This Is What I Learned When My Baby Was Born With Severe Hip Dysplasia

Scary Mommy

My daughter was stubborn even before she was born.

“She won’t budge,” my OB-GYN said as he removed his hands from my hugely pregnant belly. He’d spent a full five minutes trying to turn her out of the breech position. “I could keep doing this all day, but she’s stuck in your pelvis like an egg in a cup.”

I’d known the 36-week inversion might not work. But with a baby whose head was wedged somewhere between my breastbone and my lungs, turning every one of my breaths into a gasp, I was willing to try anything. I also understood what could come of a breech baby: most certainly a C-section, and possibly congenital issues including hip dysplasia or plagiocephaly, the fancy term for a skull that’s as flat as a pancake in the back. Continue reading