Question about Back Labour.......

[LotusFlower]

I was wondering if it's possible for an ob to tell if baby is lying posterior or not during the last few weeks of pregnancy?
My biggest fear about labour and delivery is having "back" labour.
I fell off a horse 4 years ago and fractured my sacrum so I am completely terrified!
Just wondering if they can tell by feel or not?

[Trillian]

Yes it is possible for them to be able to feel the baby's position in most cases. Quite often babies will turn during the birthing process too. Visit the spinning babies website, it gives some useful exercises you can do to turn baby around or prevent him from turning.

[Antheia]

Yes it is. My bub was posterior and my midwife could tell by the fact that she couldn't feel the hardness of bub's back when she felt my belly. She felt more lumps all over, which were the arms and legs and more of a gap in the middle.

[Aranah]

I had back labours with my last two kids. I didn't have any pain relief, not even gas, due to me being very hard on myself, but I was screaming 'help my back!!!' through the whole thing both times. It seems funny now, but at the time the back pain was so bad I didn't even notice the contractions. I wouldn't have survived without the shower going full force on my back through both labours, first was 24 hours but 8 hours proper labour, second was 10 hours.

The second pregnancy I tried doing all the exercises, whenever I rested, I would rest on all fours. DD spun a few times during labour, but still liked the OP position better than the rest. So they didn't work for me but I've heard many who they worked for. To make things worse, I had a split pubic bone with her, and it hurt like hell through the whole thing, but split when she came out. I found the best way dealing with it was actually moving through the whole labour, lying down was too much pressure on my back.

I survived it and doing it all over again despite the fact I'll probably have another OP one and be silly about taking pain relief again....they are bad but it's the best pain in the world when you look at the result .

Hopefully you'll be fine and it won't be an issue, it doesnt happen too often I don't think, well I haven't heard of too many people having OP labours. But the exercises will help give you peace of mind.

[Fi]

Yep definitly possible to find out. Try not to be too scared of labour. Back labour is bad, but there are definitly ways of coping with it. Whether its pain relief or positioning, or say heat.

[Impatient]

My midwife gave me a brochure on different ways to sit and stand. Like Jillian said, don't slouch in a chair and get on your hands and knees!

The brochure also said you're better off laying on your side on the couch, rather than sitting up on it. Also, sitting backwards and leaning on the back of a chair is good, as is leaning forward into a bean bag. All of this should be done from around 30 weeks apparently.

I also heard that leaning forward when you're having a BH is good as that helps turn bub around. All the best with it all!