Baby turned to breech *during* labour

[duchesse]

My sister just had her third baby yesterday. The little bugger was born by caesarian after flipping to breech during the labour. Sher had a scan the day before so she knows that he was cephalic then. She says there was an Alien moment straight after her waters went, and his heartrate went all over the place, and then they found that he'd gone and flipped to breech. So EMCS for her.

It turns out that he has a 37cm head. We wonder if that might have been a reason? Apparently no moulding on his head although she'd been in early labour for several days.

Anybody else had this happen to them?

Has anybody else had or heard of this happening? It seems rather rare to me...

This isn't exactly the same thing, but my sister-in-law recently gave birth to twins. She was committed to a vaginal delivery, even though c-section is often recommended for twins. The twin in the first position had always been cephalic and the consultant had said that it would probably be possible to turn the second twin or deliver her breech. (As I understand it, delivery of a second twin is just about the only situation in which a breech delivery is still undertaken.) In any case, the second twin turn around as well so they were both cephalic at the time of induction.

The first twin was born normally and then the second one flipped (back to breech). It's probably a lot easier for a second twin to do this than for your nephew -- she suddenly had double the space! The consultant tried to turn her but she became extremely distressed and they had to do a crash c-section with a general anaesthesia, even though an epidural was in place.

I imagine this is a lot more common with twins due to space but it's kind of similar. I'm concerned about this myself because I'll be 40 weeks tomorrow and my baby has been turning well past the time they usually run out of space, although it is currently cephalic. I assume the situation you've described is pretty rare or I think my consultant would be pointing me towards a c-section -- he's not a natural-childbirth kind of guy.

Teapot, why did they try to turn the second baby? Why didn't they try to deliver her as a breech? Just out of interest.

There's a lot of info on breech birth by Mary Cronk (guru midwife) and a great book by Benna Waites

For some healthcare professionals, breech is just another way of presenting and doesn't necessarily require the panic and fuss that is often generated. Obviously, there are times, just like in cephalic births, when issues arise that need intervention.

I'd like to know that as well. It was more likely the attempt at turning that made her distressed. Unless she fell into transverse lie? That is one of the hazards of being the second twin- first twin leaves, second twin says "ooh, a hammock!" and has to be fished out through the sun roof.

I'm not sure why they tried to turn the second baby I assume the consultant thought at the time that it was less of a risk to try turning than to try the breech delivery. (She may also have been transverse I'm not sure.) Now I think the consensus is that the turning is what caused the distress -- but that's always a risk with external version.

I didn't mention that I'm in London but my brother and his wife live in New York, so some of the protocols are probably different. Maybe they don't attempt breech deliveries as often there.

Both babies are fine now -- they are 2 weeks old today. My sister-in-law is recovering well from her multifaceted birth experience.

This happened to me! I just came across this website searching if this happened to anyone else. My son flipped sideways, then into a breech position during labor so I ended up having a csection.

God your poor sister-in-law, having to go through both a normal delivery AND a CS, that's quite a day!!

ooh second old thread revival tonight!

hasn't happened to me, but i have had 3 babies with BIG heads (37, 39 and 38.5cm respectively) and none of them turned breech!

duchesse, was the EMCS because of the breech or because of the heartrate?

This is a very old thread. I was told this is very rare, so was looking and found this thread. I recently had an emergency C-session because by baby turned during labour. I had two ultrasounds when I went into the hospital to be induced and confirm the baby was head down. Everything was going good until the doctor checked for my cervix and felt a butt. I'm glad I insisted on having an epidural just before. (Nurses kept telling me it was too soon.) My baby came out very healthy.