It is common for a lady to have a C section delivery and encounter a fair amount of back pain. One of the reasons for such a scenario could be that the sunny side up delivery was ensured. Most women would have heard of breech birth, but what does sunny side up babymean is that it is an abnormal position in terms of a baby.
In medical terms it is termed as an OP position. The head of the baby tends to be positioned in the wrong manner. The back of the head of the baby is posterior so the head of the baby is pressed up against the pubic bone. So what happens is that it becomes difficult for the baby to extend their head out from the pubic bone. This would mean that the labor is going to be difficult and a bit time consuming as well.
What an OP position indicates
A lot of studies have evolved around the OP position, what it refers to in terms of delivery and how you can go on to prevent it. Here is what the studies will indicate
- This position is all the more common in the starting stages of pregnancy, and this tends to occur in 30 % of the pregnancies
- Most of the babies are going to evolve into a normal position by the time delivery happens. Only 5 % of the babies are going to have persistent OP of sorts
- When it is the case of persistent OP it can lead to any form of assisted delivery. Studies do point to the fact that about 20 to 30 % of babies who have persistent OP tend to have a C section delivery
- It is more likely that you are going to have a persistent OP if it happens to be your first delivery. This risk works out to be around 7 %
What is to be done if a baby has persistent OP?
The major option for managing an OP positioned baby would mean manual rotation or an operative delivery. Though maternal posturing works out to be the most common. It works out to be a position on your knees or hands, with your back stretching out and the chest leaning forward. In a way it goes on to reduce the pain in the back though no evidence has shown to link maternal posturing to have an impact on OP position.
The good news that stems out is that even if you are going to start the process of labor with sunny side up, you can expect it to return back to the normal position before delivery occurs. It is nice if the posturing could bring in positive results, but the odds are less.
You can take the opinion of your health care providers on what has been their experience in working with OP positioned babies. You can discuss with them the various options pertaining to delivery if the baby happens to be sunny side up.
