Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Rosee is going through the mill...
Week 37
After the shock of discovering last week that our little lady is breech we’ve been through the mill a bit.
On Sunday, 48 hours after a scan showed she was the ‘wrong’ way up, I started to feel ill and have mild contractions.
Because I hadn’t seen anyone since, I called the hospital and they asked me to come in for a check up.
This meant a panicked call to one of my friends to ask her to be my birth partner if I ended up needing a caesarean that day as Al thought he wouldn’t be able to cope with being in the same room as me having an operation – he is extremely squeamish.
The hospital staff were lovely and, when it became clear my contractions weren’t really going anywhere, they offered to try to turn bambino as I was already there.
It seemed the obvious thing to do, so the consultant gave me a drug to help my womb relax and then tried to move the baby. This involved him grabbing her from the outside of my stomach and forcing her to try to do a forward roll into the right position. Al said the consultant was using so much pressure he could see the outline of the actual baby through my skin! It really was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced.
About three quarters of the way through the ‘roll’ the baby’s heart rate literally halved and, even though the consultant immediately stopped the attempt, it took her several minutes to recover to normal, which really scared me.
I stayed in hospital a bit longer, and the midwives wanted to keep me in overnight but I insisted on going home, reasoning that I was only a few minutes away if labour started again.
The next day we went for our appointment with the acupuncturist, who used a technique called moxibustion to try to get our little one to move in a gentler way. She lit an insence stick the size of a cigar and held it near a pressure point on my little toe to heat it up. The scientific theory behind this ancient Chinese technique is that it stimulates the circulation in the pelvis and uterus, causing the baby to move. Amazingly, she started to turn straight away. But at three quarters of the way through a turn she stopped again. The moxibustion brought on very strong contractions and over the next couple of hours she moved back to her normal position.
Al and I tried the moxibustion half a dozen times more over the next few days but each time the same thing happened , and after a while it seemed to have less effect.
So on Friday, a week after the breech diagnosis, we went back to the hospital for another turn attempt. This time I saw a woman consultant, who was a lot more gentle with me. After a couple of gos at moving the baby she stopped, and said she thought our daughter simply didn’t have enough room to get the whole way around. This is what I had thought all along, so I wasn’t surprised, although it was disappointing news.
What was surprising, however, was when I told her I wanted to try for a natural birth she agreed! She said that because I’m tall and have had a trouble free pregnancy (well, up to this point), and the baby seems not to be huge I’m a good candidate for attempting a normal delivery.
It’s not considered good practice to induce breech babies, or use interventions like epidural and forceps, so we agreed I would move straight to having a caesarean if I go into labour and it doesn’t seem to be progressing or the baby is in distress. Although I felt really low for 24 hours after the second failed turn attempt, I now feel much happier. At last someone has taken my wishes seriously and accepted a compromise which means our daughter at least gets the benefits of the first stage of labour, when the contractions help the baby to prepare to breathe.
I’m now just hoping I’ll go into labour fairly soon. I’m so excited about meeting our little girl and giving her the best start in life I possibly can.
After the shock of discovering last week that our little lady is breech we’ve been through the mill a bit.
On Sunday, 48 hours after a scan showed she was the ‘wrong’ way up, I started to feel ill and have mild contractions.
Because I hadn’t seen anyone since, I called the hospital and they asked me to come in for a check up.
This meant a panicked call to one of my friends to ask her to be my birth partner if I ended up needing a caesarean that day as Al thought he wouldn’t be able to cope with being in the same room as me having an operation – he is extremely squeamish.
The hospital staff were lovely and, when it became clear my contractions weren’t really going anywhere, they offered to try to turn bambino as I was already there.
It seemed the obvious thing to do, so the consultant gave me a drug to help my womb relax and then tried to move the baby. This involved him grabbing her from the outside of my stomach and forcing her to try to do a forward roll into the right position. Al said the consultant was using so much pressure he could see the outline of the actual baby through my skin! It really was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced.
About three quarters of the way through the ‘roll’ the baby’s heart rate literally halved and, even though the consultant immediately stopped the attempt, it took her several minutes to recover to normal, which really scared me.
I stayed in hospital a bit longer, and the midwives wanted to keep me in overnight but I insisted on going home, reasoning that I was only a few minutes away if labour started again.
The next day we went for our appointment with the acupuncturist, who used a technique called moxibustion to try to get our little one to move in a gentler way. She lit an insence stick the size of a cigar and held it near a pressure point on my little toe to heat it up. The scientific theory behind this ancient Chinese technique is that it stimulates the circulation in the pelvis and uterus, causing the baby to move. Amazingly, she started to turn straight away. But at three quarters of the way through a turn she stopped again. The moxibustion brought on very strong contractions and over the next couple of hours she moved back to her normal position.
Al and I tried the moxibustion half a dozen times more over the next few days but each time the same thing happened , and after a while it seemed to have less effect.
So on Friday, a week after the breech diagnosis, we went back to the hospital for another turn attempt. This time I saw a woman consultant, who was a lot more gentle with me. After a couple of gos at moving the baby she stopped, and said she thought our daughter simply didn’t have enough room to get the whole way around. This is what I had thought all along, so I wasn’t surprised, although it was disappointing news.
What was surprising, however, was when I told her I wanted to try for a natural birth she agreed! She said that because I’m tall and have had a trouble free pregnancy (well, up to this point), and the baby seems not to be huge I’m a good candidate for attempting a normal delivery.
It’s not considered good practice to induce breech babies, or use interventions like epidural and forceps, so we agreed I would move straight to having a caesarean if I go into labour and it doesn’t seem to be progressing or the baby is in distress. Although I felt really low for 24 hours after the second failed turn attempt, I now feel much happier. At last someone has taken my wishes seriously and accepted a compromise which means our daughter at least gets the benefits of the first stage of labour, when the contractions help the baby to prepare to breathe.
I’m now just hoping I’ll go into labour fairly soon. I’m so excited about meeting our little girl and giving her the best start in life I possibly can.
Labels: Rosee
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