Coccyx pain before becoming pregnant - should I have a c section?

[MrsFunshine]

Hello ladies, I was hoping there might be someone out there who can offer some advice. 5 years ago I fell on my coccyx (it was the second bad fall on it) and a year later I lifted something heavy that made the pain a lot worse continually and caused me to make lots of lifestyle changes to avoid hurting my coccyx again and again. 5 years on my coccyx still has an impact on my life.

I am now 6 months pregnant and I'm considering what is the best thing to do with regards to mode of delivery. My doctor says that the coccyx should have no bearing on the pregnancy or the mode of delivery, but my concern is will a natural birth make my coccyx issues/pain worse? I know there are no guarantees, but I don't want to go back to where I was 5 years ago.

I know women who say that they wouldn't choose to have a c section, but I'm concerned that a natural birth will irritate my coccyx further long term and I'm just trying to weight up the risks and pros and cons for both a natural birth and c section.

Is there anyone out there who had long term coccyx pain before becoming pregnant and did you have a natural birth? I would be really interested to hear of anyone's experience and thoughts.

Thanks in advance 😊

Hi I cannot believe I just joined today with the intention of seeing if anyone else had dealt with coccyx issues in birth and just found your message. There is a conversation on here from 2006 which seems to show that many many women go on to give birth after breaking theirs and have no issues at all - worth finding!
I broke mine in April 2020 and gave birth in the second half of 2021. Before my birth my coccyx only really caused me grief if i sat on a hard surface for a long(ish) period of time and in positions like downward dog. It wasn't particularly bad in pregnancy either, though i did develop pelvic girdle pain (SPD).
The first half of my Labour I managed to do at home and was very comfortable. The second half (4cm onwards) however was not a great experience for me mainly because of my coccyx. I made it really far along (7cm) using hypnobirthing techniques (aka - nothing to do with hypnosis and all to do with understanding your body and using brilliant breathing techniques to get through the pain/surges) however i was standing for over 5 hours by then because my coccyx hurt so much.
I made the choice then to have an epidural and it. was. amazing! I kept the dose really low and was able to retain enough control not to feel totally disconnected. Sadly my epidural failed (mechanically - the tube fell out) at about 9cm and the pain i experienced in my coccyx was truely one of the most intense experiences I think i will ever know. Interestingly i could tell the difference between the labour pain and it and I believe i could have given birth without medication if it were not for my coccyx. I was in pretty bad shape and in order to help me, in the end, i was taken to theatre and given a spinal block and a foreceps delivery. I was home in a day or so with my beautiful little one, a bit shaken but fine.
Since then I've been told by two experienced midwives to seriously consider hard whether to ever to do that again aka seriously consider a c-section and my GP has said there is not much could have been done in advance. BUT, ok it wasn't great (at times) but I was home and about with no physical impact within a day. Rather then the women around me in the post-op room who could barely move due to their c-sections (and of course had 6 weeks of recovery ahead of them). If the epidural hadn't failed (I was incredibly unlucky) I wouldn't have been aware at all of the pain aka it works on the coccyx pain. So all in all, right now, today, I think I'd do it again and hope that tube stayed in!!

I know its not the - everything was great - story but I hope that it will give you faith that you can totally choose to give birth naturally vaginally and even though my experience is probably one of the unlucky ones I'd seriously consider a vaginal birth again. And to be clear, not because i think a c-section is inferior but just because of the after management. Thats not to say, I wouldn't change my mind if i was ever facing down the barrel of a 48 hour labour again ;)

I had no coccyx issues pre-birth, and was in absolute agony with it after both births. If I was to have a third child (not going to happen haha, so hypothetical!), I would have an elective section for this reason. I could honestly barely move both terms, and had to have physio 9 months after the birth of DD1. DDs are now 4 and 20 months and my coccyx is fine, but I wouldn't wish my post birth coccyx pain on anyone!

Thank you so much for coming back to me ladies, this is really really helpful!

Nightnightmars I'm sorry to hear of your difficult delivery - did your coccyx give you any issues after the birth? I will look up those conversations you mentioned from 2006, thank you.

Covidwoes I'm sorry you had so much pain with your coccyx after giving birth - but it's good to hear that you are fully recovered and experiencing no pain there now and that the pain does go away eventually.

It's great to hear your experiences ladies, thank you so much for sharing 😊

Hi so i had physio after the birth due to a mild prolapse which is likely due to the forceps delivery. My coccyx, however, gave me almost no grief, maybe a bit more tender for a week or two but it was totally back to normal a short time later.

I broke my coccyx when I was 21, had issues with it ever since over a decade on, had 3 babies since and never had an issue giving birth naturally with 2 of them, the 3rd was csection and the pain after (because I was almost immobile for a short while because of the surgery and epidural) was awful and really aggravated my coccyx, I’d opt for a natural labour all day long! It hurts either way and one of my babies was back to back and I’d still recommend it to a section.

Thank you so much ladies for your feedback, it's such a help.

Nightnightmars it's fantastic that you didn't have many issues with your coccyx after natural birth, that's really comforting to hear, thank you.

Youredaft I never even considered that a c section could aggravate the coccyx, thank you for making me aware of this. Was it the c section wound pain that was awful or was the coccyx pain worse than that? How long did it aggravate the coccyx for and how long were you in pain with the c section wound? Also, were you still having coccyx issues and pain when you had your first child naturally? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to arm myself with as much info as possible to help me decide what to do.

Thank you so much ladies 🤗

It didn’t aggravate mine. Have you considered water birth? I did that, partly to alleviate pressure on my coccyx

Hi MultiTulip, thanks for your message. Yes a water birth is a good option, thank you. Did you have problems and pain with your coccyx before pregnancy? It would be great to hear more😀