Anyone ever heard....?

[AliciaK]

....Of small feet meaing a possible small pelvis size? My OB looked at my feet at my last visit (for swelling) and said he was slightly concerned about the size of my feet. I am 164cm tall and have 5 or 6 size feet! My mother had a terrible labour with my brother (she has size 5 feet and in 1973 they let her go for 3 days!) he has a pointy head (!!) and I was a ceaser...... My OB said he won't be able to tell the size of the baby (big or normal) until about 3 weeks before the EDD, so not to worry now, but he will be keeping an eye on how she is growing. A few people I have talked to IRL haven't heard this one before, so as this is a bigger audience I thought I would get any opinions or stories others with small feet have had....

I am not too worried about it, I would just like to be prepared as I am much better at dealing with things if I am prepared. I dearly hope that I can have a natural labour and birth, but if bubs is big, or myself or bubs is in trouble, I am up for whatever my OB thinks necessary!

Thanks in advance for any replies ....
Al

[Antheia]

Honestly, to me, it sounds like just another scare tactic from OBs. I have never heard of this before and it sounds like a load of crap. Sorry to be harsh here but i just cannot stand how the medical profession just cannot sit back and have faith in the mother that she can birth her baby. No one is able to tell how big (or small) baby will be until s/he is out and is weighed. Not even ultrasound is very accurate. So he won't know if she is big, small or what until you birth her.

[{sarah}]

Oh dear, that sounds like the one about a man having large feet means he'll have a large penis

I wouldn't compare with your mother really either to be honest... My mum had a similar sort of labour by the sounds in 1977, but talking to her further made me realise it was probably nothing to do with pelvis size. She had little support, was expected to be on her back in the bed the whole time & was monitored. All of those things can lead to bad positioning for the baby & as a result a bad ending to the labour (a c/s for my mum as well). These days labour & birth is a lot different because we know about keeping active & being upright.

As for telling how big your baby is 3 weeks prior to the due date, how is he planning on doing that? To be honest I've not heard of a single case where a scan has been right in determining baby's size prior to birth. I was told my bub would be around 7lb but he was 8lb 14oz, nearly 2lb over the predicition. Lots of other people have had it go the other way - having c/s for so called big babies & them turning out to be 6lb.

Unless there is some medicaly necessary reason for having a c/s then I would go naturally if I were you. You never know, bub might be teeny tiny or you could push out a 10lb baby with ease. There's no way to predict what's going to happen until you're in labour.

Good luck with it & I wouldn't be worried about your foot size!

[AliciaK]

Thanks for the replies ladies....
I'm not worried about it..., and I honestly don't think my OB was trying to scare me as he has been great so far, very relaxed and open to how I want things done, but it was one I hadn't heard before....

I am still going to "plan" for a natural birth and just take things as they come..... I believe that I will be able to trust my body to do what it has to do when the time is right, and as I get ready for birth over the next 10 weeks I hope that my slightly scared feelings about the whole thing disappear ... and I know that my DH and doula will help me though it all

[bellelass]

Oh wow! That sounds absolutely Medieval. But you sound like you'll be fine; I think it is so important that we remember to trust our bodies, that we aren't sick and that almost all the time our bodies will know exactly what to do.

I suggest you just keep reading and talking to mothers as well as your DH and doula. That's what I've been doing for months now and I'm finally not freaked out about labor. Actually, kind of looking forward to it. That's a huge change from several months ago when I could barely read about stages of labor without wanting to faint.

[Ozziehoffy]

ummm nup, never heard that one before! My feet are a 6 and I had a natural ... in fact a VBAC... as for bubs size, well I had midwives guess around 7 pound a few weeks out and he turned out to only be a little bub of 5 pound 12 1/2... so hmmmm have to be pretty good to get it right I think. With my first the reason he was c/s was due to him being breech bum first, so folded in half and they did and xray to measure my pelvis size before making recommendations, so wasn't guessed. Go for natural hun if you can, your body is designed for babies and your baby and body know what to do!!