I recently heard a birth story from a friend who said that her labour stalled at 8cm. She remained in transitional labour for 3 hours or so, with no progress. Eventually they did a c-section. This was an induction, with a posterior baby - her first. (Brutal introduction to motherhood!) She says she will NEVER go through labour again, because the experience was so awful.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what makes this happen? Why does dilation stop? What can help? What can keep this from happening again? Is it just because this was an induction? Or because of the baby's position? Any opinions will be welcomed!
Thanks!
My labour stalled when I was pushing, although I had only just started pushing really.
I put it completely down to the hospital staff bullying me. When you're not in safe environment your body will fall out of labour because you need to be safe to birth. Look at every other animal - they find a safe place. Why do we humans then create the least safe place possible to birth and coerce the populance into going to that place?
Ryn, did your contractions stop? I've heard of the body taking a rest after transition, especially, or turning off labour when you're tense (mine did that to me with DD3) but my friend's contractions kept going, strong and hard - just no more dilation. Do you think it's the same sort of thing?
I stopped wanting to push and the lovely machine told everyone that my contractions were erratic and calming down - as soon as the syncto went in (I had no choice here, they were doing it no matter what I said) then my contractions started again - with what was your friend induced? But it wasn't until I had calmed down that I was able to push again.
I'd be interested to know too Cricket. A good friend of mine stopped dilating at about 8cm too and was in transition for a few hours. They then gave her the drip, but she still didn't progress and ended up with an emergency c/s. How do we know that it won't happen again?
i was slow to dilate during first labour due to being tense and scared. i was still getting really painful contractions the whole time. actually now that i think about it i was induced and bub was posterior also. so i would say those two factors probably do have some part in it. (this was early on in labour though, not at transition)
The funny name for your friend's labor pattern was a Posterior Arrest. The mother is not a jail, however. Releasing the baby means releasing the mother, too. By this, I mean, that often tight or twist pelvic floor muscles can hold a baby back at 7-8 cm for many hours.
If we can do a technique to release the tension on those muscles, the baby may be able to either rotate to a better postion (anterior, with its smaller head circumference) or simply suddenly have room to come out
An inversion and a pelvic floor release are two things that can be tried. See About Spinning Babies for a free education on Posterior presentation or other tricky fetal positions.
It doesn't have to repeat. Second babies are worth it!
What makes dilation stall?
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