Back to back labour and birth?

[Gemma_89]

I have had 2 natural births, the first in 2008 and second in 2012, and both times my babies were back to back.
The first labour I was completely unaware of this back to back position and as far as I knew I had a relatively normal birth (besides a very low blood count and a strange episode of my cervix tightening back up unexpectedly) but nothing about my babies position was mentioned at all during or after the birth.
During the labour the midwife put an electrode? onto my babies forehead while still inside which has left a mark at the top of her nose which hasn't faded as promised by the midwife, so when visiting a midwife in 2012 while pregnant with my second I ask the her about the mark and she was very surprised that they had managed to place the electrode? in that position and told me that we would have to have been back to back with my daughters head pulled upwards for them to have positioned it where it was and said that I shouldn't have been able to give birth naturally due to the babies position but she came out with no intervention from anyone.
Then again with my second there was no mention of her positioning at all but she also came out back to back without intervention.
So I was just wondering is back to back really a problem? Has anybody else had this with their labours? What difference does being back to back make? Is there a reason that they would have both been born this way? As I thought it was perfectly normal.
Thanks in advance x

 

[Islas_mummy]

Hi there,

I knew my LO was back to back, but only because at 37 weeks my best friend (who was doing her obs & gynae rotation in med school) examined my tummy and told me she was back to back.

My labour was 72 hours long from when I started contracting regularly to her being born. And my contractions would jump around from 2 mins apart to 5 mins apart (even when I was pushing....for nearly 3 hours). All the pain was in my back. But she came out back to back, with no assistance and just a 2nd degree tear.

I've been told I was really lucky to have no assistance and get her out. My midwife mentioned it might have been because I was physical very fit prior and during pregnancy and she was only 6lb7oz, so not too big. I have no idea if that's true though!

 

[skyesmom]

honestly i never heard of back to back being a delivery problem, except for making the entire labor more painful for you.

 

[Proserpina]

A posterior presentation increases the incidence of tears, episiotomies, dystocia, instrumental delivery, and c-section. Some women report that labor is more painful, but the data on that is inconclusive. It's possible that being told that the baby is posterior and will therefore be more difficult to deliver increases the perception of pain.

My son was posterior, and I had no idea until I looked at my medical records for the delivery, which say that they had thought he was anterior with a compound presentation until he came out posterior. I did not feel like my labor pain was worse than it was with my anterior daughter.

I'm glad that I didn't know during labor that he was posterior. I'm sure I would have found that very discouraging.

 

[xJessie91x]

I had a back to back labour, 52 hours long and he got stuck at 9cm, I had to be rushed to another hospital for episiotomy and forceps. I didn't know he was back to back they said he must have turned within the last couple of days... Little rascal! X