After the soft tissue issues are resolved - funny
Dear Gail,
I just wanted to say thank you for setting up the Spinning Babies website and
the wonderful information that's contained within it.
I am currently 12 weeks pregnant with baby number 3 and having had two
posterior births already, wanted to learn as much as possible about prevention
3rd time round with the aim of a completely natural birth.
I also thought my history might be interesting to you as both of my babies
were anterior before I went into labour but changed position when my waters
broke.
With the first baby, my waters broke as a first indication of labour (head not
engaged) and by the time we had got to hospital had moved to a transverse
position which the OBGYN was able to change to almost head down (diagonal-ish).
Then at 4cm the baby moved to OP. The second baby also moved to OP at 4cm
soon after my waters had broken.
BOTH times I was coping well with contractions until that point and after which
they became overwhelmingly unbearably and seemingly incessant with the
pressure. Obviously this fits with what Dr. Lieberman says in her article.
Also, both times at that point I had an uncontrollable urge to bear down/early
pushing which is obviously dangerous at that stage.
Although my first baby remained head down, he was born by c-section. But with
the second baby, who was born naturally, I had an epidural at 4cm and there was
no way I could have achieved the VBAC without the epidural, and the skill and
constant care of the midwives. It is also interesting that these midwives
were monitoring the position of the baby and by 8cm he was LOT but still at a
-2 station. (No record after this although for number 3, provided he's not too
big at least I know he can fit through the pelvis even widest part of head to
smallest part of pelvis!!)
I have really taken heed of what you say about symmetry and ligament tension.
In fact I saw my osteopath this morning and at 12 weeks there was already
torsion in the pelvis (which had not been there before). However, I find this
encouraging because I finally feel I understand what happens in my labours and
that I can do something constructive about this (as much as I can including
following Dr Gowri Motha's method).
Prior to finding your website I felt there was something missing in my
understanding since people were only able to offer suggestions for turning OP
babies prior to labour! Now I know that the problem exists prior to
pregnancy (ligament relaxation)!
So thanks once again and keep up the good work. I am looking forward to
membership and hope it arrives before my baby does!
Warm regards,
Emma
On Fri, Nov
27, 2009 at 8:37 PM, Gail
wrote back:
Thank you for your kind words. Your story does indicate what
may be a soft tissue issue. It can be also an issue of a smaller outlet than
inlet, but obviously, not too small. Eating whole foods and having plenty of
walking, swimming and stretching (yoga, if you like) can be helpful in regards
to growing a baby who is of healthy weight for your body and healthy in
general. I see that you have referenced methods that support you in healthy
lifestyle choices. That's wonderful you you and your baby!
Chiropractic and CST will help your ligaments which may, in turn, help your
pelvis open more. The pain you describe usually goes with torsion, but can also
be a size issue. I'd guess its not a size issue, based on odds, but I can't
tell over the internet, of course!
We don't have the Bowen method here, but it sounds related to the methods I list, and I checked Dr Marie Gowri Motha's Jeyrani Way site. I will pass it on to one of our mother's who may really enjoy what she has to share. Excellent.
Have a wonderful birth!
Happiness,
Gail
Hi Gail,
Re our
email correspondence below.. just wanted to let you know how I got on
- I have written a testimonial for the chiropractor I used, see below, and also
my birth story forwarded in the next email. A complete success!
I just wanted to say 'thank you' also because I think I really needed the
Webster technique to solve this problem for me (I had previously done pregnancy
yoga, active birth classes and been familiar with Jean Sutton's work) but to no
avail. I would not have known to try the technique had it not been for
your site. Actually there are very few practitioners in the UK trained
but I was lucky enough to live near one (Well, nearish, it was a two-and-a-half-hour round trip so I was really serious about this! I probably would have
had more sessions but had to weigh up the cost of sitting in the car and the
general stress of running around. I am also fairly in touch with my own
body and knew that a big shift had occurred.).
Also of
interest is the fact that this was my biggest baby - 7lb 6oz (1st baby 7lb 2oz,
2nd baby 6lb 9oz) and that the last two times I had an anterior placenta, but
this time the placenta was posterior.
So, please
keep up the good work, i.e. spreading the word because, as you know it means a
lot to a woman that she gets the birth she wants. Certainly this time I
have been able to heal from the experiences I had before.
Much
love,
Emma
Emma
and Luna
After two long and excruciatingly painful back-to-back labours, one
of which ended in a c-section and one which was a 'near miss', when I
discovered I was pregnant with my third child I decided to find out whether
there was a reason for my babies' malpositioning and whether anything could be
done about it.
Since both babies had turned back-to-back during the labour, I had experienced
'normal' contractions and found them perfectly manageable so felt sure that if
I could just get the baby to stay in the optimal foetal position, I could have
the normal, calm delivery that I wanted and was capable of.
Research showed that the chiropractic Webster Technique was effective in
allowing back-to-back babies to turn so I consulted Dr Craig who confirmed that
this technique would indeed help to correct some issues with my pelvis which
had most likely pre-dated the pregnancies.
After only six sessions it was clear to us both that my body had resolved its
major issues and all that remained to be seen was what would happen during
labour.
FYI, here’s
what's going on in Chiropractic over the pond!
http://www.putneychiropractic.co.uk/chiropregnancy.htm#
The Birth Story
The cast :
Kath – My Stepmum
Lynda – Yogabirth Instructor
Rene – Independent Midwife, my saviour, recommended by
Linda
Nic - The Daddy
Coleman – The Big Brother
Barnaby – The Medium Sized Brother
Luna - The Baby
a little mouse
Sometime back in January, Kitchen of United Reform Church, – Advice from
Linda about the birth:
So Linda was quite ‘firm’ when she said that to get
this baby out, I absolutely had to let go of my analytical brain, stop thinking, and instead just have
a bloody good time. I thought about that one a lot...
Fast forward to Friday 28th May 2010
So Kath was quite ‘scary’ when she said this was
the last day she was
letting me run around doing inane jobs – said I was talking the talk “I have to
‘dumb down’ and relax Kath”, but not walking the walk (reminded me of Lynda, ho
ho). But anyway, I needed to
get a cricket hat for Coleman, needed some
large sheets of black art paper for a project I’m doing, and couldn’t possibly
give birth without getting my feet done first. Then we had to go up
to the school because Coleman had casually mentioned that he had been picked to
be the cat in the house music competition and could I come in and do his
makeup? How could I refuse?
I got home just in time for my 4 o’clock
appointment with Rene and was virtually asleep as I was talking to
her. I said “It’s not that I’m desperate, I’m happy to be pregnant
for another week but I would quite like to meet my baby – have you got any
clary sage?” With that, Rene produced some clary sage from the car with the
advice just to put it in my bra on a tissue because after a while, “It smells
like wet dog (true) so you don’t want to be sprinkling it round the house...” I
went off to bed and had a nice sleep but was (somehow) a bit surprised not to
be feeling anything when I woke up. I had some dinner with Kath
about 8pm and then started tidying the kitchen.
I didn’t want to say anything but by 9pm
told Kath that I was getting tightenings (the best way to describe them – with
more pressure than Braxton Hicks but not painful). She just gave me
an odd look.
So while I was ignoring these sensations (™ Lynda Hills), somewhere in the back of my mind
I must have been hoping because I started drinking a lot of
water. Rene had said how important it was to keep drinking and
weeing and I was enjoying the opportunity to keep trotting off to the loo, as I
really wanted to ‘see’ something so that I could start to feel excited.
I should also say that I had been on a ‘Mongan Method’
hypnobirthing course and that one of the things
about hypnobirthing is that you’re not ‘supposed to know’ that you’re in labour
then you find your 10cm by the time you get to the hospital only no
one believes you etc. So I’m waiting for period pains,
looking for a show, wondering if I’ll have diarrhoea, but,
nothing. In the end, the show came out with Luna’s head.
At 10pm Nic arrived home from Zurich (yes
really!) wanting to tell me all about the trip. I tell him about
these tightenings and say that I’m not going talk because I don’t want it all
to stop again. (I had had seven hours of mild but regular sensations a couple of weeks before
(enough to make me go out and buy nappies), and then, nothing and it had really
thrown me.)
So I sat there with Nic while he ate his
dinner in silence. Which was weird. Kath and I had been
half-heartedly putting the boys to bed and half letting them stay up for Nic so
I was a bit irritable with them to be
quiet while they were going down. I still hadn’t finished tidying the
kitchen, you know, scrubbing the hob, wiping the skirting boards, polishing the
chrome light switch by the door. Later Nic said he knew something
was up because I kept commanding him: “Take the bin out, use that granite
spray, get the crumbs off
the toaster!” (Such a parody of my pregnant self, funny really!)
Finally I though the kitchen was up to
scratch and really fancied the idea of getting in the pool (which I hadn’t
fancied until then). So we faffed around with various lamps getting
the lighting just right (dark enough) and I timed a few surges (™ Hypnobirthing) which still weren’t painful and only lasting 30
seconds but were coming every few minutes. I really wanted to get in the pool so
I didn’t have to keep going to the loo to wee (you wee in the pool), and so
that I could be a wide mouthed frog which I didn’t fancy doing on land.
Rene had said earlier, could I try
and not get in the pool
until she was there because it would be better if she checked the baby’s
position first.
So sod it, I called her. She
said I sounded OK but what did I want her to do? I asked her to come
over.
While I was waiting, I lay down on my bed
with my ‘Meditate Like a Buddhist Monk CD’ which is supposed to have the
knock-on effect of making you produce endorphins (hey, works for me..) I was
quite zoned and Rene arrived at 11.40 just as it
finished. She was looking ready for business with her hair tied back
and one of those midwife thingies pinned to her top. That’s weird I
*thought*, she thinks I’m going to have a baby!
Rene started doing her checks and I
realised that I was shivering a bit, although not from the cold... I did wonder
at that point whether this was the beginning of things.
Rene finished her checks and I literally
flew down the stairs into the pool, taking my knickers off as I
went... It’s always best to take your knickers off to give birth ;-)
I got into the pool, had a cup of tea, and
was enjoying sniffing on a flannel sprinkled with clary sage. I put
on the hypnobirthing CD with headphones and switched on the wobbly old woman
who repeats the birthing affirmations I had been listening to for months. (God
knows why they didn’t choose someone sounding vibrant and empowered but there
you go.)
Off she went: “I put all fear aside as I
prepare for the birth of my baby. I am focussed on a smooth, easy
birth. I am relaxed and happy that my baby is finally coming to
me. I feel confident, I feel safe, I feel secure.” And I
did. I got into that for a bit but looked up to realise that
Nic was sitting on the sofa with Rene (I don’t know where I thought he was)
looking absolutely knackered. I still didn't feel sure that this
wasn’t all going to stop again, so I sent him upstairs for a sleep.
I listened to the affirmations for one
cycle (40 mins) and then put them on again but with no real awareness of time,
or of anything else just breathing through the surges as they came and went and visualising
10cm. At some point I got sick of the stupid old bag on the CD
player and flung the headphones off. (That reminded me of my first
labour when I had declared the TENS machine to be shit and made Nic run off to
get some new batteries for it...).
I start toning then and I’m surprised
‘cause it was really quite helpful and it sounds quite nice, a sort of multi
pitch tone, getting lower - ah , aah, aaahhh. Then
I start to feel really hot. I don’t want to get my shoulders
out of the water but it was the only way to cool down so I stood up a
bit. “Hot.” I said to Rene and she went off to the
kitchen to get some cold water which she dipped the clary sage flannel in and sprinkled
onto me. The clary sage flannel was now wet and it tasted nice (!)
so I sucked on it for a bit which was very comforting apart from I was still
feeling hot .
So I stood up, and squatted down, and
stood up, and sort of jumped up and down on my toes for a bit, holding
onto the side of the pool. (After I realised this was
Lynda’s ‘yes, yes, yes” move but without my hands in the air.... Amazing
really, that’s instinct trying to move the baby down, and Lynda, I can’t have been thinking because I
didn’t realise what I was ‘doing’ although Rene recognised this
as ‘something going on’.)
I’m standing up now and the contractions (let’s
not mince words here) are hurting. I’m honestly still not convinced
though that this isn’t all going to stop, or that, if we checked I’d even be
4cm because that’s been my experience before with a slow, back to back labour.
And, oh oh, my brain has
kicked in and I start thinking about
pelvic stations. I wonder whether the baby has moved past zero cause
I’m looking at the shape of my bump and it looks the same. “Rene.” I
say rudely, “Can you tell from there whether she’s moved
down?” Rene just looks at me. “Why don’t you have a feel,
can you have a feel from there?” No response. In the end
I realise she’s not going to talk to me. Right! I think,
I’ve had enough of this water. I’m getting out. “Please,”
I say nicely to Rene “can
you go and get my grey nightie – it’s on the cot?” Rene
didn’t even bother to ask why (no point in arguing she said later), and just went
up to get the nightie.
In my head I need the nightie because I’m
GOING OUTSIDE to hang on the boy’s trapeze in the garden, in the
moonlight. But in reality I can’t actually move from where I am and
a weird thing is happening with the contractions, they’re intense but the
intensity doesn’t last long and they’re taking ages to tail off but that
tailing off is really nice... which is a pity cause I really want to get out of
this bloody pool, and go outside and I’m really tired and I really want to go to
bed and I want to go home!!!
01.14 Rene writes in the notes ‘Getting a
little more vocal with contractions.’ Yes I was, they were more like
Ah, AAh, AAAhhhrrrrrrrrrr. Then, true to form (for anyone who knows
me), I try singing for a bit and that’s nice but it soon goes back to Ah , AAh,
AAAhhhrrrrrrrrrr. Ah , AAh, AAAhhhrrrrrrrrrrIwantsomegasandair. I
get the gas and air immediately (not
like the bloody hospital) and no sooner have I taken a ‘swig’ I hear myself
make an urrrgh noise. I was thinking here because I knew it
was a pushing type noise and I was worried because in my other
labours as soon as I made this noise they told me to ‘stop’ because I wasn’t
fully dilated – actually both times it had been the pressure of the baby
turning back to back and the start of all hell breaking loose.
But I know she hasn’t turned and besides, I’m having such
a lovely long break in
between this contraction now, it's the most peaceful place I've ever been to
and I remember hoping that I’ll get another break like this when, SUDDENLY,
it’s as though I’m being dragged backwards out of heaven by my ankles....
So I’m clinging onto the side of the pool
for dear life and, Rene what are you doing? Let go of my bloody
ankles, “Urrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggh!” Stops. Oh my God, this is
really happening, Rene’s talking about getting Nic – “Rene, don’t you dare
leave me to go and get Nic!” ... holds onto side “Urrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggh,
go and get Nic!” Nic arrives and I don’t feel self-conscious at all – “Go and
get Kath” – Kath arrives and it goes something like this: Ready, hold onto
side, Urrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggh, (gets dragged backwards by ankles
in Superman pose), Urrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggh, looks up at Kath “I’m OK, I’m OK,
It doesn’t hurt!”
And that’s what the second stage was like,
for me it should have been called PULLING! I was actually in
froggy’s pose with knees wide on the floor and ankles wide at the back, and
Rene was nowhere near my ankles but she’s telling me (with the use of her
mirror), “I can see a lot of movement... Lots of membranes at vulva... Lots of
baby’s head, she’s stretching you gently Emma, she’s doing exactly
what she needs to do, you’re going to get HUGE.” Rene says that her
nose is out and to just hang on and I say (I can’t believe I say this) “Yes,
yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes!” until the next contraction cause I know there can
only be one more and suddenly I feel the rest of the baby whoooosh out of me
and I don’t even remember looking down to see her, she’s just there in my arms, wailing and it feels really natural
to go and get the boys. It was 2.12 am.
The boys come down and I feel great but
someone’s tickling me and I
realize it’s the cord in between my legs, which is really the last thing I
wanted to feel at that moment so I get out of the pool and Kath cuts the cord
as soon as it stops pulsating. Coleman gets the first
hold of the baby while I ‘deliver’ the placenta (it just plops out
onto the floor). I get the baby back and she’s licking my breast
which is so cute – Rene says it means she wants to feed and I discover I’ve
forgotten how (tummy to mummy, nose to nipple) but we get there in the end and
she stays there for ages, and the whole thing has been absolutely blissful.
I really enjoyed it!
After, I have a bath and Rene checks me
(the worst bit) and I’m absolutely amazed when she says I have a little tear
(cause I didn’t feel anything) but as long as I absolutely promise to stay in bed for a five
days (that’s how long it takes to heal), then she doesn’t have to stitch
it. There are (Google it), two lots of opinion on whether to stitch
or not to stitch but I had stitches in Hong Kong and by day 5 they
were gaping open (Rene told me this can happen sometimes as the stitches
actually push the two sides apart). So because of that, and
since 5 days in bed seems like a no brainer, we don’t stitch. In the
event it healed beautifully. It took 5 days.
I have since read that if you put two
pieces of perineum in a room they will knit back together...
Luna is just over two weeks old today and
everyone has been absolutely brilliant, especially Nic who’s been up with Luna,
made me lots of delicious, nutritious meals (ask Tanya, she’s had one!) and
generally run around after the boys making sure they didn’t feel left out. We
even managed a 30 second hug the other day. Kath got very fit running up
and down the stairs after me and Rene's love and support in the post-partum
period has been invaluable. Most of all I can't believe how totally bonded I
feel with this baby and I don't want to put her down at all.
As for the little mouse… we’ve been trying
to catch him for ages. The organic peanut butter was left untouched
on the ‘Big Cheese’ mousetrap (note to self – try Sunpat), and that mice like
actual cheese is a complete myth, but he does love Lindt chocolate bunny which he is able to get off
the ‘Big Cheese’ mouse trap without setting it off. Nic said that
while I was in the pool he was happily chasing a bit of tin foil around the
kitchen… seems a shame to kill him now…
