Broken Collarbone At Birth

[Lightupthesky]

Hello all!

My son was born last year at 8lbs 9oz and I needed a vacuum assist with his delivery because his shoulders got stuck on my pelvic bone. As a result, his collarbone broke as he was born.

He's now healed up great and is a healthy 14 month old boy who you'd never know had a birth injury.

My question is this: if you had a baby who had a broken collarbone at birth, were you able to give birth vaginally for your next baby or was it an automatic c-section?

We are thinking about trying for a second baby but I'm terrified I'll be made to have a c-section because of what happened with my first.

I'd love to hear from anyone with any experience in this.

 

[jessmke]

My sister's second child had a shoulder dystocia and a broken collarbone as a result. She got pregnant for the third time and had the same worries but her doctor told her that there is no reason to expect it to happen again and that she could give birth vaginally. She ended up with twins that were transverse so she needed a c-section anyways, but it wasn't because of a previous baby with shoulder dystocia.

 

[bananaz]

I'm sorry, that must have been so scary. The good news is that the recurrence rate for shoulder dystocia is only around 1-4%, though it may be higher for women with certain risk factors. This might be helpful info for you:

"Recurrent shoulder dystocia is more likely in women with

• Prepregnancy weight greater than in the index [first] pregnancy
• Gestational weight gain greater than in the index pregnancy
• Birth weight greater than in the index pregnancy
• Birth weight >4000 g
• Second stage of labor longer than in the index pregnancy"

 

[Lightupthesky]

Thank you both for your replies! Jessmke, that makes me feel so much better!