WHAT???? Shoulder Dyslocia???!!

[Pretty Butterfly]

So true!!!

The next two bubbas after Mason were both bigger then Mason, so I think it was just his position, not size.......

I also birthed them upright, and will be again this time !!!

I cant believe it has only just come up, and noone checked my last two bubbas before delivery!!! Mason almost died!!!

[Trillian]

But it is really nothing to go ringing alarm bells about. Yes its damn scary when it happens (I've had 2 out of 4 - both were OP babes) and it's action stations to get you in a different position or to help manouver bubs out, but by making sure that your baby is in the optimal position for birth helps a great deal because it's a POSITIONAL problem, not a baby size problem. The worst thing is you being told about it I think because you went into your previous two births not knowing and therefore focused only on getting them out YOUR way, now you are going to head into this birth with the baggage that is the knowledge of what happened with your third birth.

So you need to de-brief properly from his birth now you have your notes and give yourself time to digest it all so you can put it behind you and move on to this birth - which will be FINE! You've had 4 uncomplicated births and one which had problems which were beyond your control by the sound of it, so don't let that hinder you this time. If you are *thinking* too much about it in labour, then it will only hinder you. Know what you want done IF it happens so that your birth can still flow smoothly.

[BellyBelly]

Google the Gaskin manouvre... midwives have great skills in avoiding and preventing this without having to break collar bones etc. The medical profession contribute to the prob when they put you on beds and provide birth environments that don't encourage or support active birth.

[satya]

I had it too and wasn't told. I only knew because as I was lying there recovering and waiting for stitches & the OB whispered to the trainee OB "that was shoulder dystocia". I was really shocked. It sure explained why they suddenly said "OK we are getting this baby out", gave me syntocin, put me in stirrups & vacced Brock out. It all happened so quickly after a long & painful labour. I looked through my notes on discharge incase I had misheard & sure enough there it was in black and white. I think mine would've been classed as mild. I have no idea why they don't discuss it with you afterwards, I think they should.

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

Gosh, that's an awful lot to digest! I didn't have this problem with DD but I can actually understand now why my labour went the way it did, to an extent; they knew (or the Ob suspected at least) that DD was going to be a big baby, and my labour went on for ages. I ended up squatting on the bed, pushing for almost 2 hours with no action, then the midwives made me go into the semi-recline (when I say made me, they practically pushed me over into it because I was paralysed with pain), and DD was born within minutes. So thanks for posting, everyone, this is a very informative topic.

[Trillian]

Big babies have very little to do with how a birth will turn out. Naturally sometimes a bigger baby can take longer to be born as they can need more time to be pushed through the birth canal - but the biggest factor in birth is how big a role your mind plays in it. If you are told beforehand that you are going to have a big baby then no way known will you be able to push that to the back of your mind and forget about it. If you have no idea of the estimated size of your baby, you just go about giving birth - you don't focus on their size and if that will make birth harder/longer/ more difficult. All these women who appear in the paper from time to time having given birth vaginally to really large babies (like the 5.8kg bub the other day and there was one in the UK who was nearly 6.5kg) had no idea as to the size of their bub they just birthed them, simple as that. And sometimes all a birth needs to progress is simple as a change of position for a mum.

The same applies here for Jodi who has birthed beautifully two times since her third birth, unhindered by the knowledge of what happened in that birth, so now her job is to work through the feelings she has about it so she can have another beautiful birth this time.