Second birth - chances of baby being OP again....

[Lilsquish]

hello.

im currently 8 weeks pregnant and already panicking about the birth.

my first labour was 42 hrs, back to back and ended in emcs after failure to progress past 4cm :-/

im so worried that this will be the same. the constant back pain due to my wee girl being OP was indescribable.

has anyone had similar and went on to have a vaginal non OP birth?

xx

I had similar with a 71 hour labour and it ended up forceps delivery and battle scars inside and out. The labour was horrendously painful despite not progressing and when I eventually (after 50 hours of pain) said yes to an epidural, the damn thing didn't work.

Baby was massive, head off the charts and I was scared as hell during my second pregnancy. Birth #1 meant I was deemed high risk and i made it clear that this time around, no dilly dallying. C section if things look as pearshaped again.

What happened though? The easiest birth I could have imagined. Progress was steady and manageable. I got to the hospital at 7cm dilated, went straight to the birth pool. 45 minutes later I had a baby boy in my arms and I was gushing to the midwife about how easy it was and that is would do it again tomorrow.

The difference was night and day.

Turns out that second babies have the advantage of being grown in a uterus that is already pre-stretched. This means they have an easier time getting their heads into that optimum left occiput anterior position that means a smooth birth. This is one reason why first babies are typically the most troublesome.

My third baby was even easier, born at home before the homebirth midwife could reach me. I missed the gas and air at the end when I felt like I wanted something but other than that, an easy peasy delivery (despite being 9lbs 4oz).

My second was back to back again and I got told that was quite uncommon. But I found my second labour a lot quicker than the first. I was induced and was 10cm within 40 minutes of the drip going in. Took a while to push her out back to back and it was intense but both births were unassisted.

I think if you want to request a cs you'd not come up against much resistance after having one before. If you wanted to try vbac chances are the baby wouldn't be back to back again. And if it was, your labour would probably be quicker too. So try not to panic.

thank you for the replies.

i guess im also concerned about the failure to progress past 4cm. is that something likely to happen again?

1st was b2b. 24 hours. Drip and ventouse. Episiotomy and tear.
2nd straightforward. 4.5 hours. Small tear.
3rd b2b again. 4 hours bit 1.5 of them pushing. Awful and 3rd degree tear.

Your second labour is likely to be easier but it's a lottery.

The failure to progress is less likely to happen. What caused it with your first was that the baby's head was trying to fit into the top of the pelvis but not the best way round. Head wasn't pushing down on the cervix so the contractions were less effective on dilation.

With a baby more likely to be LOA and in
a better head position for getting through the pelvis, the cervix will respond better to this ctx.

You could ask the midwife to palapate during labour to feel which way the baby is positioned. That way, if this one is back to back also you can try to reposition with posture and exercises. That was my plan but it was clear to me that baby #2 was better positioned because ctx were a) a conpletely different and manageable level of pain and b) even at later stages had a clear gap between them.