United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Like I posted orginally, I've had 6 babies with 4 of them being 9 lbs and over the biggest being 10.8. I'm so thankful that none of them have been injured. Even so I feel a little angry that none of my doctors ever discussed the possibility of injury to my babies. I feel like they just took a chance and hoped for the best. When I met this doctor and she talked to me about it, because of my previous doctors attitudes, I thought she was just being over cautious and just trying to protect herself. But because I've never taken anything any of my doctors said lightly, I've been looking on the internet and trying to find out as much as possible about what would be the best thing to do. It seems there is great debate on whether to give c-sections to women who could possibly have SD or have had them before. I found this board during my research and wanted to know how people who have been effected w felt concerning this. I'm only 15 weeks along now, but thinking about which way to go has been heavy on my mind since she initally talked to me about it. I'm glad my doctor told me about this and is doing what she can to help me make a safe decision. I will see the specialist at the end of the month and have an ultrasound and see my regular doctor in April. I've got some questions for both of them and hopefully will have a better idea of what to do after that. It is so true that this is a personal decision. It's a hard one, because there is no clearly right answer and so many differing opinions. And the thing that scares me the most is that it seems that the outcome depends so heavily on the doctor. There's no way to know if you can trust that person to do the right thing and after all they are humans that can make mistakes, but this mistake can harm your child and very possibly effect them for the rest of their life! We were in the military for 8 years and are now out. Our last baby was born in a civilian hospital but we have moved since then. I think it would be easier for me if I could use a doctor that I'd seen before and had delivered at least one of my babies. My heart goes out to all of you who deal with this. I can only imagine as a mother how hard this must be. You have a new life growing inside you and want to do everything right to give your baby the best possible life and then the doctor does something to hinder that! I thank those of you who have responded, it does help me feel more informed and will help me in my decision.

Hi...
... I thought I'd put in my 2 cents. I have had 8 children...exactly half were shoulder dystocias...several of them were "turned". Only one baby was injured. I switched from a family practictioner to an ob/gyn on my 4th pregnancy. My General Practictioner recommended C-sections, I thought he was just scared. My ob/gyn never mentioned C-sections...I thought he wasn't scared because he would know what to do if the baby got "stuck". He always talked about inductions but the babies always came before. My last baby was the one injured. When my labor didn't progress I was hooked up to pitocin. I strongly feel pitocin is not a good idea when there is a possibility of shoulder dystocia. I know with six children why you would not want to opt for a c-section. But...I wish I had had that option and had taken it. Honestly, I feel grateful that it was only his arm that was injured.