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?

My friend (who is a MW) says they usually check the dad's head size (surreptitously obv!).

Her dh and her BiL have massive heads. She and her sister are both tiny. Only just 5' and tiny frames too. They've both had 2 sections each, both first time as emergencies, despite them both asking for elcs.

On the other hand, she says that she's delivered loads of big babies with tiny mums. I guess it depends on a lot of factors but she swears that it's the dad's head size which is the decider, coupled with the mum's pelvis size. Which is not necessarily indicated by the width of the hips.

I am 5'4" and a size 6. My two were 8lbs 8.5oz and 8lbs respectively. Apart from an episio each time they were straightforward births.

Same for both my sisters who are even smaller than me and have 6 children between them.

Oh that's interesting buttonmoon. DH and I both have small heads, as do the children.

I'm also very small (4'11" and normally size 6, shoe size 2-3 with no hips) and when pregnant with DS1 everyone around me assumed I'd be having a section.

I was induced at 40w as I had GD and pre-eclampsia and ended up with forceps for foetal distress. DS1 was only 6lb 8oz.

Because I was so off my face on the drugs at the time I was very hazy on what had happened so I asked to go over my labour notes with my MW later. It turned out that he had been in a bad position but she did offer to arrange a pre-conception consultant appointment and pelvic x-ray if I wanted.

In the end I didn't and had a straightforward vaginal birth with DS2, weighing 7lb 13oz. Of course neither of mine were big babies and just had average heads but I just wanted to say that I'd been offered the x-ray after DS1. It needs to be done before you are pregnant though from what she said.

Hello giant headed DH

Well that's it then. Conclusive evidence that it's the father who is at fault

men who were small at birth are more likely to have children who are small at birth independant of anything to do with mothers.

I thought being fat big-boned myself, I would have no problems, but I couldn't push any of mine out.

You'd probably be sent for an xray after the forst one to confirm the size of your pelvis.

I'd be more worried about what would have happened 100+ years ago TBH! I never fail to thank my lucky stars that I was born in the 20th century. I'd have been finished off with dd1 if I'd had her before about 1900 probably!

I'm by no means small but DS was predicted to be huge with a big head (thanks DH) and I was told if I wanted I could have an ELCS due to relative size. I refused a pelvic x-ray so they were going on external measurements and scans to see whether he was birthable or not. He didn't engage until past 40 weeks and one ob/gyn speculated that he remained transverse/oblique because my pelvis was too small to fit his head .

I had to push for trial by labour but had it been even remotely necessary I'd have been whipped in for a CS before you could say 'knife'.

My Grandma birthed 6 babies at home with no fuss. She is 4'9 and as tiny as they come. I am 5'2" and also very small and I had DS1 8lb 12oz (in hospital) and DS2 7lb 9oz (at home). Your weight would make no difference to your ability to birth a large baby - it would be the size of your pelvis that counts, surely?

I think the answer to your question OP is that yes, most tiny women can (as evidenced on this thread). But can all tiny women? No probably not - but that's the same for any group of women. If you are asking whether you should opt for a ELCS next time, then yes, I'm sure you'll be offered one without too much trouble. If you feel traumatised by your birth experience, it might be worth talking to someone about it, eg. Birth Crisis? But to extrapolate from your experience that you should never have been allowed to try for a VB because of your size is probably a step too far.

Every labour is different so some small women will have problems in the same way larger women can.

My SIL is 5'. First niece was 8lb, labour lasted 5 hours. 2nd niece was only 6lb, labour was 3.5 hours. G&A only with both. 3rd is due soon. Likely to be even smaller, but they've warned her to get to the hospital as soon as she starts having contractions... and she only lives 5 minutes away from there anyway.

Someone said you need to consider the size of the father. My brother is 6'2"!

I said that. It's not height - it's head circ that MWs go off. My mate had a v long but v tiny headed 10lber. As with women and pelvic size, weight is not necessarily an indication of a big head in a baby!

head circ and chest circ even more when the head circ is smaller than the chest, although this is clearly not that usual . more chance of delivering the head and then there being difficulty with the rest.

if tiny women couldn't give birth vaginally, there would be no tiny women now, they'd all of died in childbirth long ago.

The only person I know who is small and had to have CS & ELCS was 5'2", curvy, but had a husband 6' 5" and built like a brick shithouse.......if that makes a difference.

just to add, all 3 babies she had were well over 9lb's and never engaged.

My mother in law is 5'2" and probably doesn't weigh very much.
She birthed my DH who was the 2nd largest baby born in his city that year.

Am small, 5 ' 4 and have always been just under 8 stone and had long protracted labour with 1st, but managed to give birth vaginally in the end although e caes was mentioned at one point (epidural, forceps) - 7 lbs 12 oz baby, swift v l with second, 8 lbs 2 oz and short (4 hours) v l with third, 8 lbs 9 oz...DH 6' 1.

My friend is your size and had two really really easy births,external size isn't an indicator of internal pelvic dimensions,my 5'11' 36" hipped friend was told after her emergency section that her pelvic opening was small and so had an elective for ds two. I also know of a man who was 14lb at birth!! honestly! he is huge still,and his mum is under five foot tall and had a natural delivery (eeek).

i am 5ft 2" (dh is 6ft 2" and a big bloke). but i had tiddlers, dd was 6lb 7ozs, ds was 6lbs 9ozs. i fully expected to not be able to have a vaginal delivery, or at least some sort of intervention. but no, both came out fine, no stitches, help or anything, ds was out in 3 pushes.

I'm 5' and half an inch, pre pregancy I was 6st3 and size 6 hips, I'm now overweight/much larger weighing in at 2 stone more my hips are still size 8-10.

My first baby was your average 7lb 6oz
Then 10lb 6oz (and I measured small for dates), 9lb 2oz, 9lb 10oz

although I had to be induced with all I didn't have any help delivery and no stiches.

Benedictine - my mum always told mr I wouldn't deliver naturally as I'm a 5 footer like her. Her and her Sis both had sections but my mum forgets she was 41 weeks preg with undiagnosed twins. I got section with ds1 abd that proved her theory. I saw consultant with ds2 and ge pointed out the issue was probs more about ds being back to back. Delivered 2 average size babies in successful vbacs since but my mum still swears blind that women in our family are too wee to deliver vaginally. I always have to remind her that ds2 and 3 didn't arrive through the sunroof.
Also know tiny tiny woman at work that delivered 2 big babies with no bother.