Breech Babies Club

A story of many breeches, from the 1940s onwards

A story of many breeches, from the midwife’s own birth as a footling breech baby in WWII, to others she has attended during her career…

“The best part of the story is the old doctor’s instructions for when to call, i.e., how to tell when the time was right. His first instruction was to do nothing! and see if labor goes away. Then eat bread and butter (still my favorite food) and drink beer, and then do nothing! He instructed my mother that when the labor got so intense that she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, she should go for a walk in the garden or the hallways of the cloister with one of the nuns. He told her to do some slight breathing during contractions and lean on the wall, the fence or a nun. After that she should again do nothing!

He further advised that if she thought she couldn’t do anything anymore she should lie down on her left side with two pillows between her legs and do nothing! At this point he said she should tell the nuns to feed the donkey. When the donkey was full, they should hitch the wagon to the donkey and go get the doctor. He told her when he got to the cloister he would eat some food, have some beer and check in with her and that he would still have lots of time to prepare for the birth.”

http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/footlingbreech.asp

An unassisted undiagnosed footling breech birth

An unassisted undiagnosed footling breech birth

“The children said I “screamed a bit”, but I felt every centimetre of my baby descending, and I could hold the growing pressure in my vagina, without contracting against it. In this way, progress was very quick — two or three pushes, and not even a strong stretching feeling, and I said, “I’m crowning”. One more push and “Here’s the head”. Yet strangely I had no feeling of my push finishing easily at the baby’s neck.”

“We were in candlelight, and I was tucked into the darkest corner of the spa bath. Nicholas had a torch ready, and he shone it into the water to check the baby. “It’s a foot”, he said. I turned, my baby still half in my body, and saw a left leg waving in the water. Nicholas leant down — I still don’t know how did it without getting wet — and freed the other leg, which was straight against her belly, held only by the foot.”

“Standing with ease, I leaned forward, my hands supporting her slippery little legs and bottom, and, without waiting for the next wave, I pushed. Out came her chest, arms spilling out, cord tumbling and tangled, then lastly, with one push, her head. I scooped her up into my arms, to the warmth of my heart. She was like a little bundle of kelp; floppy, blue and not breathing. (The children said later “We thought she was a dead baby”.) “We love you, baby, we love you,” they cried, calling her in. After twenty or thirty seconds — it seemed longer, but Nicholas was watching her closely — she opened one eye, squeaked, and took a breath, pinking up straight away.”

http://www.positivebirthstories.com/2009/10/02/maias-birth/

An unexpected footling breech birth with transfer to hospital

An unexpected footling breech birth with transfer to hospital.

“Her words are ingrained on my memory, as is the sound of controlled panic / urgency in her voice. She said, “Oh God; it’s a foot, it’s breech, dial 999 NOW, get an ambulance, it’s a footling breech. Tell them it’s urgent”.”

“Four days after the birth I met with the midwife for a debrief. It was a useful conversation and happened at the right time in my recovery. Prior to that I was just grateful all was well, and wouldn’t have asked the right questions. By day four, though, relief had given way to anger. I was angry that despite my desire to be in control and have a natural delivery, and my best efforts to secure that by aiming for a homebirth, it had transpired to be a labour characterised by panic and lack of control and I felt the midwife could help me understand why. The crux of it was why hadn’t I been given the chance to continue labouring at home, with the medical team and ambulance waiting outside to intervene if need be. Why hadn’t my body been allowed to do its job?”

“Just one other thought … all the midwives in the hospital were very positive about the birth and congratulated me on the natural delivery and telling me I had done well. In contrast, the two doctors I spoke to took a much more negative point of view and focused on the fact that an ambulance delivery was ‘less than ideal’.”

http://www.homebirth.org.uk/louisebreech.htm

A planned breech home birth surrounded by mothers!

A planned breech home birth surrounded by mothers!

“Her fluid was perfect, her placenta was posterior, her cord was adequate, and she merely arrived bottom first in 4 of the most intense pushes that I have ever experienced. With vertex babies (my previous 4 were posterior vertex), the “work” is basically over once the head and shoulders emerge. The rest of the baby sort of slithers out quickly. Not so with breech babies.  I had to work for every inch of my baby daughter’s arrival. The first pushes of her birth exposed her bottom. (She pooped….not unusual for breech babies when their bottoms are exposed to the cool air).  The next brought forth her legs because her hips were flexed and her legs were folded Indian style against her body. I roared with the push that brought her shoulders, and lastly, one enormous push later her head was born and I couldn’t believe that Evelyn was saying, “Carla, take your baby!” in a shocked voice.

Evelyn never needed the special techniques to encourage her arrival. She never needed to help guide her legs down, help free the cord, or reach up to guide her head down by the chin. My daughter and I had done it together, and all my midwife had to do was wait and catch. She later remarked that what was poised to be the most challenging birth of her month ended up being the fastest and easiest.”

http://enjoybirth.com/blog/2008/08/21/beautiful-breech-homebirth-story/

A calm undiagnosed footling breech birth at home

A calm undiagnosed footling breech birth at home

“Everything seemed to be going well, and at two weeks out the baby dropped. I have to admit, right before the baby dropped, I thought there was a chance she had changed positions, but being it was a first for me I didn’t speak up and let Annette know. A word for the wise…

always trust your instincts!!!”

“I couldn’t have been more grateful with how smoothly things went considering the circumstances. I am so thankful Annette knew exactly how to handle things. Looking back I would not change a thing. If I would have known Emsley was breech, I would have been tempted to go the medical route and more than likely I would have ended up with a C-section. I am now even more confident about having a home birth as I head into it for a second time.”

http://thepromiselandfarm.com/birth-story-collections-emsleys-breech-home-birth/

A midwife-assisted home breech birth

“But no, it turned out he really was breech. I was no longer the model homebirth candidate – I had a become an “obstetric problem”, a primip with an “unproven pelvis” and no choice but to have an elective section at 39 weeks.”

“But finally he was “fully rumped” (my vocabulary has increased no end in the last few weeks…) and literally dropped out of me alarmingly quickly during the next two contractions – the potential “trapped head” beautifully released by Lynn’s advice to lean right forwards to widen my pelvis.”

http://www.northsurreymidwives.co.uk/billy

An unplanned unassisted footling breech birth at home!

An unplanned unassisted footling breech birth at home!

“What was most interesting to me was that my contractions never got closer together than 3 minutes. This was part of the reason we held off calling the midwife because both Artene and I thought we still had quite a bit of time left to go.”

“On the next contraction, Joseph’s first foot popped out and I was completely shocked. I didn’t even feel him coming down the birth canal since, you know, feet are so much smaller and more slender than a gigantic HEAD, so the foot was a total shock to me.”

“I could NOT believe what had just happened. We had planned a home birth and everything was perfect. Then, in less than 12 hours, we found out he was breech, I went into labor, and we birthed a breech baby at home without our midwife there (which is known in the birthing world as an “unassisted” birth).”

http://mamabirth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/accidental-unassisted-footling-breech.html

A successful undiagnosed breech VBAC

An Australia breech VBAC, this time undiagnosed – a planned home birth with a transfer in labour and a successful breech delivery in hospital.

“While I was ‘considering’ the caesarean things were happening very quickly.”

“She unfolded like a beautiful butterfly, legs unfolding, followed by her arms. Not much happened for quite some time after that. It was the most amazing thing to look down and see her whole body, but no head, just hanging there!”

http://www.breechbirth.net/matildas-birth—vbbac.html