Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Feb
10
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“If This Baby Was Any Bigger You Would Need A Cesarean.”
“If this baby was any bigger you would need a cesarean.” -OB said said after mother delivered a 6 lb 12 oz baby. 16 months later she birthed a 7 lb 15 oz baby totally drug free.
There are 23 comments to this post.
Outrageous! My OB said they “normally” recommend cesaerean for any baby over 10 pounds – but to say that about a baby that wasn’t even 7 pounds? ACK!
(And I don’t stand by the over-10-pounds as a good idea, but it seems to be a more common standard. Of course, she said that after delivering my baby vaginally. He was 11 pounds 9 ounces but they DIDN’T know that until he was OUT so no C-section was proposed. His shoulder got caught – I think I’d've tolerated a C-section to spare him that – but he’s recovered from that injury now. I tore, but I healed just fine from it…in about 5-6 weeks, in fact, not unlike a C-section.)
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Heather Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 2:18 pm (Quote)
If you were able to walk in less than a day, carry your baby around, wipe your own butt and sit up without help in under a week, then it WAS unlike a cesarean.
I’ve done both (not voluntarily re: the cesarean). The recovery to the horrible tearing during my VBAC (inside and out) was way preferable to the cesarean.
And my aunt was like 6-7lbs and got a shoulder caught on the way out. The doctor didn’t know what to do. A midwife would have rolled grandma over and Aunt would have come out without being injured, but instead her husband walked in and she sat up in surprised, my aunt popped right out. Her shoulder was hurt. Pretty much like having the nurse jump on the mom’s stomach–unnecessary and ridiculous in most cases of shoulder dystocia. Which happens at every size.
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michelle potter had this to say,
Feb 10, 2010 @ 10:18 pm (Quote)
Wow, that is just absurd. I had 3 babies vaginally in the 7 pound range – my smallest baby was 7 pounds exactly. I did have my two 8+ pounders by c-section, but not because they were “big” – no one even suggested that!
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The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Feb 11, 2010 @ 5:03 am (Quote)
This is just so pathetic.
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I have given birth, without drugs, vaginally to three babies over 10 pounds, one 11 pounder and a 12 pounder at home. The only problems I had were with the 11 pounder and the 12 pounder getting stuck at the shoulders. Which, yes, is scary for the 5 minutes it takes to get them freed, but so much better for both of us that I didn’t have a Ceasarean. Because I was at home we could try all different positions to aid in freeing them. If I had been at the hospital they probably would have tried forcepts and who knows what else if that didn’t work. I am so thankful for my homebirth doctor!
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I live in the Chicago area where we are priviledged to have the largest homebirth organization in the US in our backyard. They go under Homefirst Health Services, their website is Homefirst.com. I go to them for all of my prenatal care, they come to my house to deliver my babies and I bring my kids to them for all of our pediatric concerns. They can treat the whole family. I love them!
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Knitted in the Womb had this to say,
Feb 12, 2010 @ 12:16 pm (Quote)
One of my coworkers was telling me after his daughter’s labor was induced at 37 weeks and her 6 lb 9 oz baby had shoulder dystocia and spent 10 days in NICU that the OB said “if she’d been 8 oz bigger, there is no way you would have been able to deliver her vaginally.”
I choked back the first thought that came to my mind–which was “8 oz bigger would have been one more week of gestation, likely no NICU stay, and maybe her pelvis would have been ready to open to avoid the shoulder dystocia!”
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 12:21 pm (Quote)
And I don’t know about most of the readers of this blog…but I know if I were told that I had to choose between having a vaginal birth or having a baby who DOESN’T spend 10 days in the NICU, I would choose the cesarean hands down. Because that’s how we moms are–we will sacrifice ourselves for the better outcome of our babies.
Of course I still think the OB was full of it…but I’m just saying…
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Heather Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 2:22 pm (Quote)
Baby’s far more likely to spend 10 days in the NICU after a cesarean. Not to mention the 3x increased risk of death in the first month, the increased risk of SIDS overall, etc. Cesareans are great when they’re saving lives. But most cesareans now days aren’t done for that purpose.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 2:38 pm (Quote)
Heather, I completely understand that cesareans aren’t a panacea and are WAY over-used.
What I’m saying is that if these are the options:
A) Induce labor at 37 weeks knowing that the baby most likely has immature lungs, so will spend sigificant time in the NICU, or
B) Wait for labor to start on its own at a later date, knowing that the baby is much more likely to have mature lungs, but cesarean birth is more likely because baby will be “too big”, or
C) Wait until some date closer to the due date or even after the due data and have a planned cesarean–because baby is “too big” for vaginal birth
I would choose B or C over A any day. Even though I’ve had previous vaginal births and homebirths.
If those were the “true” options.
Of course I think the whole “big baby” thing is crap.
But I don’t think the OB in this case really explained to the expectant mother the likelihood that her baby would wind up in the NICU by doing an induction at 37 weeks when she had a medical condition that can result in delayed lung maturity. The mother in this case was 19 years old, and still lived with her parents–her father was my coworker. All I heard from him for about 2 weeks prior to the induction was how BIG the baby was getting, and how dangerous that was to his daughter. There was brief talk about doing an amnio to test for lung maturity–an acknowledgement that the OB knew that was an issue–but then for some reason the OB decided that it wasn’t needed if they waited until 37 weeks to do the induction (yes, initially they were going to do an indution at 36 weeks!).
This was a case of iatogenic prematurity, pure and simple. And probably iatogenic shoulder dystocia as well, given that the pelvis wouldn’t have been ready to open, and the mom was most likely kept flat on her back for pushing.
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Heather Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 2:57 pm (Quote)
Ahh, I see. My OB with my first started dropping “big baby” when there was absolutely no reason for it and wasn’t happy when I laughed at her for it. I despise that the official reason for my cesarean was CPD when it was actually medical impatience (I was in transition when they wheeled me to the OR, they used my inability to refuse to their advantage).
Of course, I wouldn’t plan a cesarean for anything short of placenta previa–any labor at all is better for the baby than none.
My sister was induced for “big baby”–she ended up with a stand-in OB for an appointment at 37/38 weeks who felt she was measuring big, who had her checked by u/s and declared her baby was already well over 9lbs and should be delivered immediately.
My 7lb niece didn’t have any problems except jaundice, but my sister had an unnecessarily painful labor as a result.
“Big baby” is so ridiculous.
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abbi Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 12:40 pm (Quote)
Why did the baby have to spend 10 days in the NICU? I hope not due to the shoulder dystocia. I had 2 shoulder dystocia babies. The second one had his arm broken on the way out, but we just pinned the sleeve of his sleeper to his chest and it healed perfectly in about a week and a half. I agree with you,tho. I would have gone thru a Cesearean to save my baby from having to have his arm broken
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 2:07 pm (Quote)
The NICU stay was because the baby’s lungs were not mature…not suprising since the mom was a Type I diabetic, which tends to result in delayed lung development.
The *only* reason for doing the induction at 37 weeks was “suspected large baby”–they thought the baby was 7 lbs. When I heard that my head was already spinning…since when is 7 lbs justification for inducing a baby when they *know* that lung maturity is an issue???
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Penny Sautereau-Fife had this to say,
Feb 15, 2010 @ 10:56 am (Quote)
I was born 8 pounds 12 ounces and my mother recovered just fine.
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Guggie Daly had this to say,
Feb 16, 2010 @ 7:02 pm (Quote)
HA! Out of 11 kids, NONE were under 9lbs. Most were 10lbs and two were 11.6 and 11.8.
The last 8 were unassisted with daddy catching.
My babe was 11lbs 4oz. We were doing unassisted but called in an underground midwife to help b/c she was asynclitic and transverse occiput. (I have pelvic injuries, I think she had trouble navigating). But out she came, and into 3-6 month clothes!
These doctors must pull their degrees out of a crackerjack box.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Feb 22, 2010 @ 5:08 pm (Quote)
Yeah? Well, I HBAC’d a 9 lb 3 oz girl in the bathtub, after a one hour ten minute labour (and maybe one and a half minutes of pushing, if that). Thbbbbbbbt.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Feb 22, 2010 @ 5:10 pm (Quote)
PS. The raspberry was to the jackass OB quoted above, not to you, Guggie. 
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Add Your Comment.
Seriously?! Wow. That OB needs to meet my best friend’s family. She was 10lbs and some change and the smallest of her parents’ kids–the boys were 11 and almost 12lbs. All vaginal births and only the last tore. Her grandmother gave birth to a 13lb baby unassisted and said it was no big deal. She was 5’2″ and like 120lbs wet.
So many OBs are just plain uneducated!
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