I just wanted to share my positive breech vaginal birth story. I spent many hours in the weeks leading up to the birth searching for such stories, so hopefully mine will bring some comfort to those who are in a similar situation.
We found our little boy (second baby) to be breech from about 28 weeks following regular growth scans. I had an unsuccessful and rather distressing ECV at 38 weeks and was then given the option by our hospital of a planned C-section on our due date, or to attempt a vaginal delivery. I was desperate for a natural birth so I was lucky that our local hospital supports this option and we were told we would be assigned a senior midwife on arrival if I went into spontaneous labour.
Fast forward to 5/7/21 at 39+3 I started having regular contractions so we made our way in to the hospital. I was put on continuous monitoring as per protocol but was allowed to move around.
4 hours later I noticed the telltale signs of transition and began to push. I was allowed to be on all fours which was my preference. I heard some commotion of more people entering the room but we were made aware of the need for a doctor, NICU nurse and additional midwife to be present for the birth due to the potential for myself or baby needing some additional help.
The whole birth was hands off, with the midwife just talking me through what was happening which I found a huge help and a great motivation.
His body delivered in 2 contractions, these then died off and I was instructed to push his head out without the aid of contractions as there is a time limit on how long they will let the head go undelivered. This was actually not as difficult as I had anticipated and I got away with not even a graze.
Our little boy was born unresponsive, and needed immediate cord clamping, CPAP and vigorous stimulation at the beginning but quickly came round with no ill effects. Having the NICU team present was actually a real comfort and at no point did I feel anxious, I knew he was in safe hands and having done plenty of reading in the run up to birth I knew that this was quite normal for breech babies.
Apart from having some spectacular ‘frogs legs’ he is doing really well and my recovery has been far easier than my first vaginal cephalic birth.
I hope that this helps even one person in a similar situation who may be undecided about what sort of birth to go for. I knew I wanted to avoid surgery and felt that on balance trying for a vaginal birth was the right thing to do for me.
At the end of the day, you must go with your gut feeling – you will make the right decision for you!