Jumping on stomach during birth (abroad)

[boboismylove]

Almost 10 months ago when I gave birth nurses and doctors jumped on my stomach while I was giving birth abroad (in non EU country). I still find it quite traumatic. I'm sure they don't do this now in UK but wondering if anyone has heard of this happening abroad, or in the past here...

What?!

Wtf?

Pardon?

Jumped? Or applied pressure?

I have never heard of this. Why were they jumping on you?

WTF!

What... like with feet?

? Or applied pressure

Yeah I think this is more likely.

I'm guessing you don't mean feet-first.

I haven't heard of this, however if the baby needs to come out I guess the options are either pull... or push!

They stood on a step stool and threw themselves on my stomach! This is the only reference to it I could find online - Apart from I wasn't pushing for very long so I'd be surprised if the baby was stuck like this, and he was average size.

www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/335835.page

I imagine there was some reason they felt the baby should be out quickly. There was some pretty hefty downwards-shoving on my upper abdomen during my last c section actually, thinking about it. Not the same, obviously, but I guess it's the same sort of thing.

I'd only been pushing 15 mins. It was their whole body weight, not just a bit of pressure. Maybe there was some serious problem I didn't know about.

Is your child okay?

Yes thank God he was fine. They wanted to use forceps also but I screamed at them not to. I know his head was taking a while to move down, so maybe it was something to do with that.

I've been trying to forget about it but now I keep thinking about the birth. I'd like to be able to get hold of the hospital notes, but wouldn't be able to.

Don't worry too much about the "what might have been"s; perhaps something piqued their concern and they didn't want to take any chances, but actually there wouldn't have been anything wrong if they hadn't made the choice they did.

So much easier said than done though, I know! Do you have people you can discuss your birth experience with? Are you finding yourself thinking about it more and more? At first I talked about my first at any opportunity, peaking around a year, but then I started to "make peace" with it. I don't think I could be arsed to recount the experience these days, so I know it's all mellowed into a part of my history. Some births take longer to reach that point though, and a very many require external help such as talking therapies.

When I did a midwifery elective in the Philippines, the nurse or second doctor would apply VERY aggressive fundal pressure during the second stage to expedite delivery. This often involves physically getting on top of the woman. They had a very high rate of third/fourth degree tears and haemorrhage from what I experienced. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is safe or beneficial.

Once upon a time in cases of shoulder dystocia they would apply a lot of pressure to the top of the uterus to help dislodge the shoulder. It may be that this is still the practice in the country you gave birth in.

Oh my god that sounds horrific and extremely dangerous!!

The only reason I can think of as to why you were abroad so late into your pregnancy is that you were visiting family? If that's the case, could you ask them/friends if they have experienced this with their births? Perhaps it's common practice in the country?

Not surprised you are still shaken about it!! I'm so glad you and your baby are happy and healthy now

Thanks for that spiders and @lj8893

Yes I was there to be with family, but I had too much amniotic fluid and was advised against travel.

The same thing happened to my MIL but she gave birth in extreme circumstances in the 80s - in a war zone with limited equipment ect - so would have thought things might have changed!

But yes it probably is common practice in the country - was more painful and terrifying than the labour! I was just wondering why it would happen in the first place.

I think this is called fundal pressure. It’s still used in quite a lot of places, including the US I think. There is no good evidence for it (according to a recent Cochrane Review) and it can be risky. How traumatic for you!

If it got the baby out alright and didn’t damage your body then I wouldnt over think it.

What’s the point?

I think it's called the Kristeller manoeuvre. Banne d in this country for very good reason, but happened to my neighbour and another person I knew when I lived in Italy. Interestingly, I believe forceps are nite used there though.

I had too much fluid with ds, I was induced, but they had to apply pressure to get ds to stay down whilst they broke my water, that was fun, not. Also had to keep applying pressure to keep him heading in the right direction.
In my case they were doing everything they could to get ds born without cs and without him getting distressed.

@Frusso was that in the uk out of interest?

It was @boboismylove, but I wouldn't have described it as jumping on me.
I had about 4 false starts before I was induced as ds kept engaging and then bobbing back up.