large baby - natural birth after previous section?

[aljen]

Does anyone have any experience of giving birth to a large baby after having had a section with the previous one? I am 36 weeks pregnant with my second child and have opted for a natural birth if possible but have just found the baby is predicted to be 9,7. Am worried about the scar.

My dd3 was 9lb 4.5oz (and born back to back!), I had her as a VBAC, no problems with my scar. The risk of a scar rupturing, as I understand it, is comparativey low, although serious if it does occur which is why it is mentioned so much. HTH, good luck.

Oh BTW, she was predicted to be 11lb 7oz, so I would ignore predicted weights anyway!

Hi, I had a 10lb 13oz baby at home last year, after two previous caesareans (babies 2 and 3). I have never heard of any research which links birthweight with an increased chance of scar rupture. What does increase it I believe, is a prolonged second stage so I would advise being as upright and mobile as possible, particularly if you're expecting a large baby as it will help open up your pelvis.

BTW, scans are notoriously inaccurate. My second baby was predicted to be over 10lbs (he was 9lb 12oz), my third baby to be about 8lbs - she was 9lb 12oz and my fourth to be 7 1/2 lbs.

The chance of your scar rupturing is tiny - between 0.3 and 0.5% Believe in yourself and trust your body.

Please go to this website and join this forum

You will be able to get lots of valuable advice and also be able to speak to ladies who are having the same worries as you.

I found this list of statistics, so really the risk of a uterine rupture is quite small.

The talk of how much more likely you are to die in a car on the way
to hospital than have a uterine rupture brought back the following to
me, and this is widely acknowledged to be fact (Henci Goer):

Your risk of dying in a car accident, over the course of your
lifetime, is between 1 in 42 and 1 in 75. This is roughly 4 to 5
times greater than the risk of uterine rupture.

You're about twice as likely to have your car stolen (that's an
annual risk) than to experience a uterine rupture.

Your odds of being murdered are 1 in 140 over the course of your
lifetime. That's 2 times more likely than the risk of rupture.

The annual risk of having a heart attack is 1 in 160, 2 times more
likely than rupture. Your risk of dying from heart disease is
roughly 1 in 6, or 55 times greater than your risk of rupture.

If you're a smoker, your risk of dying from lung cancer is 1 and a
half times more likely than a VBAC mom rupturing during her labor.

You're about 17 times more likely to contract an STD this year than
you are to have a uterine rupture; more likely to contract gonorrhea
than to rupture, as well.

You're 13 times more likely to get food poisoning than to rupture.

You're more likely to have twins than a uterine rupture. Odds of
twins: 1 in 90. That's about 3 1/2 times the likelihood of rupture.

If you ride horseback, you're 3 times more likely to die in a riding
accident than you are to experience a uterine rupture.

If you ride a bike on the street, you are 4 times more likely to die
in an accident (annual risk) than you are to suffer a rupture.

Having a serious fire in your home during the next year is twice as
likely as experiencing a rupture.

You're ten times as likely to win at roulette as you are to have a
uterine rupture.

If you flip a coin, you'll be more likely to get heads (or tails) 8
times in a row than to rupture.

The risk of cord prolapse is 1 in 37 (2.7%), or nearly ten times more
likely than that of rupture.

And a final irony (heads up, those of you who want a doc to give
his/her opinion on your likelihood of rupture next pregnancy!)...

You're 6 times more likely to have a doctor who is an impostor than
you are to suffer a rupture.

So, logically, we should worry more about almost EVERYTHING else ...
including that your own consultant never even went to university ...
than uterine rupture.

hi - had vbac , but my babies average size! not the size of baby that can cause rupture - which as Daisymoo has pointed out is a tiny risk. Why did you have previous c/s?

women tend to make babies their bodies can birth - trust your body and trust the process!!

having prolonged second stage and having your labour induced / augmented can increase the risk

i would prepare antenatally to get Baby in good position to be born ( search for optimal foeatal positioning on google- can;t do links!) sit on a birth ball a lot and stay mobile during first stage!

where you find that list toady?

i asked my consultant how many ruptures he had seen and that the risk of cord prolapse was greater ... room went strangely quiet...

I have an emergency section for my first child. He was predicted to be over 7lb but was only 6lb 12.5. I then had two more children naturally. The first was 6lb 14oz and I had no scar pain but did end up with a retained placenta, which is quite commmon but no one tells you. 22 months later I had a 7lb 9oz and had the most horrendous scar pain. It hurt more than the contractions and if I hadn't have got him out as quick as I did we both may have died as he was in trouble anyway and my scar was close to rupturing. No more babies for us because of this.

Also, scans are not great for predicting weight. My first child was 1lb out 4 hours before he was born! I had polyhydromnious though so was huge.

it was posted on the uk midwifery site, when I have time later I am going to google 'Henic Goer' to see if I can find the original source.

Maybe somebody out there already knows.

sorry to hear that Nab3 ...

Not read all of these but I had an emergency section with dd1, she was 9lb 10 and went on to have a VBAC with dd2 and she was 9lb 5oz, so it is possible.

The only thing my consultant said was that they wouldn't let me labour too long as this can put strain on your scar so I had an epiostomy and vontouse to speed things along a bit, was in labour for about 3 hours I think.

Not read the other posts but I had a VBAC with a 9lb 15oz baby and was fine.

I had a vbac and all was fine. They monitor you really closely anyway (or they should!! If they don't yell at them). I did have 2 smallish babies 6lb15 and 6lb2, but then I am small myself and as one of the ladies said you tend to make babies you can deliver.
Good luck - you can do it.

Thanks very much for these messages. am going to give it a go!