SPD and Labour

[HideiLu]

Last week docs told me the pain I've been having is SPD.

Can anyone shed any light on their experiences of labour with SPD and how it can effect it?! Don't worry about scaring me, I want some honest facts so I can be prepared!

I already suffer from pains in my hips and knees from arthritis, and just want to know want kind of effect this will have too, as don't want to make things worse!

 

[bunnymom1980]

I was wondering the same.

I know it's advised that you don't have an epidural because you can potentially do more damage when you can't feel anything.

 

[HideiLu]

Yes I've already been told before because of my hips it would be a last resort to have one, as my right hip pops out of socket easily and I have to push it back, but wouldn't be able to tell if this happened with an epi, ouch!

 

[NIE]

I had this for the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy and the first 2 weeks of being a mum.

All my labour pains were in the back of my pelvis and the mw kept telling me that I wasn't in labour. I had a normal delivery with gas and air. I had 2 shots of morphine but I don't feel that it had any effect on me. I had a quite a short labour but had to stay on the bed as it was too difficult and sore to walk about or even change position. I did manage to get on to my knees to deliver my son, but got stuck and couldn't get back round.

I can honestly say that labour wasn't as bad as I first thought it would be. x

 

[fuffins1981]

I had spd with my son (have it again too)

To be honest, it was fine. I had a back to back labour. So, I have always attributed the backache element to that.

I stood up to have Tyler, which i think helped. As did not have to have my legs how women have them when they lie down. My SPD went straight away. I had it for 4/5 weeks before I gave birth. This time I have had it since 23 weeks, so I may have a new story to tell in a couple of weeks time

Good luck

 

[Sherlock]

I don't think it has a real bearing on labour tbh. IIRC its more a case as has been said, that you cannot/should not have an epi as you are supposed to keep your legs a certain distance apart and not wider. To do this you need to work out where your own personal limit is. Can be done with a piece of string before you go into labour and hospital. Therefore the MW's etc will know how far to let your legs go and you'll know also.

I came across a few good webpages on the subject via Google a while back when reading up on it. Have a search and you'll probably find the same and what it advises re measuring. Also have a chat with your MW about what you need might need to do. I'm sure she can explain.

Also some hospitals ask you to take in a red pillow as this tells staff you have SPD. Its colour coded. Check your hospital policy

 

[kalia]

I had severe SPD - by the time I had Gabrielle I was using crutches around the house and leaving the house wasn't really an option. I was signed off work from 28 weeks

The problem in labour was my limited mobility. I wanted to use the pool as I knew I could move better in water but as I arrived at the midwife unit in a wheelchair and they don't have a hoist they wouldn't let me use the pool n case there was an emergency. Moving around in labour wasn't really an option for me. I wanted to go on my hands and knees but earlier in labour (up to 6 cms) I didn't feel I could do this for long. After about 50 hours of labour I had my waters broken and I threw up with every contraction after this. I needed to have my face pointing down so the sick would fall out so I went on hands and knees on the bed, with my head against the raised part of the bed. This upset the midwife a lot as they couldn't get a bowl for me to be sick in under my head so I made a very big mess of that bed!!! I was throwing up blood after a while, it must have been awful for everyone to see!!! Anyway, I managed to stay on my hands and knees a lot then because coping with that was the lesser of many evils - it was cope with the pain or choke on vomit and I was used to the pain and choking meant I couldn't breathe in gas and air so would be in more pain.

In the end I had a spinal and narrowly missed a caesarian as they were going to try quickly to get her out with forceps and if that hadn't worked I would have had a caesarian straight away. My legs were way further apart than they could ever normally be, with or without SPD (which I didn't really notice as I kept falling asleep as I'd been in labour for 55 hours). In the grand scheme of things, I'm glad they did that rather than risk my baby's health (her heartbeat was very slow) or do a caesarian. Within 2 or 3 weeks there was some improvement in my SPD and now, 7 weeks later, I can walk for at least an hour without crutches. I haven't been able to do that since before 28 weeks. Some mornings I still have pain in my hip or pelvis but nothing like it was. I haven't been woken by the SPD pain since I gave birth.

The bottom line is how much effect it has on your labour depends on how you are affected by it. If you can still move about when pregnant, you'll be able to move in labour. When giving birth they shouldn't force your legs further than you can comfortably spread them. But if it's a choice between you having sore hips and baby being very distressed, which would you choose? Also, depending on the level of your pain you may not give a monkeys about it by the time you are giving birth. I certainly wasn't that aware of it when it came to the pushing stage. Just take things as they come and don't worry too much about it in advance.

 

[hennaly]

i cant say it affected my labour in anyway that i know of and i was in a wheelchair for the last few weeks of pregnancy