can tiny women birth vaginally?

[benedictxvi]

pre pregnancy I weighed 6st 7 and was 5' 3". My hips were 30" and my waist 24". At the end I was 10st. My baby was 9lb.

I ended up with a c-section and a very traumatic experience.

During pregnancy I queried my size and was told blithely "small women can birth large babies". Though I haven't met anyone really small who has done this. It seems in this country that they will just adopt a "try it and see" approach to small women giving birth.

Has anyone ever had a c-section for being too small and have any really small women birthed large babies?

yes I do know a couple of very small and slim women who have given birth to large babies with no significant problems. And I know very large women who have problems pushing out medium sized babies. A woman's height and weight is not always an indicator of ability to push a baby out.

Have you spoken to your midwife/doctor about why you needed a CS?

I mean been given an ELCS for being too small.

yes, my aunt is tiny! not even 5ft and she birthed 2 8lb+ babies fine

a friend was told she would need a c-section as she is very petite and had trouble with her first baby ending in a c-section... she went into labour early and had him in 2 hours, naturally!

your body changes a lot during pregnancy and birth and your frame size really shouldn't affect whether or not you can birth your baby.

my sil had a csection with her first she did labour but they had concerns that she may not be able to birth naturally as she was tiny. They let her go so far but then the baby got into distress and got stuck and had to be delivered by emergency section. With her 2nd child they wanted to do an elcs but she refused and wanted to try again for natural birth and has since had 2 children naturally.

My tiny Bangladeshi neighbours used to birth 8+ lb babies no problem. They needed booster seats to drive a car properly, but squeezing bonny plump babies out, no problem.

I'm under 5 foot and a size 6/8 and have no concerns ! Midwife hasn't mentioned anything ..My cousin , a few inches bigger than me gave birth to an eleven pounder fine .

Umm am not so sure personally. I am a small 5ft and husband is 6ft4 - all 3 of my babies had very large heads and I had one emergency c-section and 2 subsequent c-sections.

I know the received wisdom is that small women can and do birth large babies but wonder about the head/shoulder size of the babies concerned and also the relative size of the fathers.

Pure speculation though.

When I had dd1 I was 4'11 and a size 8, she was born naturally without intervention and weighed 7lb9oz. I've gone on to have 3 more dd's naturally, the largest weighing 8lb11oz.

When pregnant with DD1 there were 4 of us at work who were pregnant. The smallest at 4ft 11 and a size 4 was the only one who had a trouble free labour.

I'm 5'3" and weighed 6 stones pre-pregnancy, I gave birth normally to both my babies first one was 7lb, so not as big as yours OP

ok so lots of stories of people that have managed it but I'm really small. In my life I have met one other adult who I'd say was smaller boned than me. I've met shorter people, yes, but they have tended to be heavier.

MrsCampbellBlack I hear what you are saying.. my babe's head was on the 97 percentile for 42 week boys. Just keep thinking I'd have been spared a lot of distress if I could have had a c-section upfront. It just seems the NHS won't give anyone one upfront for this.

I'm by no means slim (not that a layer of fat makes it easier to push a baby out) but I am less than 5 ft. My first got stuck and ended in a cs (badly positioned) but my 2nd was over 8lb and was born in just over 2 hours from first twinge to delivery.

Yes, I did. I was about an inch taller than you and around the 7 stone weight mark.

I had an average size baby with some tearing and stitches.

I have heard small babies are harder to deliver than big ones as they are harder to push.

I'm sorry that you had a traumatic experience, but there are a huge number of reasons don't go to plan and the idea that women can be too small to give birth hasn't been held up by the evidence.

its got nothing to do with your height or weight, well, not much. Its all about how big a pelvic outlet you have, its shape and the muscles etc around it, as well as the babies size and orientation.

The thing is that even though some women will have a pelvis too small to give birth to their babies, the vast majority won't so it's not a reason for elcs. Perhaps with a second child but certainly to routinely perform major surgery on a woman due to her height/weight when she has an untested pelvis, is just not the right thing.

I too have a friend who is utterly, utterly tiny. She is so small people assume she's a child. She's just so slim and only 4ft 10". She delivers 8+lbers naturally and with what looks like great ease. I'm an average size 10 woman, 5ft 3" and couldn't push out a 7lber. It's just not that simple.

I was 7.5 stone and tiny when I had DS1 - he was 8.5lbs and yes, born vaginally and quickly. More pain than I knew existed, but complication-free

But you do sound like you're finding it hard to move on from this - I'm sure if you became PG again they might be more understanding after your previous experience.

i had elcs becasue they said dd1 was huge and i was too small to give birth naturally. (they told me she was scanning up to 10lb 13oz - i am 5'2")

anyway, she was much smaller than that after they cut me open (8lb6oz) so i went on to vbac bigger babies. bit of a drama with both of them, one was fine and the other brain damaged due to birth hypoxia, and i often wonder whether the two vbacs would have been different if i'd been allowed to try a vaginal birth with dd1.

anyway, it's all a bit pointless. for whatever reason, i'm blardy crap at childbirth and so will elcs if i'm ever pg again. i try to reassure myslef that no doc or midwife is going to deliberately put you or your child in danger (even the one that was monitoring dd2) so generally i support the medical position.

I am 5 ft and a 26 inch waist I have size 3 feet and everyone is amazed by how small my wrists and ankles are so I am small boned (even if I carry a bit of fat around my middle ). DP 6 ft 2. DS was the tallest baby the MW had delievered but only 7lbs but he was born back to back (which is supposed to be harder to push out). I had absoulutly no problems pushing him out. DD 8lbs 2 oz and only a 2minute pushing stage.

I had an elective cs for a 8lbs 6oz baby with a very big head circumfrance. It was at my request, as things were further complicated by the fact I would need to be induced and was unlikely to be able to remain upright, etc.

The midwife and consultant were adamant that all would be fine with induction, small women have big babies all the time, etc. but I begged for the cs. I am 5'1" and when not pregnant I am just over seven stone and a size 6/8.

Maybe asking for a cs makes me a wimp but I don't care.

Well I am tall with 'big bones' and large frame and I'm crap at giving birth. Have loads of tiny friends who've delivered easily.

The consultant I saw did seem to agree that pelvic size and head size were key. And I have a small pelvis I think - well tiny feet/bones etc and my babies did have large heads.

Anyway my 2nd c-section was agreed very easily on the basis of what happened with my first birth.

I don't think the weight of the baby is key - as a fat tummy isn't the issue - it is head size related to the size of your pelvis.

the problem is that pelvis size isn't necessarily related to rest of body size.

The same way you can have short people with long legs and small bodies, and short people with long bodies and little legs.

In some places pelvic scans are done I think - well thats what friend in Hong Kong told me anyway.

At 5ft 3 and 7 1/2 stone (on a good day) I know what you mean about being small.

With my first child I had a horrible birth was on my last try at giving birth natural before being rushed in for c-section when they managed to pull her out of me! she weighed 8lb and had an average head size.

My second child was a much different story. He weighed just short of 8lb but with a big head! I gave birth naturally with no problems.

So even two births for the same person can be so different. Maybe that's why the doctors want us all to try a natural birth before deciding on a c-section?

I agree that weight of mother doesn't really come into it - it is the size and shape of your skeleton that counts, whether or not you are covered in fat makes no difference. 5ft 3 seems like a fairly average height so I bet you will be fine next time but could always ask for the pelvic x ray before you get PG again to get an exact measurement if you are worried... If you turn out to have a small pelvic girdle then you could ask to be induced 2 weeks before your due date rather than have an elcs at the due date (early babies being smaller and more bendy).