My Experience with An External Cephalic Version
My Look: Shirt and Jeans C/O Thyme Maternity
So, on Wednesday I did what many women run away from due to hearing about the pain. With a breech baby who wasn't engaged I headed to our Childrens hospital, the IWK, to have an External Cephalic Version. For those of you not familiar with what this is, it is when an Ob/Gyn manually attempts to move the baby into the right head down position with their hands while monitoring the baby to make sure their stats stay up. Having heard from many people that it was too painful to bear, I will admit I was scared. But, armed with the knowledge that I have a high pain threshold and knowing the end result is better than a C Section, I entered into the hospital ready to take it on. And, of course, my support system made up of my mom and husband were there to hold my hand the whole way.Here it goes, the details of the nitty gritty. Dressed in a hospital gown, I was strapped to the monitors for about 20 minutes while they tracked to make sure our baby girl was stable. Once we saw that our active baby girl was more than healthy enough to attempt the version, our Doctor, her resident and our nurse came in ready to get the show started. The first thing that they did was check with the ultrasound the baby's position. Once they confirmed that she was still transverse, they devised a plan as to what direction to push her. It then began. With the resident pushing her head down and her feet up, while my doctor constantly monitored the stats with the ultrasound, our baby girl started to turn. I was surprised at how everything that I was told about the pain wasn't true. Yes it was uncomfortable with a ton of pressure, but it was a necessary evil. Unfortunately, baby girl decided to literally through her elbow into the mix by putting it down into my cervix to block them from getting her head into the engaged position. This is when it became a bit more overwhelming. With the resident pressing up into my cervix (I'm sure you know from where) to try and move her elbow, and my Doctor taking over with manipulating the baby through the skin of my stomach, they tried for a good 10 minutes to get that baby to move. But, alas, she wouldn't budge that elbow of hers and we had to give up. With the pressure coming from the outside and in, I did have moments of being overwhelmed but it wasn't painful, it was just the fact that there was pressure coming from every way without a break. Deep Breaths became by best friend along with my husbands strong hand to hold tight.I survived! and I honestly think that you women would too so don't be afraid if this is something suggested to you.Now, I begin everything the internet says to do to try and turn this baby before my next ultrasound on Wednesday afternoon. From Yoga, to walking, I'm doing it all, armed with Raspberry tea leaf tea and Evening primrose oil. So far, the plan is a bit up in the air until Wednesday, but, before July, I will have another attempt at the version if the baby hasn't turned, and depending on that, I will either be induced or scheduled for a C-section between the 29th and 1st.Having gone full term plus a day with Aubrey and doing the waiting game, It is kind of nice to have an end date. I just hope the end date will be a natural birth. So please have everything crossed for me and if you have any pointers, I would love to hear them.