Oh, this is… UGH… just UGH!

My mom & my MIL are both about 5′2. My dad was about 6′ tall, my FIL is about 6′4″ tall. Me and my siblings were all about average birthweight (7-8 lb). My MIL had twins about 6 weeks early, about 5-6 lb. each, followed by two singletons of about 9 lb each. And my SIL is about the same height, married to a 6′3″ man, and had a home birth with a 9.5lb first baby, and a 8 lb second baby. All vaginal births.

Well, that’s an interesting rationalization… with NO basis in evidence. Oh, and I am 5′ 0″ and gave birth 6 times without surgery.

Has anyone told the various pygmy tribes around the world this?

Wow… My mom is barely over 5 feet tall (about 5 feet and 1/2 inch) and her first baby, born vaginally in the hospital – so she was lying down, not even in an optimal birthing position – was just under 8.5 pounds!

That’s absurd. Do these doctors really think that women are that gullible/stupid. He could of at least tried to come up with something that halfway made sense. Unbelievable.

Hideous, absolutely hideous. I’m 5′3″ and my first child was 9+ lbs. and 21-and-3/4″ long, and I pushed her out in about 40 minutes with absolutely no problems whatsoever. That OB should be ashamed of him/herself.

Ha! I’m 5′2″ and my husband is 6′3″. 4 months ago I had a 10lb 2oz baby at home without a tear.

umm.. 4′11″ 90 lbs (non-pregnant) woman here, gave birth to two 8+ lb babies vaginally! Silly doctors…

The OB who cut me told me that too. “Women under 5′ 2″ almost always need a cesarean.” First time I met him at 36 weeks or so. Unfortunately I had no other options. I was determined to prove him wrong, but got screwed by the time clock for ROM. Officially, it was CPD/FTP (although how you can have CPD when I never dilated, I will never understand) but really, it’s because it was 22 hours after my water broke and I had an internal monitor, dramatically increasing my infection risk. The day after, he told me that I was “just too small to ever give birth”. Funny how I’ve managed to do it twice since then.

I just wanted to add that my mom, everyone of my aunts 3 altogether, both of my cousins, are all under 5′2, and none of us have had a c-section. The only woman in my family to have a c-section was my paternal grandmother 5′4, due to a tilted uterus.

When a friend of mine (just under 5′) showed up at the hospital for a NST the nurse asked her (first baby) when her cesarean was scheduled. Surprised she said she wasn’t planning one and the nurse made it VERY clear that the dr would have typically scheduled a cesarean for someone of her height. In the end she DID get a cesarean and recently she read her medical records which basically diagnosed her with dwarfism and necessary cesarean! she was angry, and I was floored!

What’s nuts is that someone trained him or her that this is an absolute truth and that doctor has hundreds of cohorts that learned the same bull. And they tell two docs, and they tell two docs…

Nan was 4′9, my uncle was 14 and a half pounds! Funnily, she birthed him vaginally and had 3 more. Not as big though
I got told because I’m so small, I may have to have a c-section, but a scan would be performed to check first (size of my pelvis). As soon as I got told, I got my back up and thought, there’s no way I’m having a c-section! Bub was engaged (and had been for so long, her head was long and skinny).

I heard something similar after my c-section from an OR tech who worked at my hospital – that it was my “body type” and they knew when I checked in that I’d have a c. I’m just under 5′ and had weighed 155 before I got pregnant (but gained 45 w/ #1). I had a successful homebirth, 8+ lbs, with my second. Amazingly, hadn’t grown an inch taller in between pregnancies! (and started #2 20 lbs heavier).

I’m 5′2″ and I’ve had 4 babies vaginally ranging in size from 8lbs 9oz to 9lbs 3oz (not in that order). The first three I had in the hospital on my back (not recommended) and the latest I had at home on a birthing stool (highly recommended).

I can’t imagine how many women he’s robbed with that line of thinking.

Here’s an interesting fact: the AVERAGE height of American American women 20+ years of age is 5′3.8″ so half the population is less than that.

So clearly 5′3″ isn’t actually short

I knew a family (well, met one of the adult kids and saw the parents once so knew of the family) where the husband was from the Massai tribe (around 7 feet tall) and the wife was from one of the pygmy tribes (don’t remember which one) and she was around 4ft 4in. They had several kids together without having a c-section.

strange. I’m 5′ and have given birth vaginally to a 9 and 10 lb baby without so much as tearing.

More logic straight out of 1952. I think we’re in a time warp here.