failure to dilate

[aikigypsy]

OK, I'm a first timer, and a couple of my friends have had difficult labours due to the cervix not dilating enough.

What causes this? I've been reading all these natural childbirth things, which would seem to suggest that they just need more time, or relaxation or something, but my friends had genuine complications in which failure to dilate played a major part.

I'm also wondering how common a problem this is, and what, if anything, can be done about it.

Thanks!

Also, I'm due in November and am only just starting to think about the labor and birth part of this whole journey.

hello

I had this phrase bounded about at both my labours: I got to 8cm with ds1, after a long labour, but he was occipita (sp) presenting which means his spine was to my spine, so I had an emergency caesar in the end.
Similar story with ds2 but I got to 9cm.

Anyway..... through both pgs I did Active Birth Centre yoga, raspberry leaf tea towards the end, perenium massage - the whole 9 yards and active labour postions but the big heavy boys (4kilos plus the pair of them) wouldn't come out.

BUT they are out now, we are all happy and healthy and the labour was SUCH a short part of the whole experience.

So what I mean to say is that NO ONE knows on the day what will happen except for the baby coming out. You can listen to all the whale music you want but there is nothing that can guarantee a compliication free labout

HOWEVER, what you can do is be flexible in your birth plan and your expectations of how your labour will pan out and as far as possible get a consultant and mw with whom you feel you have clear communication and an element of trust.

And then when you get home and you realise that you have a baby FOREVER, that's when the fun and games really starts.

Sleep? What's that?

Good luck, be cool and enjoy your new baby

I was in labor for around 30 hours with ds1. finally got to 5 cm at which time they discovered he was frank breech so emergency c-section then. Seems like he knew he just wasn't supposed to come out that way...

Hi Aikigypsy - was interested in your thread as am due now, and am trying to consider all possibilities of what might happen!

Quick search shows this topic has been discussed before and can be due to physical issues (ie position of baby, issue with pelvis or womb) - or could be psychological (ie fear or past trauma). Some women dilated once they had pain relief that helped them relax.

So I guess if this happens to us, upright positions/moving might help baby's head onto cervix to help thin it, and relaxing or getting help to relax might help cervix dilate. If that doesn't work, it's worth knowing that perhaps there was nothing that we could do to change the situation and embrace what happens next...

Hope this helps...

Tell me, were your friends labour's induced or augmented?

I had a failure to dilate too....5 cms in three days and ended up with emergency C section. The labour started the Sunday night and I stayed at home until Tuesday evening.

Went into hosp and found the pain quite bad so had an injection of morphine and then regular examinations until the Wednesday afternoon where the contractions got a lot stronger but were all over the place. Sometimes they would come every 50 secs, sometimes it would be every two minutes and I still wasn't dilating. They then broke my waters, but still nothing. They then put me on a drip to see if that would dilate me more, but no....the contractions started to get stronger and stronger and the gas and air didn't help after a while so I had an epidural then about an hour after this, DS's heart rate dropped twice, so they decided to do an emergency c section.

I was told that a part of my womb had contracted and stayed contracted which is why I didn't dilate....however, after being on mnet for a while, I do wonder whether all the intervention played a part....

i failed to dilate & was induced. there does seem to be a connection between the two.

My mother was induced with one of my brothers and her saying about it is" Well, it'll bring on the pain, but not necessarily the baby".

I had failed to dilate too. I was induced at 41+ weeks and only got to 2/3cm dilated after 50 hours. Resulted in c section.

I have since found out that there may e a medical reason as to why I did not dilate, and I am having an invvestigative op thing at the end of the month to find otu more. Not a common reason though.

Neither one of my friends' labours was induced, but both had epidurals, which makes me wonder if there's a connection, especially with all the other stuff I've been reading about epidurals slowing down muscle response. It makes intuitive sense to me that it could be a side-effect of tensing up because of pain. There's a contradiction. Can't win. It seems to be a common problem, and oddly it's not mentioned in the pregnancy books I have (I guess I need to get the birthing books for this one).

Thanks for the link to the older thread, Tumshie. I'll look through it (and try the search next time).

Ah epidural!!!! Even before I gave birth to my first, when I was soooooooo naive, I was wary of epidurals.

Epidural Risks and Side Effects. They donlt tell you all this when they offer one do they?

Anyhow I wouldn't have one but apreciate that there can be a time, in a long OP labour, when one could be administered to allow mum to sleep, Once it has worn off she can get back to labouring and very often finds that baby has turned while she was sleeping.

You can make all the plans you want but you're not going to know how you are going to be until you're in labour. You make the best decisions you can depending on your circumstance and the information you have at your disposal.

This great article tells you how your own body and your baby will know how to birth if left to your own devices. The so called 'benefits' of pain relief and induction can actually do more harm than good, ime.

Some people may see no reason to feel any pain in childbirth and willingly take the risk of post partum pain and depression because they don't realise that's what they ARE risking. If the HCPs actually told us more about the risks as well as the 'benefits' more of us would make better, more informed choices about what we do to our bodies.

Jabberwocky, your mother has obviously learned a very good lesson!

Caesarean and induction are life saving procedures which can make a difference, but they are being used routinely.

My tip, because I didn't do it with my first and not that much with my second, is to READ, READ, READ about normal childbirth! Decide what's important to you and learn to have faith in your body's ability. I have been reading all these books since doing my Doula training and wish with all my might that i had done my reading and not placed unfounded trust in the HCPs to advise me properly in labour.

With hindsight I can see that my body knew what to do, but these days we are not so in tune and don't have the same kind of experience and example shown to us by older female relatives and friends. We can all birth our babies, mostly without intervention, with the right support.

Ina May Gaskin, for instance, has been practicing midwifery for over 30 years and her CS rate is less than 2% and her instrumental delivery rate is less than 1%. And she doesn't turn away some of the risks that our HCPs would insist were hospitalised! Compare that to our national CS rate of 25% or more and instrumental delivery rate of something like 15%!

Sorry, I've gone off on one again.... I get quite passionate about this topic, because I don't want to see women suffering as I have done, and as have others I have met. I hear so many sad stories from all sorts of people, we can't all be wrong!

Very interesting article....I must admit I watched a woman giving birth on TV a few months ago in a dim room, quiet etc and it appealed to me greatly as to how I would want my second birth to go, if I had another child.

Do you think the epidural I had could have caused the failure to dilate or have you heard of cases like mine where the womb contracts and stays contracted? Lulumama suggested talking over my notes with the Midwife but am scared they will say its a permanent problem that would mean no vbac next time around etc

Lulu is right, you need to find out, there's no point sticking your head in the sand, is there? If you got pg again, you have to deal with it then and you'd have pg hormones to deal with as well

Look at the Epidural Risks and Side Effects in my earleir post. At the bottom are a few links to tables or risks to mother, baby and labour. Uterine contractions can be affected by epidural, as it stands to reason that anaesthetising the area will affect the uterus ability to contract as well as your legs ability to walk! I'm not medically trained so if I'm wrong maybe a medical person could correct me if need be....

So, ask the HCPs to go over your notes, and answer your questions, Ask them for research based evidence to support what they claim.

I've not come across the Uterine Hyperstimulation myself but it's known to be a risk with induction or augmentation.

You said they put you on a drip. This is augmentation, as is breaking your waters for you.

You had a long slow labour which is hard but if they hadn't done anything to you other than perhaps give you pethidine and allow you to sleep on your side who knows if you wouldn't have woken up refreshed with baby having rotated and then the real labour contractions would have kicked in.

You can't go back and do it all again but I'm confident that if you have another baby you will have educated your self more, maybe hired a Doula and you would have had a wonderful birth! Read Ina May Gaskin, Dr Sarah Buckley, Birthing From Within and loads more.

You CAN do it!

I failed to dilate. Got to 2cm after 2 DAYS of labour. I did the whole active pregnancy, birth ball, perineal massage(yuk!), hypnobirthing, raspberry leaf tea etc ,and had an active labour. But nothing was happening down there. So upset when some people get to 2cm without even knowing it . ended up with emergency section, which was fine.
So, I guess there is no knowing or preparing yourself. I just worry incase it happens again - I want to have an elective section IF there is a next time...