Kim Kardashian has made no secret of how much she hates being pregnant — and on Tuesday she shared another reason why: Her baby boy is breech, meaning that his feet, not his head, are turned down for delivery.
In addition to swelling, weight gain and problems with her placenta, the "anxious" and 36-weeks-pregnant star of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," who is expecting her second child with rapper Kanye West next month, took to her website and app at 4 a.m. to share her latest maternity woe and how she plans to deal with it.
"I've surrendered to the placenta issues and actually haven't been thinking too deeply about them lately," the 35-year-old wrote. "However, my latest concern is that my baby is breech, meaning he's in the wrong position for childbirth. His head is still up and it's supposed to be down. He was supposed to turn by 32 weeks. So now, I will have to get a C-section. Or so I thought!"
The reality star said that she stayed up late researching her options and learned that breech babies can be delivered vaginally, a procedure her doctor, Paul Crane, does even though "they just don't even teach it anymore."
Incidentally, Crane was also her mother Kris Jenner's doctor and delivered Kim too. He also delivered Kardashian's firstborn, daughter North West, 2, who was born a month early in 2013 because Kardashian suffered from preeclampsia, a serious blood-pressure disorder that according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists can affect all of the organs in a woman's body.
Kardashian experienced severe swelling and weight gain because of the preeclampsia and delivered North at 34 weeks rather than at the full term of 40 weeks. She then had to deal with placenta accreta, a high-risk condition that happens when the placenta grows too deeply into the uterine wall.
Despite those complications, Kardashian is working to get her son to turn for delivery.
"I, of course, will try anything to still turn the baby. Since my baby is pretty big — over 7 pounds — maybe he's just too big at this point but I started intensive chiropractic work with Dr. Elliot Berlin. He is 'the' pregnancy chiropractor! I've learned so much from my few sessions with him," she said. "I have been doing everything I can to try to turn the baby. I lay practically upside down three times a day for 15 minutes. I play music in the right position and ice my belly in certain spots to get him to squirm out of the breech position. I even started accupuncture where I burn moxa (mugwort) on my pinky toe every day! I am even attempting hypnosis!"
The reality star said she also watched "Heads Up," a documentary about women delivering breech babies rather than having caesarean sections. She also said that she'll be trying external cephalic version, a procedure usually done near a delivery room to turn the baby from a breech position using firm, applied pressurie on the abdomen, according to ACOG.
"I guess 4 percent of women are faced with this — so, lucky me! It's been hard because I usually go to my mom or [sister] Kourtney for baby and pregnancy advice, but they both — with nine total pregnancies! — have never experienced one of these crazy things. I'm doing the research myself and want to share with you what I know," she wrote. "Obviously, if it's an emergency and for the safety of my son, I will get a C-section — but if I don't need one, I'd rather not."
Kardashian also asked her fans to wish her luck "and pray the baby turns."
"This whole delivery gives me anxiety, not gonna lie. I hope the baby turns and all goes well but I'm prepared for anything!" she added.
Sounds like we'll find out what happens in the next four weeks — or less.
Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.
