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):

I could probably sit here and write an entire novel on where I am right now in my journey as a doula and future midwife...but I won't. In short--I'm LOVING how saturated I am with new info (and old info in new ways) and really pumped to be surrounded by the other women in my doula community and midwifery class.

First off, Elizabeth Davis is a rockstar. I so admire instructors who have obviously accomplished a tremendous deal in their fields and a) are choosing to share their vast knowledge, and b) have that rare but beautiful mix of bad-ass Yeah I know this! I wrote that book you're studying from! (this is very much NOT a direct quote) and honest humility. Her approach to both teaching and the material itself is incredibly refreshing.

Beyond that, I'm thrilled that I'm not the only other aspiring midwife who is longing to do work internationally. I'm not surprised I'm the sole aspiring midwife-lawyer, but in my own weird way, I also find that exciting. The 14 other women in the class are all incredible and I think we could meet everyday for a year and not get out all the information we have to share with one another.

Last weekend, we learned pelvimetry. Yes, we put gloves on, lubed up, and investigated each others who-has. It was funny to see how nervous we all were. I mean, come on! We're going to be midwives, did we think we were going to be examining dental records on Day 2?! We all giggled an let out numerous "ooooo"s and "aaahhhhh"s at learning so much about our own vaginas. I apparently have a rather buff vaginal wall and possibly an anthropoid pelvis. How bout that? How many other women know their pelvic type? Sadly, not many, thanks to pelvimetry being all but ruled out of most gynecological exams. I have more on why that's such a shame for expecting mothers this weekend, after I learn palpation and how the two go hand in hand.

I'm itching to go off on how insane and sad and horrific most vaginal exams are for many women, but I'll end on a lighter note than usual this post and save that rant for next week.