Anyone had a natural birth after two forceps deliveries?

[Sabina93]

Hi ladies, I just wanted to ask about your experiences 😊

I’m currently expecting my third baby (a girl). My first two were boys, and both were born with forceps because they were in a posterior position (head down but facing the wrong way during labour).

I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience and then went on to have an unassisted vaginal birth with their third baby? I’d really love to hear how your labour went and whether things were different the next time around.

Thank you so much for sharing ❤️.

My mum did. Well, technically she had a Cat 1 C-section in between the two forceps deliveries, but her 4th and 5th kids were both unassisted vaginal deliveries. I don't know if they were rotational or she just needed assistance getting them out sorry.

Do you know if you have a tilted uterus by any chance? I researched the hell out of posterior births after my first one, and apparently some anatomical shapes make it more common for recurrence.

I had one OP baby (assisted) and found an OA baby so much easier (unassisted). I declined the epidural though, as my consultant advised 90% of epidural births in my hospital were assisted deliveries.

I declined the epidural though, as my consultant advised 90% of epidural births in my hospital were assisted deliveries

the relationship between epidurals and assisted deliveries is an association but that does not mean a causative relationship. An OP labour, for example, is more likely to be difficult and need assistance, and is likely to be more painful and therefore a woman more likely to need punchy analgesia - it's not the epidural that causes the problem. Historically epidurals were associated with needing help because the drugs we used were more concentrated and caused a denser block. For at least the last 20 years dilute solutions have been routine and those tend to cause less of a motor block. The obstetricians should know that, but the anaesthetists are really the ones to take advice from re. analgesia options (it's also worth remembering that uncontrolled pain isn't great for you either). There are also advantages to having an epidural for some women aside from having decent pain relief.

I had a high intervention for forceps delivery followed by twin Caesarian followed by a totally natural birth ( no pain relief ) . Loved that second birth ( twin Caesarian ) and third went quickly , not much hanging around but it was 10 years after the cesarian with no issues . It all really depends on the hospital and the team on duty at the time , that’s my experience . If you can find a hospital a consistently organised team , that’s the best option .

A good tip from my experience is to keep gently active for as long as possible before the birthing contractions kick in . I walked around the block and gave birth very quickly with little intervention .

Thank you so much everyone for sharing your advices and experiences. My plan is to stay active as long as I can so fingers crossed it helps 🙏