So, as the days draw nearer & nearer I am starting to prepare myself for labor & delivery. We start our baby classes this Saturday, but we don’t visit the hospital until next Saturday. I know they don’t do water births at our hospital, so that is out.
I’ve been looking up information on positions for a vaginal delivery. I will talk to my doctor more about that next week, but everything I have read says that you are more likely to tear or need an episiotomy when you lie flat on your back. I have also read that delivering flat on your back also can decrease the blood supply to the placenta, it can be harder to breath because of pushing against the diaphragm, and labor may take a little longer because you are fighting against gravity when the baby travels through the birth canal. This one is the best for fetal monitoring.
I don’t really like the idea of hands & knees position, as it makes me uncomfortable to think of my butt hanging there in the air in the doctor’s face. But I understand that they may have to ask me to get in that position if the baby is in the posterior position & they are going to try and move it.
I’ll have to find out if they have a squatting chair or squatting bar there before I even know if squatting is an option. But squatting is supposed to be advantageous because you are working with gravity and your pelvis is able to widen more.
Another option is lying on your side, which is what I am leaning towards trying. Daddy would have to help support my top leg. The advantages of it is that it take pressure off the perineum, helps ease backache, lowers blood pressure, and helps maximize blood flow.
You can also kneel during delivery, although I think I may want more support than kneeling offers.
I would have to find out what my options are with having an epidural. Would that limit my choices on what position I could deliver in?
I wonder why it is that on TV & in the movies they always show a woman lying on her back, or on her back but at a 45 degree angle. You never see the other position options, not even on the baby delivery shows on Discovery.
2 comments:
My neighbor Cindy emailed me these comments, as she doesn't have a blog account:
Thought I'd let you know that when my sister had her second child, she was on all fours. She said she had terrible back pain in the other positions...she flipped over and in 2-3 pushes, out he came!!! It worked fabulous for her....thought I'd let you know.
Comment from my MIL:
The reason most videos find mothers on their back for delivery is for one it is easier to film that way but also because once you have an epidural you must be on a baby monitor, have an IV and remaining on your back makes it easier to monitor all this. Up to that point you can walk around, take a shower, relax in a bath or get on all 4's on the floor. Once you are hooked up to everything all this is more difficult. Also doctors prefer mother's in this position. It puts every at eye level for them and makes their job easier.
My response: Screw what's easiest for the Dr. That's why they get paid $100/hour, to work. Let's do what's easiest for mommy.
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