# transverse head in birth canal?



## sibelius (Jun 1, 2007)

my friend just had a c/s last night after 36 hrs. of labor and 1 1/2 hrs. of pushing because the baby's head was transverse in the birth canal. has anyone ever heard of this? are there any other things that can be done besides a c/s? just curious.


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## rainbowmoon (Oct 17, 2003)

I had a c/s for the same reason! my baby was aclyntic and his head was transverse! I could not push him past -1 station. I tried for hours and hours to get him to move with different positions, pelvic tilts, H&K's,etc. with no luck. I was in labor for about 33 hours and tried pushing for 5. my c/s was for positioning and failure to descend.


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## sibelius (Jun 1, 2007)

wow! i had never even heard of that! if you don't mind my asking, was it recommended that you have a c/s the next time, or was a vbac a possibility?


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## rainbowmoon (Oct 17, 2003)

they never suggested anything as far as my next birth. the c/s even wasn't pushed on me either. they would have let me go another 12+ hours or so (which is surprising as my waters had broke at the onset of labor!) but I was exahusted at that point.









I went on to have an unmedicated VBAC 17 months later.


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## wombatclay (Sep 4, 2005)

Same thing here, though I never reached the pushing stage...dd was posterior and her head was asynclitic (her molding was all over her ear), I never dilated past 7cm despite 32+ hours of strong labor.

Everyone assumed I'd VBAC with future babes since an asynclitic head is a positioning problem and not necessarily going to repeat. I was a fanatic about optimal fetal positioning however during my second pregnancy, and chiropractic is a good idea too...

Congrats (and quick healing) to your friend!

ETA- if the positioning problem is caught early enough you can try having mama move to correct the babe's position. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. It helps if the bag of water is still intact. If moving mama doesn't work the care provider can try reaching in and manually rotating the babe while pushing them back...this lines up the babe's head and gives them a second chance to descend. There was a study published about this recently...it's an option, but has risks and it helps if the care provider is familiar with the technique. If they aren't, the c/s may actually be less risky.


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## sibelius (Jun 1, 2007)

interesting! thanks for the replies. that will be encouraging to her, i think, since she is kind of bummed about the c/s.


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## wannabe (Jul 4, 2005)

My baby was asynclitic and transverse, and after five hours of pushing and lots of trying to turn her manually they got her to budge with the vacuum and she was born vaginally.

I'd say i's a valid reason for a c-section. Malpositions can be very bad.


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## heather_c (Mar 18, 2006)

I am another "it happened to me" story. After pushing for 3 hours, my son would not descend past -2 station. The reason for my c/s was persistent occiput transverse and asynclitic positioning. I am planning on VBACing with my future children as positioning is a non-repeating problem.


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## artemis80 (Sep 8, 2006)

DS was asynclitic and I pushed for three hours before going to forceps. Ouch.


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## courtenay_e (Sep 1, 2005)

Just attended a birth three weeks ago with a transverse and brow presentation. She progressed VERY.VERY.SLOWLY with very intense active labor for a day and a half. She then had her bag of water break three times, and then had a forebag broken by the doc, at which time she had an overwhelming urge to push (at nine cm) and caused the anterior part of her cervix to swell back down to 7 cm. She was such a trooper...and ended up with an epidural and then a cesarean. I felt really bad--she and her husband did such a fabulous job working together during her labor...

The midwife I assist for says that a transverse is _possible_ to birth, but difficult and usually takes FOREVER, but with the brow as well, even with a homebirth, she'd probably end up with at LEAST a foreceps birth, and most likely a cesarean.

That's really rough, it's really too bad your friend experienced that.


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

My second baby was posterior, asynclitic, and a brow presentation; he was born at home, unremarkably. It is difficult but possible. My midwife was very encouraging.


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## cedoreilly (May 21, 2005)

My youngest had his head transverse also and it ended up a section for positioning (and size but a refuse to believe that since DS2 was almost the same size as he was and DS2 came out pretty easily after we got him positioned correctly). Same as one of the previous posters. I was at 9cm probably and had a strong urge to push and my cervix swelled back to 8cm.


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## loudmama (Mar 12, 2005)

Just another "me too". My DD was Occiput Transverse. Never made it past 0 station despite getting to the hospital almost fully dilated & pushing for 7 hours. When she was born via c-birth, she had a big wound on the back of her head.

I had a VBAC 5 years later. I did see a chiro to help make sure things were in alignment & new of OFP. DS was born 2 months early, so that may have helped as well.

L


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## mighty-mama (Sep 27, 2005)

My ds had an "op brow presentation".. I pushed for 3hrs.. before it was determined he wasn't descending and I had a c/s...

For me, I was attempted to be induced 5 days earlier for medical reasons. At the time it was discovered he was posterior (I wasn't aware of this)..

At the initial point of induction it was determined that ds was not in danger if he wasn't born at this time, and I released myself from the hospital..

I tried turning him to anterior, and the same nurse said he turned, but his head never fully turned.. I asked the ob to break my water at 7cm, which was stupid on my part, and I think this definetly kept his head at the op brow presentation..... Ds had molding on his left side of his head and brusing as well... causing jaundice

*******I'm hoping to VBAC in the next few weeks..


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## Synchro246 (Aug 8, 2005)

The technical term for this is transverse arrest


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## happyblessedmama (Sep 6, 2003)

this happened to me during my most recent birth but did not end in c/s. They were able to manually move the baby (ouch!!!!) with repeated tries. I was stuck at 8cm for a l-o-n-g time (like 2 hours to get from 8 to baby out) and it was pretty painful I will say. When baby did arrive she had molding on the side of her head!


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