shoulder dystocia and baby number 2

[pigleychez]

DD was born after a horribly long labour with Shoulder Dystocia and my thoughts have returned to the birth as we are thinking of TTc towards the end of the year.

My questions are:

What are the chance of it happening again?

I really love the idea of a water birth, but would this be out of the question now?

sorry no advise but would like to know as my dd2 had shoulder dystocia i dont think a water birth would be safe incase it happened again but good luck with it all..

Have you gone through your notes from your labour with DD? It might be worth making use of your PCT's "birth afterthoughts" service (or equivalent) just to try and find out whether there was anything about the way your DD presented or the way you laboured that increased the chance of SD.

Re. waterbirth - I think the challenge would be trying to establish what the actualy risks are - and part of that will be whether there was anything that might have been done differently with DD. I honestly don't know what the situation would be - if there is a marked increased risk for you, you could always consider labouring in water but getting out to deliver.

(If you do your own digging and decide you feel a waterbirth is the best balance of risks for you, you could always go for a waterbirth at home - its not for everyone, but it is a choice you have and you'd be less tied by hospital policy).

here is my thread on what happened to me..in a nutshell DD horrible labour, DS all done in an hour and a half, not even a stich in sight, with a similar sized baby.

I've concluded that its a lot to do with the position of baby, rather than the size - DD awkward presentation (OP, face first), spinal and stirrups, DS good position, delivered on all fours so pelvis nice and open, no time for drugs so could feel to push effectivly.

My consulatnant told me that women with a prev dystocia have a one in 10 chance of having another, and of those there is a one in 10 chance of some sort of injury. I decided I could cope with one in 100 odds and therefore did not want a CS. They did counsel me against a HB as "you want more than 2 peope there if it does occur again", but I am actually glad that I delivered in hospital as had a nice rest there afterwards. I asked to go in the pool and they said ok, but in the event I delivered too quickly to sort it all out.

The protocol where I live is to have a consultant review for subsequent pregnancies after a difficult delivery - mine was quite bad, but it was agreed to go for normal deliverey in hospital if spontaneous labour before 42 weeks, with a growth scan at 37 weeks. Best of luck with it!