My ob/gyn told me that I have a "great pelvis for pregnancy" can you explain what she meant by that?
Gosh who knows!
I mean, I can speculate, but I guess we’ll never really know what your provider was thinking. What I think they were talking about was the shape of your pelvic bones. There are 4 general pelvis shapes, some of which are better for fitting a baby through than others.
Now, imagine a fetus’ head fitting through those different pelvises.
Gynecoid is the most common and the easiest to fit a baby through
Android is likely to occur in tall people with narrow hips. These people are more likely to have babies that lie on their backs in the uterus, making it much more work to get the baby to fit through, if possible at all.
Anthropoid is probably second most common, and it usually works quite well for birth, as long as the baby settles into the pelvis in the right position (facing downward).
Platypelloid can make birth quite difficult because its so narrow to begin with, making it difficult for the baby’s head to even settle into the pelvis.
Now, with any of these shapes it is possible to have a healthy vaginal birth, and even if we knew ahead of time that your pelvis was not a particularly great shape to fit a baby through we wouldn’t stop you from trying to have a vaginal birth.
You can’t really tell from the outside what a person’s pelvis is going to be like, so in order to give ourselves a sense of how “roomy” your pelvis is, we measure during pelvic exams. For example, this is how you measure how deep the opening of the pelvis is (from the pubic bone to the back/spine):
So when you were getting your exam, maybe your provider noticed that you have a lot of space in your pelvis. Good for you! If you plan on having babies, it seems like there are some good things in your favor that will help you to have healthy births!
