Unstable lie at 36 weeks. Being scanned on Monday!

[Alisonjayjay]

I've just been to midwife and she thinks baby has an unstable lie so she's sending me for a presentation scan on Monday. I really shouldn't have googled it cos now I'm panicking about cord prolapse and being admitted early for a cesaerean. This is my 2nd baby and he was 8lb 13 oz and was head down for most of the third trimester. I guess there is more space to move around in there since it's been stretched out before. Midwife thought baby was transverse a few weeks ago, then oblique and now he's back to back and she thinks head down but not 100%. A few times I've thought he was breech as I could see a big bulge moving around independently above my belly button. It was hard and round like a head. I just thought we were checking baby's position with the scan but she phoned the maternity scan department saying she suspected an unstable lie and they made appointment right away. Now from stories on google I've read that women who are diagnosed with a baby with unstable lie after 36 weeks are often admitted to hospital due to the risk of cord prolapse if they go into spontaneous labour and waters break. Has anyone elsehad any experience of this?

Yes, I was with DD2. She was unstable / oblique / transverse and this was detected at 36 weeks. I was admitted to hospital for the rest of pregnancy (she remained unstable) which was incredibly tedious but the ELCS was fine and all well in the end. [I refused an ECV because my obstetricians were not at all keen on it for some reason - possibly just because I was a high risk pregnancy for other reasons and I think they actually believed I might be best off just going for a CS anyway and now they could tick a box to justify that....] I think its rare for this type of unstable lie to cause any serious problem unless its not detected - so rest assured you are going to be in a safe place. good luck x

Thanks for the advice. I'll need to wait for this scan on Monday to see what they say but I'm hoping all ok and baby gets into right position. I really don't fancy being admitted this early at all but if it's safest for baby then it's fine. What I'm wondering is how do they diagnose unstable lie from just one scan. Will they scan me over a few days to check? How many weeks were you when you had your elcs?