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My sil has it. She has 2 daughters, both pregnancies and deliveries went smoothly. She was only in labor with #2 for like 5 hours and baby was out after only pushing twice!
Her scoliosis is pretty bad and noticeable.

I have a slight case that was just monitored when I was younger. I was fine with pregnancy and had an epi for labor

I have it after a back injury (not sure if the curve existed prior or was just discovered because of) and I'm still pregnant, so I can't speak for delivery. I've definitely had back pain but I don't know what is "normal" and what is because of my back.

At my hospital visit they called anesthesiology to feel my spine and they said the curve (and injured vertebrae) is higher than they insert the epidural so it shouldn't affect it. I have additional scar tissue from ligaments tearing that might, but if your scoliosis is congenital I don't think you'd have to worry about it!

@knittylady OMG was it a TLSO brace?? 4 years?! I don't know how you coped, I was only in one for 6 months and thought I'd go bonkers.

@scg00387: oops, just googled and saw it's the same thing.... so... yep! Let's just say I was not in the popular crowd

i had to wear a brace too - but i was really bad about it and only wore it for a fraction of the recommended time. my curve is in the upper part of the spine, it is a 40 degree angle, which is on the cusp of having surgery. i opted not to.

with pregnancy, i had no problems at all from it - but i really haven't had problems from it in general. for delivery, i was worried about how it would affect the epidural, but no problems there either. they only had to stick me once, but had to adjust the needle slightly after the first time because the epidural had only worked on my right half. after the adjustment, it worked on my entire body and was magical. my nurse told me that she has seen some cases that were so bad, the needles were crooked when removed.

summary - for me, it was a non-event.

I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 7 - I had two serious curves, wore a back brace for 5 years (wore all day but not at night) and then ended up having spinal fusion surgery when I was 11.

I was very lucky to have little back pain until I was about 36 weeks pregnant. At that point I got two massages within a few weeks to help, but honestly I don't think the pain was from me having scoliosis, I think it was just a normal pregnancy symptom. I don't think my pregnancy was affected at all because of it.

I met with an anesthesiologist when I was about 6 months pregnant. She took one look at my back and said I wouldn't be able to have an epidural because of the scar tissue on my lower back (my scar goes down pretty low). She also said it may be difficult to do a spinal if I had to have a c-section. Worst case scenario I would have to be completely put under for a c-section. Because of that news, I decided to go with a natural delivery. For pain medication, I had IV meds that helped a little with the pain but once I hit transition, they did not help me and I relied completely on my husband and nurses to get me to the point where I could push. It was hard but I'm glad I ended up with a natural delivery in the end. Please let me know if you have any questions, I would be happy to answer as I remember searching and searching for stuff online when I was pregnant to find other pregnant ladies who had scoliosis and how they delivered.

@rahlyrah: yeah all the time, but I didn't. I thought I was so tricky and getting away with something cool and then needed the surgery. Truth be told though, I'm straighter and healthier after surgery than I ever would have been wearing the back brace. Also I had laparoscopic surgery so I only have four small scars on my side. I'm very lucky.

.@scg00387: Yeah it is! I just looked at a picture of my post op x ray (hanging in dh's study as he is in med school!) and I think maybe my rods are higher than an epidural would be!