
I rang me midwife back and asked her to come and check the baby was fine, she came shortly after, everything was good and I said I didn't need her to stay. My doula rang, we had a chat, I said I would call her when I needed her to come.
About an hour or so later I asked DH to call them back and tell them now would be a good time to head over. The contractions were probably about 3-5 minutes apart now, and needed alot of concentration. I can't remember when they arrived, the next 14 hours I was in active labour and had no perception of time.
Around midnight I was exhausted, I hadn't eaten hardly anything all day, and was nauseous. I decided to get an internal, and if I was less than about 8cm's I wanted to go to hospital and get pain relief.
My midwife checked, and I was 4-5 cm's,and the babies head was not well lined up with my cervix. I was dissapointed, but happy with my decision to go to hospital. We headed off, and I requested an epidural straight away which I got at around 3am. The next couple of hours were awesome, no pain, and even though I didn't sleep I rested to give me energy for the rest of my labour. At about 6am I had another internal and was still 5cm's, and bubs was definately posterior(spine to spine), so had my waters broken. By now the epi had worn off considerably. At 8.30am the ob had started for the day so came in to see me and I was 8cm's(woohoo!!!).
Two hours later she came in again and I was still 8cm's but had an anterior lip so she recommended some synto in the drip which I agreed to. I also asked to see the anaethitist(sp?) to get the epi topped up as it wasn't doing anything. He came in and I got another dose of pain relief that lasted around two hours again and then wore off!
Around 11.30pm the ob came in again and I was fully dilated but bubs was still posterior.
She had to go off and do a c/s, but recommended I start pushing to try and get the baby to turn. The first half hour or so of pushing the epi was still working so it was quite hard knowing what to do. After that it wore off though, the contractions were extremely painful but at least when pushing you know you are getting something out of it. Apparently I pushed for two and a half hours, but again I had no concept of time.
The ob came back and the baby had turned, she asked if I was interested in assisted delivery, I said no but then became aware that since pushing the babies heart rate had started to go up, and I thought that there is no way I have been through such a long labour for them to take my baby away when she is born due to distress, so I agreed to the ventouse. It felt like it was on the whole time, but according to my midwife she only assisted through a couple of contractions and I did the rest of the work.
When the babies head was crowning it actually didn't hurt like I expected, the contractions were still really painful and there was intense pressure, but no pain or burning on my perenium.
The proudest moment of my life was pushing my baby straight into her daddy's arms, after a 32 hour posterior labour (2.04pm on the 25th). He caught her and passed her straight onto my chest. We found out she was a girl (a suprise!!), me, my doula and midwife balled our eyes out for about five minutes, DH was holding back tears too. I held her for about half an hour, but within the first few minutes she opened her eyes and looked straight into mine, then DH had a cuddle, and then I held her again and she had her first breastfeed. She did and is still feeding like she has done it a million times before.
I had no stiches or tearing, and we came home that night, and went clothes shopping the next morning!!! I am already thinking about the birth of our next bub!!!

[Trillian]

Hi Cricket. My 3rd and 4th births were both posterior vaginal births. Alister's birth story is here The birth of Alister - 18/9/07 (Posterior birth with Shoulder Dystocia) and Paige's birth story is on the main BB site. They were very hard births, Paiges' moreso because of a syncto induction but not very long - 4.5 (Paige) and 6hrs (Alister) of active labour . I did have a lot of prelabour with both of them though. They were both born without the use of instruments although I did have some shoulder dystocia with both of them too - Alisters shoulders were born transverse.

Both of them were big babies - Paige was 9lb 8.5 and Alister was 10lb 1 so it can be done. I didn't know at the time with Paige though that she was posterior until it was too late so I couldn't help my body birth her better, but with Alister I tried everything in the lead up to his birth with limited success, but I think his size prevented him staying in the right position and he always turned back to OP. I did have some Bowen therapy by a qualified Bowtech practicioner and I highly recommend it to anyone.

You would know from looking at spinning babies that there are some techniques you can use in labour to help bubs move, so all is not lost. Good luck.

[widdly]

cricket dont worry too much. DS was posterior, i had a 17 hour labour, had an epidural and had to have the contractions speeded up and strengthened by a drip to get the labour progressing as bub was not budging from his positiona nd my body was getting tired. It took 2.5 hours of pushing to get him out but he turned right at the lat minute and was birthed vaginally with no help. I luckily had a fantastic midwife who stuck up for me, the Ob really wanted to use instruments to help him out, but i got there in the end by my self.

I hope that your bub decides to turn around when he is ready to come out, i didn't notice the birth being any more painful than normal cause it was my only labour.

GL everything will be fine, bub will be out in no time!

[BellyBelly]

A low percentage of babies are actually born posterior, and more are posterior with an epidural. Just try and keep up and active during labour, change positions frequently and use pressure for the back. Things can always change last minute! Lunges are good for moving possie babies too - lunges, stairs and walking

[Pretty Butterfly]

2 out of my 5 babies were posterior. My daughters labour was only 4 hrs, pushed for an hour then had to have the little snip! All was fine though, she was just a little stuck. My son was large! only 2 1/2 labour but intense! His head finally came out posterior, then he turned and sholders birthed normally!! I've been told since that birthing on all fours can help them get past the pubic bone without getting too stuck. Worth a shot if you need to!!

[*star*]

I agree with Kelly - things can definitely change at the last minute!! Unfortunately for me, it was the other way around- all pregnancy my bub had been doing the "right" thing and at the last check up was in the normal position, head facing the right way and on my left side coming down. Somehow she decided to change all that good work and turn to posterior at some point during labour. I remember feeling her feet up around my rib cage on my right hand side at some stage and told the midwife that that wasn't right (having never birthed before I don't know how I knew it was strange, but it just didn't feel right)- she agreed and told me that bubs had moved right around. I ended up with a 24 hour labour, which was intended to be a natural water birth, but after much time on all fours, then time in the tub, I agreed to an epidural when my midwife told me it was the only suggestion she had left as bubs' head was hitting my pelvic bone with every contraction. I tried pushing once I was dilated, but to no avail, and she wasn't far enough down to use forceps or vacuum, so I ended up with a c-section.

Don't let this worry you though - my main point is that bubs can change positions right up to the last minute, so whether it's all looking good, or not so good at the moment, things can change!

[SamanthaP]

Hi Cricket,
I'm not sure if I have misunderstood, but a posterior baby will have their back towards your back. If the baby's back is on your right or your left, then it could just be in the transverse position which is completely normal.

[Cricket]

Well, thanks so much for all the stories ladies! It really is helpful to read through them, and realize there's a heap of healthy mums and babies out there who have birthed posterior babies, though it may have been a little more difficult.
Those of you who had particularly long labours or ended up with c-sections - were you encouraged to change positions, etc? Were you allowed to stay active in labour? A friend of mine laboured for about 2 days on her back with a posterior baby, before someone told her to try getting on her knees. I thought that was ridiculous! She had a doula with her next birth and everything went MUCH better.
Samantha - yes, I was confused by that too at first. I didn't know it made a difference to be on the left or the right. But if I understand it correctly, the baby should be facing down at birth, and experience has shown that babies tend to move clockwise. So instead of simply tipping his back up and his face down, he will likely move back down first, then to the left side, and the to facing down.
If anyone knows why that happens, I would be curious to know the reason!
I guess there is a chance he might go the short distance, going counter-clockwise, but that is not so likely, from what I understand.
Anyways, thanks again, and I would love to hear more!

[becmc]

My labour was at home for quite a while, until I realised it was going to be a long labour and I would need pain relief, so for the first 20 hours or so I was constantly leaning forward, on my knees, over a fit ball etc. Then I had the epi and was on my side for about 7 hours, and once that had worn off considerably I managed to roll over on my tummy so I was then leaning forward again. My dd didn't actually turn until I had started pushing.