Emahry's Birth Story ~ Part 1

Throughout my pregnancy, Emahry had been breech. We worked with our midwives trying various methods of naturally getting her into the correct, head down position. However, when she was still breech at 37 weeks we were told that if she didn't turn on her own before or during labor I would need to have a c-section in accordance with the hospital policies. Our midwives were very concerned that because of her position it was very unlikely that she would be able to turn on her own this late in the pregnancy.

After much prayer, consideration, and research, we decided to allow a doctor at the hospital to manually turn Emahry through an external version.

Needless to say, Tim and I were both very nervous about the procedure because there was a small chance that it could make it necessary to have an emergency c-section. However, in the end we had a peace about the procedure and headed to the hospital with a positive outlook.

I was hooked up to monitors for 2 1/2 hours before the doctor came in. It turns out that the hours of waiting were the most difficult because I couldn't get comfortable.

Finally at 6 o'clock P.M. the doctor came in to talk with us. We liked him right away and were very comforted by the fact that he had been doing external versions for 25 years and had only needed to perform 2 emergency c-sections.

He also told us that he would only give us a 50% chance of his being able to turn Emahry, because the process doesn't normally work as well with first pregnancies.

The doctor then did an ultrasound to confirm Emahry's position and the nurse placed the lowest dose of a muscle relaxer in my IV to help relax my uterus. Next, warm baby oil was rubbed all over my belly. The doctor told me to think of it as a pregnancy massage and oh, did it feel good.

Then the doctor placed his hands on my giant, slippery belly. One hand went underneath Emahry's bottom and the other was placed behind her head. The doctor gently pulled her up out from her location nestled between my hips and shifted his hands, somersaulting her to the proper, head-down position. It wasn't painful and took less than a minute. The doctor said, "It doesn't get any easier than that." Tim and I were very relieved that the procedure had worked so quickly.

At 7:30 P.M., after another 1/2 hour of monitoring Emahry's heart rate, we left and got something to eat. I was starving since I hadn't been able to eat anything after 10:30 A.M.

Emahry's Birth Story Part 1
Emahry's Birth Story Part 2
Emahry's Birth Story Part 3
Jonathan's Condensed Birth Story