Don’t panic, I am not pregnant again! 🙂 I am just catching up and giving myself a chance to get over the trauma of childbirth before writing about it.
Written on the 21st September
The more I thought about my appointment to try to turn the baby and the more I talked to people about their experiences the more I started to panic! I heard nothing but horror stories!
As well as the risks that I mentioned in last week’s post I was also now aware of the dangers posed by the cord. My friend’s sister used to be a midwife and she told me she had seen many cases where the cord became tangled around the babies neck during the turning process. There also didn’t seem like there was much chance of them being able to turn the baby and I had heard of several babies that were successfully turned and then turned back. I wondered if we had made the wrong decision.
I rang my consultant and was told to come and see her at the clinic on Tuesday. I went in and she was lovely! I was worried that she would think that I was silly for questioning things. I really wanted to have faith in their decision as I know that they know a lot more than I do but it was so hard to have confidence after everything I’ve heard.
She answered all of my questions and addressed all my fears. She explained that nowadays they use a portable scanner. They scan before they start to turn the baby and they also scan during to make sure that the cord is not in a dangerous position. If it is the procedure will not take place. She also said that although some babies do turn back that this only happens in 5% of cases. In all the years she had been practising she had never seen the turning process end in an emergency cesarean. She admitted that they may not be able to turn him but they wouldn’t know until they tried. The fact that it was my second baby and that I had excess fluid gave the process more hope. The fact that the baby was extended breech gave it less.
She explained that there was no way of knowing if we could turn him until we tried. If we could that would be great as it would hopefully mean that I could avoid a c section. If we couldn’t we wouldn’t have lost anything and a c section would be scheduled for the following week. She made me realise that the decision was my own and she didn’t pressure me. She just gave me her professional opinion. I decided to still try and have the baby turned on Friday.
Thursday night I hardly slept. I was so nervous! I had the first appointment at the hospital as I had to fast from midnight and I couldn’t take my insulin. I arrived at the hospital and the midwife commented on how worried I looked.
They monitored me for about half an hour to make sure that baby was happy. They then brought in the portable scanner to check that it was safe to try and turn him. The doctor placed the scanner on my tummy and started to laugh. He had turned already! I had been told that there wasn’t much chance of turning an extended breech baby after 37 weeks and he had managed to do it all by himself! I was so relieved!
They gave me a sweep to try and start things on their own as I am hoping to avoid induction after what happened with Bob. The sweep was unsuccessful though. I have an induction scheduled for Thursday and I have eaten so much pineapple that I think I may burst! Apparently you would need to eat 7 pineapples in 1 sitting for it to have any effect but my waters broke the day after I ate pineapple when I was pregnant with Bob so it was worth a shot!
To see a collage of my pregnancy photos and links to all of my posts so far visit my Pregnancy Diaries.
So glad the hear that the baby turned himself. I am sure you were VERY relieved! Congrats to you and family…it won’t be long now!! How exciting! 🙂