Unstable lie and vaginal birth

Just wondering if there are any birth stories here of babies who were in unstable lie (keep changing position) and had vaginal births.

ta

HotI what sort of changing positions are you referring to? My bub this time went from head down to breech at 32weeks then turned by my 36 week appointment and the ended up being born posterior (natural drug free) at 40+5 weeks.

DS1 was breech, not unstable. We didnt know his position until birth but in retrospect, the constant rib pain was from him being breech. Vaginal birth, though in hospital.

There may be stories on spinning babies. I've heard of babies who kept moving & flipped head down during birth.

My LO is alternating between transverse (sideways) to head down, but there seems to be a lot of room for bub to move all over the place (I am at 38.5 weeks). I guess i'm looking for stories when bub hasn't decided what position they want to be in right up to birth. When i tried to search, it only came up with c section stories.

Have you talked to your midwife about it? It may be helpful to be on all 4s when your birthing time begins. Or doing inverse positions.

This sounds esoteric, but I'm getting the feeling bub's ambivalence about position is related to your ambivalence about birth - maybe some unresolved fears. It may help you to write them down, go for a walk, talk to bub, then come back and burn them, letting them go.

Bub will end up in the right position for him/her when it comes time to be born.

I don't know whether you would call my girls positions unstable (I'm not familiar with that terminology) but they were both still able to switch from head up to head down very easily at 36 weeks and DD2 was in many combinations of transverse, oblique, breech etc. until pretty late in the piece...is that what an unstable lie is? It just seemed apparent that they both had plenty of room to move around in there, especially DD2 who was a smaller baby (0.5kg lighter) in a pre-stretched tummy. Both were vaginal deliveries, both induced (one with gels, one with AROM) on or soon after my due date. DD1 was posterior pretty much up until labour started and they went anterior but still moved from side to side a lot before getting ready for the exit. DD2 was a lovely LOA all through labour. Neither engaged until it was show time and my ob said that was probably because they had plenty of room to move so nothing prompting them to get down there, and even if they did (I suspect DD1 did about a week before my due date) they would just float on out again. But both got themselves together when it counted and got themselves out head first.

Yep, talked to my midwife today. My abdominal muscles are extremely lax which is why bub has so much room. DOing strapping and bouncing ... We talked about different positions if bub is not head down engaged when labour starts. And what to do if things happened and the midwife isn't here yet. I was looking for stories, but was surprised to find most involved ecv and induction or c sections.

So less esoteric and more physical :)

I think it's a modern phenomena - the c/s's etc. Back in the day, babies just moved until they found their spot and got on with it. Babies not being engage head down by X weeks is just a variation of normal, which many modern practitioners aren't comfortable with. Try not to let those other stories bother you. Your story is different.

I wouldn't do ECV in your case because he/she can still move around and might keep switching. I had a couple friends whom had babies that moved all around up until birth and then positioned themselves correctly. What does your midwife think?

Yeah, not planning on doing ecv. We used a rebozo wrap today and bub moved into (head down in pelvis) position quite easily. My midwife is quite confident we will be fine, just had to discuss all the possibilities and options.

l&b - it never hurts to talk to bub (and inner self), and i have done plenty of that letting him/her know that it would be a bit easier if they got comfy in the pelvis.