This is just another term for babies who are born in the less desired face up position or posterior occiput position. The best position for easy delivery is anterior occiput position. When the baby is inside, it is head down with its back along your front.
Previous to the other day, I didn't give these positions too much thought. I thought one way to tell if your baby is posterior is to have back labor. However it turns out that there is little correlation between what women feel in their back and the position of the baby.
About a week before I delivered Josh, at the OB, they had trouble finding his heart beat. I didn't panic because he happened to be kicking at that moment. I assumed a beating heart had to be there somewhere. They were able to find it with he Doptone versus the stethoscope. Because his back was against my back, his heart was not easy to get at. No one told me at the time that I was in for a world of hurt if he continued to be in that position. At any rate, his head was not engaged and even in labor, he could have turned.
My labor was the longest with him though not the most painful. I did not have any pain in my back and despite him being in the wrong position, I had no trouble pushing him out. We do have a fuzzy movie showing his head emerging and his arms springing out as soon as they cleared my body. Josh was face up. His face was much more beat up than other newborns. No one said it was due to his bad presentation but just due to his massive size (10# 1oz) a lot of that was his big head.
I was a birth coach for my sister in law who had painful back labor. It was just assumed that her daughter was in a posterior position. No attempt was made to turn her or to be in a better position to deal with the pain. They do not give VBACs drugs (vaginal birth after C-section). Though I was right there, I don't remember if her daughter came in face up.
I know Naomi was face down.
I remember seeing fetus Shanna in an X-ray taken because she did not drop but actually she had. Her head seemed to be on its side. I assume she slipped into the best position because things went smoothly from that point on.
For some reason, first time moms are more likely to have sunny side up babies. Half of people go into labor with the sunny side up babies but 80% of these babies manage to come out facing down. 25% of people complain about back labor but as it turns out, some of them have the baby in the good position and some like me, have the baby in the not so desirable position and don't feel any back pain.
Previous to the other day, I didn't give these positions too much thought. I thought one way to tell if your baby is posterior is to have back labor. However it turns out that there is little correlation between what women feel in their back and the position of the baby.
About a week before I delivered Josh, at the OB, they had trouble finding his heart beat. I didn't panic because he happened to be kicking at that moment. I assumed a beating heart had to be there somewhere. They were able to find it with he Doptone versus the stethoscope. Because his back was against my back, his heart was not easy to get at. No one told me at the time that I was in for a world of hurt if he continued to be in that position. At any rate, his head was not engaged and even in labor, he could have turned.
My labor was the longest with him though not the most painful. I did not have any pain in my back and despite him being in the wrong position, I had no trouble pushing him out. We do have a fuzzy movie showing his head emerging and his arms springing out as soon as they cleared my body. Josh was face up. His face was much more beat up than other newborns. No one said it was due to his bad presentation but just due to his massive size (10# 1oz) a lot of that was his big head.
I was a birth coach for my sister in law who had painful back labor. It was just assumed that her daughter was in a posterior position. No attempt was made to turn her or to be in a better position to deal with the pain. They do not give VBACs drugs (vaginal birth after C-section). Though I was right there, I don't remember if her daughter came in face up.
I know Naomi was face down.
I remember seeing fetus Shanna in an X-ray taken because she did not drop but actually she had. Her head seemed to be on its side. I assume she slipped into the best position because things went smoothly from that point on.
For some reason, first time moms are more likely to have sunny side up babies. Half of people go into labor with the sunny side up babies but 80% of these babies manage to come out facing down. 25% of people complain about back labor but as it turns out, some of them have the baby in the good position and some like me, have the baby in the not so desirable position and don't feel any back pain.
2 comments:
I delivered my firstborn (10# daughter) via forceps face up after a grueling labor. Secondborn (son) was face down but 11# and
24". No gestational diabetes in either case!!
OMG! Holly! The chop happy OBs these days would have set you up for a C-section for sure.
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