So baby #2 has been head down for weeks and I just had my 36 week appointment and of course he moved and is now sideways/transverse. I have my next appointment next Tuesday (in 5 days) to see if he goes head down and they're going. To do an ultrasound to be sure. If he IS still sideways then we need to talk about scheduling a c-section or trying to manually flip the baby. Have any of you had a successful manual version? Is it super painful?
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I haven't dealt this this personally but based on a friend's experience it's not something I would consider. My friend went in to the hospital at 39 weeks and they hooked her up with an epidural to manage the pain and the plan was to try to turn the baby and if it worked, they would immediately induce, and if it didn't work, they would do a C-section. The attempt at manual version ended up putting the baby into distress and they had to do a very scary emergency section during which my friend went into distress as well. Her recovery was awful and obviously she had a lot of emotional recovery from the experience as well. I would much prefer a calm scheduled c section.
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I have not had one, but I can tell you that my doctor told me it's not as "low key" of a procedure as many doctors make it sound (not implying you said this). My child was stubbornly breeched (20 weeks on) and I had bleeding problems so while I wasn't a candidate, she told me that she very rarely does them as after she does them she is extremely physically sore. It's that much pressure / manipulation, which makes her have some pause regarding the impact on the baby. She also said that she's seen it cause placenta abruption multiple times as well as fetal distress. She softened that by saying it also can work beautifully, but that she's of the mind that the second the baby gets into position you must induce. She did say that in the case of a second child where you know that your anatomy isn't potentially causing the breech and your uterus is more stretched that it usually has higher success. We talked about it at length.
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If you search on here I know there are a few older threads on this! I had 2 breech babies and didn't try a version. According to my dr success depends on position (so transverse is easier to turn then frank breech) and what number pregnancy this is. She said it works better on second and third time moms because the uterus is stretchier
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My doctor recommended against it - I was a first time mom and she wasn't budging from her breech position. Turns out, she had the cord wrapped twice around her neck, so it wouldn't have worked and more than likely it would have ended in an emergency c section. Glad we didn't try.
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I'm almost three weeks post partum with my second. He was transverse nearly my entire pregnancy. At my 36 week appt, he at least seemed to be heading in the correct direction.
My friend lent me her spinning babies DVD, and I did some of the exercises every night until my 37 week appt. but then we discovered he had turn completely breech. Head was in my ribs, and he was butt down.
I did go to the hospital that night to attempt a manual version with two OB's. they gave me a muscle relaxant and pain med, and yes, it did hurt. But doing deep breathing throughout did help and they only worked at it for a few minutes.
They did initially get him to turn, but then he flipped right back up. They only wanted to try a max of two times.
Baby and myself handled it well, no distress. But unfortunately, it just wasn't successful for us.
I had my cesarean that night.He was just so stubborn! I have many friends who did spinning babies and it worked for them!
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@Mrs. Pen: Random and not remotely helpful to my OP, but knowing my son now I am 100% he would have never turned. Ever.
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I haven't had this done, but I've assisted with these in a hospital I used to work at. The OB that liked to do them gave mom an epidural and did them in the OR. I've helped with 5-10 and never seen a successful one. They would clear out the room after a couple tries and go right into the c-section.
I'm done having kids now, but if I were to have a breech or transverse baby, I'd be likely to try the spinning babies and if it didn't work, I'd opt for c section.
Good luck, whatever you decide! Hope that baby flips for you.
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LO was transverse and flipped on her own at the end. Then back again. Then back again a third time in the final week. How is that even possible when there is no room? We decided against Manual because of the risk and there is the possibility of the baby flipping back and forth. We did have fun trying non invasive home-based stuff to get her to flip.
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Hi! I'm a long-time lurker and created an account just to respond to this thread. I had a successful version with my first at 37 weeks. We found out he was breech at 36 weeks and after trying spinning babies (lying upside down on an inclined ironing board, what!) he didn't flip. My doctor is awesome and so calm. She did maternal medicine in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, so I think she is more relaxed about a lot of things in general. She knew I wanted to avoid a c-section so was willing to try. She gave me the run down and explained the risks.
The morning of the procedure, we checked into the labor and delivery floor and were put in a room just a few feet from the OR in case things went wrong and they needed to deliver. They did hook me up to something, I don't remember what, but I did not have an epidural. My doctor came in and a resident and they man handled my belly. My husband said it was the craziest thing he's ever seen. I honestly don't remember that much pain - it was uncomfortable and there was pressure but it was more a surreal, out of body experience for me. It was successful and he flipped after a few minutes. Everyone in the room was shocked, it was about as easy as a version can be. Textbook, according to my doctor. They put me in a belly binder and I wore that for a few days. Thankfully he stayed head down and I delivered at 40+2 after an induction.
I had an extremely easy pregnancy with no other complications and my doctor had done several versions before, so we ended up with a pretty positive experience. I think you really need to feel out your doctor and how much you trust him/her and how stressed you think trying a version would make you, versus just scheduling a section. Best of luck to you! I hope that little nugget spins and you have a positive birth experience, whatever it ends up being!
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My son was transverse most of my pregnancy. He is a twin and his sister was spread out taking up most of the room in there. She was head down so we went ahead with a vaginal delivery with the intent of doing a manual version on my son once my daughter was out. Sometimes twins will flip on their own once the other one is out, which of course would have been ideal, but we couldn't count on it happening. Being a twin delivery, we were prepared to do a breech extraction if he turned breech (common with twins and easier than a singleton breech delivery since the first baby sort of paves the way, so to speak), so which ever way he turned was fine. Being a twin mom, I was already delivering in the OR with an epidural. Unfortunately, as soon as my daughter was out and the manual version started, he went into distress and the ultrasound tech lost his heartbeat so he was an emergency c-section. For me, attempting the manual version was only an option because I had twins and getting one out of the way would have allowed space for the other to turn; and because I was already in the OR and prepped for emergency surgery should it come to that (if I hadn't already had the epidural and we attempted the version, I would have been knocked out with general anesthesia when they lost his heartbeat. I really didn't want to be out for his birth).
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My oldest went breech at 35 weeks and she was manually flipped back at 38-39 weeks. It literally took thirty seconds to turn her, once the Dr got her butt out of my pelvis over she went!
I don't remember any pain or even discomfort and I went on to to have a vaginal delivery at 41ish weeks.I would happily give it another go if i needed to because without it my only option was a c-section and the actual rate of ECV resulting in an emergency c-section was / is only 0.05%.
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@MissLace: HEY! I didn't know there was an actual term lol but my babe is sideways right now but I already have a c-section scheduled for other reasons. Good luck!
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DD wasn't breech, but my obs told me how they deal with it. They generally don't do the ecv, due to the risks, the pain, and the 30% success rate. One of my obs Os a licensed acupuncturist, and she has a close to 60% success rate using just that, without the ecv risks. Maybe try that first? Good luck!
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Had one done at 37 weeks for my frank breech baby. I tried about 2 weeks of nonstop spinning babies, moxibustion, and chiropractor appointments and none of them worked (although I do think they helped big time!) Went in for the ECV super scared that it would end up in an emergency c section and then even more freaked out when the anesthesiologist came in pushing an epidural (there was no mention of that in my doctors office). I skipped the epidural so they performed the ECV in the triage room. Took about 2 minutes and baby girl was flipped! I'm now 40 weeks pregnant and she's still head down. I did wear a belly binder for about 3 days after because I was terrified she would flip back. Overall it's a pretty intense thing to go through but I'm so glad I did it. This is my second pregnancy and I've heard there's a better success rate so I'm not sure I would've done it if it was my first baby. It was uncomfortable but not painful.
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My daughter flipped somewhere between 38 and 39 weeks. My options were ECV or csection... I declined the ECV and I'm glad I did as the cord was wrapped around her twice so it probably would have ended in an emergency csection. Good luck making the decision, it was definitely a hard one for me (but happy I declined in the end)
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The success rate varies widely by provider. I would totally do it with a very experienced provider. The most popular one in our area has about an 80% success rate and rarely leads to emergency c-sections. Experience matters!
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