Turning breech baby in labour

[NewlySingleMum]

Hi,

Hope you don't mind me picking your brains but I just can't seem to find any information anywhere on this...

I'm currently pregnant with twins and trying to decide whether to have an epidural or not. I delivered my first baby who was 9.5lb and back to back with nothing at all but a TENS machine, even though he needed the help of a ventouse in the end, and I know I can cope with pain so I'd really like to do things naturally again for these babies if at all possible.

However, there seems to be some advice to suggest that I should just opt for an epidural from the word go, because with twins, there's a possiblity that when no. 1 is born, no. 2 will make use of all the extra space and will turn breech. Then, I've been told, they may need to attempt to turn her manually. And this could be from the inside (i.e. doctor puts hand right up!) In this instance, the epidural might help my body from going into shock.

But what I want to know is; other than the doctor putting their hand up, what else is involved? Has anyone on here been through it already? How awful was it? Do you think there's any chance I could grit my teeth and deal with it (if it happens, which it might well not.)

Thanks in advance for any help.

One born every minute had this exact situation on the Weds programme, the lady didn't end up having epidural as she didn't have one early enough for it to take effect. It looked painful, but she managed without.

Yeah, Wednesday's OBEM would be really worth you watching. Enough respect for that lady, she did an amazing job!

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yeh, I watched it, hoping to learn exactly what happens but I'm still none the wiser really... Did the lady on OBEM actually do all that with no form of pain relief at all? Cause she went from asking for the epidural at 8cm and being told she couldn't have one to suddenly pushing, so she might well have been given something else during the bit that was edited out... (Either way, I agree, she did amazingly well!) But they also delivered the baby in the breech position, so when the doctor put his hand up, what was he doing? Just checking? Moving feet out of the way? He obviously didn't actually turn her... If he had, would it have been a lot more painful? Would the lady have coped, assuming she didn't have any pain relief? As you can see, I still have loads of unanswered questions!

Bump, some stories here that might answer some of your questions.

I felt really sorry for the OBEM lady this week. The midwife talked her into having an epidural when she didn't want one, made her believe she couldn't do without, then she wasn't given one in time, how disheartening must that be?
Also she had mentioned birthing in a better position, and the registrar just ignored it, so she ended up in stirrups - her second baby would most likely have moved into a good position without intervention with a bit of help from gravity