I was all set to have a natural birth. As is came closer to the due date (2 weeks out) preclampsia came about. The midwives were mentioning inducing, I held it off until I was spilling a large amount of protein. A couple of months out I would ask which way my baby was facing (my family has a history of 9 lb+ babies so I knew to have a natural birth it might be important to make sure he was faced correctly) When they began to discuss inducing, I was insistant that I find out which way he was facing. To which both midwives repeatedly said I should not worry about it because they have previously delivered babies posterior facing. On several occasions I asked, and they had the same reply. I responded to the pitocin 'well' fully dialating within 4 hours. At the end I was in a c-section, the baby had to be vacumed out of the c-section with him having a big bruise resulting in bad jaundice. He stopped breathing the first night having apnea. They told me it was from the strenuous birth. So he was in the NICU at 8lbs 11oz getting an IV in his ankle, to which the nurse told me "I put the IV in wrong, the fluid leakeI into his tissue." Resulting in a scar covering half his ankle now. (He is 9 months now) It seems to me that if the midwives would have just checked which way he was facing,  my body was prepared to get him out. Is it a standard thing that the midwives should have checked which way my baby was facing before starting me on pitocin? Thank you so much for taking some time to look at this.

-Amy

It sounds like you have had a difficult and distressing experience. I hope it comforts you somewhat to know that it doesn't help to know which way the baby is facing in pregnancy because babies continue changing which way they face even during labor. Having a baby in the favorable facing-your-back position at the onset of labor is no guarantee that the baby will stay that way.

As to why the baby was delivered through the cesarean incision by vacuum (which can cause a big bruise called a cephalohematoma) and that the difficult labor led to the apnea episode, I would take those with a grain of salt. The necessity for a vacuum delivery and the reason for the apnea episode may be true, but some obs are frequently or routinely resorting to vacuum delivery at c/secs and it is not uncommon for women who have made less mainstream decisions about their birth and have had the birth not turn out as planned to be told by disapproving mainstream medical staff that their decision or their care provider's care led to the problem.

-- Henci 

Thank you for your response. I suppose I wished I would have known he was not faced in the best postion to at least attempt some turning methods. I appreciate all the information provided in your book A Thinking Women's Guide. The statistics helped me to avoid many instances where the midwives were telling me "I had to..." but in fact, I did not. The statistics gave me confidence with my decisions and gave me another reference point then what I was hearing from my midwives and doctors.

Thank you again,

Amy

You are welcome, and thank you for your kind words.

-- Henci