I’ve had three very successful homebirths, but my fourth baby was breech and all efforts to turn him failed. Going in for a c-section was a little frightening to me, but I was grateful for the life-saving alternative. Little Benjamin was delivered quickly and whisked away to get cleaned up, and while I oh, so gracefully, reclined on the operating table, numb from the chest down, my doctor proceeded to finish up with me.
“Did you know you have a heart-shaped uterus?” she asked me. When I replied that I’d had no idea, she explained to me that I have a flap of skin growing down from the top that divides the uterus into two chambers. This is why Benjamin couldn’t be turned from the outside – he was pushing up against the skin flap and it was holding him in the breech position.
My doctor was very surprised that I had never had any problems with my other deliveries, and she was also surprised that Benjamin was my first breech.
When your uterus is deformed, it can cause difficulty. If it’s tipped to the side, you can have a hard time conceiving, and then a hard time carrying to term. If it’s an odd shape, like mine, it can lead to c-sections, as mine did. Thankfully, most women won’t have these issues to deal with.
I asked my doctor what this discovery would mean for me in the future. She said that I would want to monitor the baby’s position frequently throughout the last few weeks of pregnancy, making sure that it’s pointing down. This way, we could plan for a c-section instead of having it sprung on me. (I would prefer not to spring.) It would also be best for me to plan to have my births at the hospital in future, in case he/she gets hung up on that skin flap and I need to have another c-section.
Each uterine deformity will mean something different; I only mention a few possibilities here and explain what it will mean for me. Again, most women won’t have to worry about this. But if you’re one who does, I encourage you to talk it over with your doctor and discuss the ramifications that exist in your particular case.
Tristi Pinkston is a blogger in the Media Reviews and Movie Reviews departments here at Families.com. You can read her other blogs by clicking here.
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When Birth Doesn’t Go as Planned
Emotional Recovery After a C-Section