Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

She had her baby girl yesterday via csection (scheduled).

The doctor told her at 33 weeks that it seemed her pelvis was too small for a vaginal birth so they scheduled the csection.

She is not a teeny tiny person, she is average size.

Doesn't this seem weird that a doctor would just assume she woudln't get through a vaginal birth?? I get angry over it, b/c I guess I feel like womens bodies were designed to give birth...and csections are life saving wonderful procedures, but shoudln't a doctor let a woman labor naturally for a while (being that its her first baby) before jumping to that conclusion? Thoughts?

***WAnted to say this is not a debate on c-sections/vaginal. It's about determining the need that far in advance!

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

If it were me, I think I would have insisted on my MD letting me try. Seems early to me to determine a v-birth won't work - but what do I know.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

hey im not a doctor but i have heard of this before a friend of mine also had to have a c section as she was also told she wouldnt be able to deliver her baby girl vaginally..it was also her 1st child

it turned out to have been the best descion because her DD had a very large head and there was no way that she could have birthed her naturally..

i guess you just have to trust in your doctor and have a good relashonship with eah other and question anything you dont feel comfortable with ...

the end result for your DH cousin was she had a healthy and perfect baby at the end and that is really all that matters IMO

Message edited 1/9/2009 1:05:56 PM.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I am an average size woman and my pelvis was too small to deliver vaginally. I wished my doctors knew ahead of time and would have save me the 30 hours of labor.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

After 20 plus hours of the worst labor of my life, i would be thrilled to have never gone through all of that ..my doc wanted me to try and i ended up with a C section and i am not kidding, horrible horrible labor. I had the same problem with the baby not being able to come out... What made matters worse, is it affected my little one..her heart rate kept dropping..not worth it at all! I know so many feel like they miss out on the vaginal birth but who the heck wants to go through hell in labor! C section wasnt as bad as i thought and i get more time home with my little one!!! Sometimes it is a blessing...

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I've been told by 2 different OBs that my "pelvic arch" is very narrow, and that I most likely wouldn't be able to deliver vaginally. Luckily, I was already scheduled to have DD by c-section due to my back injury. I would have NEVER wanted to "just try it"--so many things could go wrong.

ITA with the other posters re: trusting the doctor on this one. This is what they do for a living. If it's something she wants to look into further, she could always go for a 2nd opinion. But it's definitely not something I would want to mess with.

Unfortunately, not EVERY woman's body is meant to give birth. It's amazing--I don't ovulate on my own, so 50 years ago I COULDN'T have gotten pregnant. Then I learned that, even if I can GET pregnant, I most likely can't give birth naturally. If you ask me, it's a miracle that DD is here!

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

my doc told me at 34 wks that I could possible have a rough delivery may end up in c section. she was suprised how small my pelvis was considering my avg height of 5ft5in. We went with the c section, why the heck would I want to "try" knowing ahead of time I could have trouble. DS was born teeny not even 6 pds (5th percentile) but his head was big 75th percentile. on that day I went into labor a diff doctor on call tried to convince me to try and I refused, one of my original docs came in and we did teh section right away. I did not want to end up w/ an emergency section

just ETA that I am very happy we went with the section, If I were her I would do it!

Message edited 1/9/2009 1:22:50 PM.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I had 2 ob-gyn tell me I would likely need a C-Section for this very reason and seriosuly consdered scheduling it.

However, I wanted to at least try and ended up having the easiest, fastest natural childbirth. I am so glad I went with my instict and that my small pelvis was up to the task.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Message edited 1/9/2009 1:32:06 PM.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I have a small pelvis as well and labored for 18 HORRIBLE hours before having a c-section. FYI when they say you have a small pelvis it has more to do with the opening of the pelvis than the actual size of it which is why it does not matter what size you are. My mother also had no pelvic capacity to deliver and had a c-section in the 1970's. I would have preferred to have had a c-section from the beginning than start vomiting in the middle of pushing because the pain was so excruciating.

And while, yes women's bodies were designed to give birth all that one has to do is look at the number of childbirth related deaths that occurred in the 1800's and the early 1900's and see that not all women CAN give birth and that back then these women with a small would have probably dies back then.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Maybe the baby was expected to be very large or maybe there was some other reason that a vaginal birth wouldn't be safe and the couple is just more comfortable giving that as a reason.

ETA: ...or maybe she just has a very narrow pelvis. My mother was X-rayed while in labor with me and the Dr. said it would be very close. I was pulled out with forceps and had such bad hematomas on my head and shoulders there are no pictures of me for the first 3-4 weeks. Because of all the bruising I jaundiced severely and was in the hospital for over a week.

Message edited 1/9/2009 2:45:57 PM.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

My SIL is going through the same thing. At her 9 week checkup, the OB/GYN told her that she was going to have to have a C because her pelvis was too narrow. She is NOT a small girl, not even an average sized girl, so it sounded like a load of crap to me. She is due at the end of February and the doctor is pushing her to schedule the C. Honestly, I think the doctor is looking for an easy way out and it ticks me off.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I think that's odd. Unless she has been in an accident or has a mis-shapen pelvis for another reason it's pretty hard to determine in advance that a vaginal delivery is not possible. The pelvis stretches a lot during labor and often something as simple as delivering squating, instead of flat on your back can open your pelvis enough to deliver a baby.

Personally, I would seek out another practitioner if my doctor told me that and I would definately give labor a try, unless there was something wrong with my pelvic structure (not just size).

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I studied human osteology way back when, and can tell you I was stunned at the variability in size and structure of the human skeleton. Getting a baby's head through a birth canal is a tight squeaze when you're tall with broad hips like me... and it most definitely is impossible for some women becuase their pelvic bones have a slightly narrower angle than others, producing a slightly narrower space for the baby to exit.

I can imagine it is fairly straight forward to measure that opening with a sonogram.... I bet there's a cut-off on what minimum size is considered safe to try a vag delivery.

While the human female is designed to give birth vaginally, one can't forget that on the evolutionary spectrum, we're a very new species, and as such, are still evolving. We're not like horseshoe crabs... around for 200 million years and almost perfectly adapted to their environment. Just 1 million years ago, our brains (and therefore our skulls) were much smaller (about 60% of what they are now)... so it's easy to see how our pelvises haven't caught up to our baby head sizes

And on that note, I promise not to post anything else scientific for the rest of the day! I'll spare everyone from the boring long posts

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I had a schedule c/s because DS was almost 10lbs. BUT my dr told me that having a v-birth is not just about the size of your pelvis…it has to do with the effectiveness of your contractions, position and size of baby, etc. I cant say anything about scheduling a c/s for your first baby because I did it, but I think the dr should have probably been more open about her options – and for all we know maybe she was and your cousin opted for a c/s. I do agree 33 weeks seems early (but maybe the hospital books up quickly so they wanted her on the schedule just in case), I mean if at 38 weeks she was dilated, etc maybe her body would have been able to have the baby, then again maybe not. A womans physical stature has nothing to do with her ability to have a child.

And for the record a v-delivery recovery is not always easier. I had a VERY easy recovery from my c-s and to this day I can say with conviction that if I had a v-birth my recovery couldn’t have been any better/easier.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Posted by niikki-8-18-06

I am an average size woman and my pelvis was too small to deliver vaginally. I wished my doctors knew ahead of time and would have save me the 30 hours of labor.

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

Posted by wannabemom

I studied human osteology way back when, and can tell you I was stunned at the variability in size and structure of the human skeleton. Getting a baby's head through a birth canal is a tight squeaze when you're tall with broad hips like me... and it most definitely is impossible for some women becuase their pelvic bones have a slightly narrower angle than others, producing a slightly narrower space for the baby to exit.

I can imagine it is fairly straight forward to measure that opening with a sonogram.... I bet there's a cut-off on what minimum size is considered safe to try a vag delivery.

While the human female is designed to give birth vaginally, one can't forget that on the evolutionary spectrum, we're a very new species, and as such, are still evolving. We're not like horseshoe crabs... around for 200 million years and almost perfectly adapted to their environment. Just 1 million years ago, our brains (and therefore our skulls) were much smaller (about 60% of what they are now)... so it's easy to see how our pelvises haven't caught up to our baby head sizes

And on that note, I promise not to post anything else scientific for the rest of the day! I'll spare everyone from the boring long posts

Re: Pelvis too small to deliver vaginally?? (RE: DH's cousin)

I had one c/s after 8 hours of hard labor and non progression and fetal distress one scheduled. My OB told me this:

1- The size of your pelvic opening has nothing to do with the size of the person(I happen to be on the small side-105-110lbs)

2- He said you could not determine if the opening is too small ahead of time. After my c/s he said that DD#1 would have never come out of me.