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Sophia’s story – a positive and empowering attempted HBAC

My beautiful baby Victoria was born on 14 July at 41+5 weighing 7lb 1oz. She is my second baby.

I had an unplanned c section with my first after two days of 2 in 10 contractions and a mini panic attack which prompted me to transfer in to hospital (had planned a home birth). Once in hospital I had a lot of unnecessary interventions that caused my son (and I) distress and I opted for a c section over further interventions.

When I got pregnant this time I knew the birth was going to be different and early on I planned an intervention free home birth after c section (HBAC). I also engaged private midwives at around 20 weeks pregnant to provide continuity of care.

At 31 weeks I had a private 4D scan where I was told baby was lying in the breech position. I wasn’t too phased by this as my son had also been breech at around the same gestation but then turned. As the weeks went on however I started to notice a hard lump at the top of my uterus that I hadn’t remembered feeling with my son. My midwife thought they might be knees at our 36 week antenatal appointment. I wasn’t sure however and booked in for a presentation scan at 37+1 when it was confirmed that baby was breech. The sonographer classed it as a footling breech but since doing a lot of research she was actually a complete breech with dropped feet. The doctor I saw after that scan basically told me my only option was an elective c section at 39 weeks. I said I was certainly not taking that option and would do my own research and even if I felt a c section was safer I would not choose the day, I would wait to go into labour because then I know my baby is ready to be born and you never know she could turn head down at any point.

Over the next week I did A LOT of research and concluded that a planned breech home birth was what I felt would allow the ideal conditions for a physiological safe birth.

Unfortunately I was told by my private midwives that they were not breech competent and thus could no longer support me at home, only as advocates, so if I still wanted a home birth I needed to arrange that with the hospital.

Arranging a breech HBAC with my hospital was no easy feat. I think I was probably the first person to request a breech HBAC. The last breech home birth was 5 years ago and that wasn’t an HBAC. It wasn’t until my due date that I finally received a letter from the hospital agreeing to support my birth plan with the help of an amazing independent midwife who luckily already had a contract with the hospital and was confident to support a breech birth. My private midwives were supposed to also attend the birth as advocates but at 40+5, the company they are employed by withdrew the contract so I lost their support which really upset me but at least I still had the plan in place with the hospital.

All of this fighting for the birth plan I wanted and the emotional rollercoaster it caused I have no doubt delayed me going into labour. I was getting period like pains for weeks and then in the week before I went into labour I would get bouts of contractions at night that would die off by the morning.

At 41+4, after dropping off my son at nursery, my husband and I decided to go for brunch at a nearby cafe. Whilst there, I had about 5 mild contractions and felt that things might be starting. After brunch I spent the rest of the day relaxing on my sofa watching Netflix and had a nap. Mild contractions kept coming and going about every 10-20 minutes. At around 6pm as I was preparing dinner I felt a couple of stronger contractions that I needed to breathe through. I texted my independent midwife (IM) and doula to let them know something might be starting. Sure enough a couple of hours later contractions ramped up and were coming at a more regular frequency and greater intensity. My IM lives only 10 minutes away so she popped round for a quick check in. All was well with me and baby so she went home to rest and I went to bed to try and sleep as best I can and save energy.

Just before midnight I had a very intense contraction which caused my waters to break quite spectacularly. I jumped out of bed and ran to the toilet, losing my mucus plug in one huge blob on the way. It was all quite exciting for me because with my first, my waters were artificially ruptured so to feel my body doing it naturally was exhilarating and it gave me a mental boost that things were progressing well. I texted my IM and doula and suggested they make their way over. I had a quick shower and went downstairs. My husband started sorting out the pool and thankfully my son was fast asleep. Over the next 3 hours I laboured in mostly upright positions and got in the pool (which felt amazing!).

At around 4am, the consultant midwife and a band 7 NHS midwife arrived (this was part of the plan agreed with the hospital). My living room started to feel quite crowded and I was getting more and more tired so I decided to go up to bed and lie down. The contractions felt more painful lying down but at least in between contractions I was able to rest.

At around 6am I agreed to my first VE. I was ecstatic to find out that I was 5cm and my baby’s bum and foot were engaging. My midwife said she could feel my baby’s toes curl around her fingers when she touched her foot! It seemed I was going to have a ‘dropped foot’ complete breech birth as I had expected. I had seen a birth video recently like this and decided to watch it again with my husband for motivation.

I then went back down to the living room and stayed upright which I felt was the position I managed best through the contractions which were now 3 in 10. After a couple of hours I was feeling very tired again so went back to my bedroom for the next few hours alternating between standing through each contraction and perching on the side of the bed whilst the midwives would knock on my door every 15 minutes to listen in to baby. All observations were reassuring but contractions weren’t getting any more intense or closer together. I eventually asked if we could change the listening in frequency to 30 minutes as I felt every 15 minutes was too frequent and was potentially disturbing progress.

At around 10am I was offered another VE but I declined and pushed it back to 12pm. I decided to change location and went to my son’s room who by that point my husband had taken to nursery. I had quite a few intense contractions and kept losing more amniotic fluid. I thought things might be ramping up. At 12pm I accepted my second VE, was feeling so hopeful, but unfortunately it was bad news. I was still 5cm, my baby’s foot was now poking through my cervix and her bum had actually moved back up my pelvis. This meant that there was a greater risk of cord prolapse due to there not being a tight wedge over my cervix. At this point the advice of all the midwives was to transfer to hospital. I was really unsure. In the weeks leading up to the birth I had connected with an expert in breech birth and decided to call her to ask for her opinion as well. She said that baby was probably trying to move themselves into a more optimal position for birth and although she had supported women to birth ‘dropped feet’ breech babies this was done in a hospital setting. Based on this I decided to go into the hospital and continue my labour there with every intention to still have a vaginal birth.

I refused to go in an ambulance as I live less than a 5 minute drive away. Despite this, the consultant midwife arranged for two ambulances to turn up at my house! I just walked passed them and my doula drove me and my IM to the hospital. Such a waste of resources!

At the hospital, I was lucky that the pool room was free. It was nice and spacious although a bit too bright because there were no blinds just frosted windows. I had told my IM I did not want a cannula and she was amazing in not even letting the anesthetist into the room to offer it to me! (I only found this out afterwards). I agreed to 30 minutes on the CTG and baby was doing just fine so I then reverted to intermittent monitoring every 30 minutes. I was determined to birth my baby, I was moving all around the room and used the pool for pain relief but I was losing strength as the day went on so I started to ask about other options for pain relief. I had 2 paracetamols, tried gas and air but didn’t like it. Considered pethidine so I could potentially sleep but then decided against it. An epidural was always a firm no due to wanting full sensation in my body for birth and my risks of complications being higher due to a couple of minor back conditions I have. So in the end I just carried on with my deep breathing and paracetamol.

At around 5pm I agreed to my third VE. Was absolutely gutted to find out I was still 5cm but was excited to hear that my baby had moved her foot back out of my cervix and her bum was now the presenting part (but not yet engaged). The mood music in the room was certainly one of this is not good, a c section is looking necessary but I was feeling positive that she was now in a better position and I just needed to do all I could to help her move down. So I asked for 2 more hours and even if I only made 0.5cm progress that would keep me going. So I got up, did some deep squats, my amazing doula and IM did the ‘labour dance’ (search it on You Tube- it’s great!) with me and I just kept upright moving around to hopefully encourage gravity to do its thing.

At 7:30pm I was checked again but sadly no change at all, still 5cm and there was swelling on my cervix. By this point my temperature had gone up slightly, there was some meconium in my waters, and baby’s baseline heart rate had gone up. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, I had to look at the situation – it was well over 24 hours from the first contractions – and realised at this point the safest way to birth my baby would have to be a c section.

I had a good cry as the anaesthetist inserted a cannula and read through the procedure and risks for a spinal block and c section. I reluctantly signed the paperwork and made my way to the operating theatre. I found my strength to ensure my gentle c section wishes were met so I had the curtain dropped when she was born, delayed cord clamping, my cord tie placed on her, skin to skin in theatre and the midwives took pictures of her birth. She was so calm when she was born, as though she slept through the whole thing!

The surgery felt like it took longer than with my first with a lot more tugging and pulling. I was also told that the incision had to be made slightly further down to my previous one, so now I have a scar for each baby but to be honest I don’t mind, might as well have a mark for each! The doctor said he didn’t see any signs of scar dehiscence so that was good news. The placenta looked really healthy although the cord was shorter than average which could potentially be a reason she was breech?

She was born at 21:16 and despite being 41+5 by that point, only weighed 7lb 1oz! Looking at her tiny bum, I did start to think how difficult it would have been for her to engage and apply enough pressure to my cervix! I really needed her head!

After the section I spent an hour in recovery and then a day on the postnatal ward before going home. The first week postpartum I was in a lot of pain and so upset that I ended up with another c section, another long recovery and another missed opportunity to experience a physiological birth. I can’t help but feel I am broken in some way given both times I planned a home birth and went into spontaneous labour but still ended up with sections. But looking at the facts, I had a long latent phase with my first with no sleep and got tired which factored into me transferring in and then not having the knowledge I have now to decline the unnecessary interventions that were made. And this time sadly it was an awkward breech presentation that just wouldn’t descend.

The things I am grateful for is that both times my babies chose their birthdays, we both experienced labour and my second labour experience in particular was really positive and empowering even though it didn’t end the way I had hoped.

I’m not currently planning on having any more children but if I do I will be attempting a hba2c and hopefully will be third time lucky!

Filed Under: Birth Stories, Featured Tagged With: complete breech, emergency c-section, footling, HBAC, home, hospital transfer, independent midwife, planned, VBAC

Estelle’s birth – a planned home birth of a first baby

Our little breechling

By Ali Barker

We planned a home water birth for the birth of our first baby. We had bought a pool which we blew up at the weekend I turned 40 weeks pregnant (10 August 2014) and felt ready for labour to commence. However a few issues presented themselves at the latter stages of my pregnancy which had a great bearing on the planned birth.

Estelle-newborn-40

During a routine ante natal check carried out at our home when I was 40 weeks + 1 day on 18 August 2014, a midwife, whom I had not seen previously, carried out palpation on my bump and suspected our baby may be breech. I could not believe it. All previous ante natal checks had identified our baby (given the moniker, Beatty) as head-down and, by this stage, 4/5 engaged. I was shocked to hear this at this late stage in my pregnancy.

The midwife was fairly confident that our baby was head-down. Such was her conviction, she sent me for a scan at the hospital the following day, rather than an emergency scan on the same day. Upon arriving at the hospital, the midwife carried out palpation and she also thought the baby was head down. However, upon carrying out the ultrasound scan, one of our biggest fears was realised when our baby was confirmed as being breech. I was devastated as I believed our home birth was an impossibility and I was naturally concerned as to any consequences of the breech presentation in relation to our baby’s health/delivery.

I had to wait in the hospital from 11am on Tuesday 12 August 2014, when the breech was diagnosed, until 7.30pm, before an ECV (a procedure carried out by a consultant doctor to try and manually turn our baby) was performed. I was told this was because I needed to be nil by mouth in the event I needed to go into theatre for an emergency C section. This was far from ideal at 40+ weeks pregnant on a hot summer’s day on a hospital ward. After the ECV failed to turn Beatty, I was told by the NHS that the only option was a C section.

While I waited for the ECV procedure to be performed, I started to research breech birth and came across midwives who were experienced in the field. From my research, it seemed that breech presentation was not abnormal, it was, in fact, a variation of normal. This was something I held at the forefront of my mind in the coming days.

As I was 40 weeks + 2 days, the hospital wanted me to sign a consent form to have a C section on Friday 15 August 2014. I asked the hospital whether it was possible to deliver a breech baby vaginally but I was told this skill was a “dying art” amongst midwives.

I spent that evening/into the early hours of the next day frantically researching breech presentation and the possibility of vaginal breech delivery. The possibility of a breech vaginal delivery was not discussed at the hospital.

I had been practicing Natal Hypnotherapy for the majority of my pregnancy and attended a 2 day workshop in Wimbledon. This, I believe, gave me the confidence to trust my body’s ability to give birth naturally and to trust my instincts, both of which led to our birth story I describe below.

On the evening of 12 August, after I was discharged from hospital, I searched Google for “natal hypnotherapy” and “vaginal breech” and found Ruth Atkinson’s birth story. I emailed Ruth at an ungodly hour desperately hoping she would reply to my email. Time really was of the essence given the late stage of my pregnancy. I was truly grateful when I saw Ruth’s reply in my inbox at around 11pm at night. One of the things she said which gave me an element of hope was “All is not lost. It is still possible to have the birth you want…”

Ruth kindly spoke to me the following day and shared her birth story which was, strangely, not too dissimilar to mine in respect of the breech diagnosis late in her pregnancy and her desire to have a vaginal breech delivery. Ruth told me about the wonderful independent midwives who had supported the safe arrival of her breech daughter, vaginally, at home.

I wasted no time and contacted the same independent midwives who then came to our house the following day to discuss matters in person. My husband and I digested all of the information and decided we would engage their services. I was so happy to have their assistance as they shared similar views to my husband and I as to natural birth.

This sentiments of this quote rang true during this time:

“The more Wisdom you attain and the more Conscious you become, the crazier you will appear to others”

I think Beatty knew not to come until we had our team in place. By this time, we had an excellent, supportive team together (including my wonderful husband). It was therefore a matter of waiting for labour to commence.

By 41 weeks, Beatty had still not arrived. However, the midwives recommended that I ought not to do anything to try and augment labour, whether that be reflexology, acupuncture and/or a membrane sweep as it was important for a breech baby to come when it was ready, or opt for C section. So, it was a matter of (patiently) waiting.

Our independent midwives therefore embarked on ‘Project Relaxation’ as it seemed apparent that my body/mind were in a state of flux given the issues of the preceding week. I believed that I would not go into spontaneous labour until I switched of my ‘thinking brain’ and allowed my primal bran to engage, something I learnt in Natal Hypnotherapy.

All the while, I was getting many messages from friends/family wondering if we had had our baby. As each day went by, I was getting more anxious as I knew post 42 weeks would bring further issues to bear. We had even booked a fetal well being scan on Harley Street (as we were keen to avoid attending the hospital, where possible, to avoid further pressure from the hospital as to an elective C section) to check Beatty’s heart beat, amniotic fluid and blood flow to the placenta.

I was not overly concerned as there is perhaps unnecessary significance placed on the ‘guess date’; many people had said to me that babies come when they are ready. In France, for instance, full term is considered to be 41 weeks, so there are different interpretations of ‘full term’. Beatty continued to be very active with lots of kicks which the independent midwive said was a good indicator of Beatty’s wellbeing.

I wrote a letter to Beatty and read it aloud to her and also talked to Beatty several times a day to try and encourage her to start her journey into the world. I knew we could do it together and I truly believed that.

At 41 + 6 days, my contractions started at 3.45pm on 23 August 2014, while eating strawberries and cream in the garden on a lovely warm day. They were irregular and not very strong. I had had the same sensation a couple of days before, while watching a DVD, when I had to get out of bed to ease the sensation, however on this occasion it passed after an hour or so. We were therefore convinced that this was another false start. Nevertheless, we walked to the park to try and encourage more contractions. While I had a few sensations, they continued to be irregular and did not increase in intensity. We did, however, practice filling the pool but promptly emptied it, again not anticipating labour to commence imminently.

We received a message from one of our NCT group at around 2.30pm that day to confirm they had welcomed their little boy into the world, 2 days’ early. I was delighted for them but it served to emphasise the fact we were still waiting for our little one.

After a little break from the contractions, we retired to bed. However, by 8.30pm the contractions were coming more frequently and with increased intensity. We therefore called our independent midwives to come to the house.

My surges were concentrated in my back so my husband massaged my back with increasing force to counteract the sensations. My contractions continued but did not seem to progress sufficiently therefore the midwives retired to bed. I continued to have infrequent contractions throughout the night. I recall shouting at my husband (who was asleep) to massage my back throughout the night. We all woke up around 7am and, as my surges continued in a similar manner, the midwives decided they would give my husband and I privacy to seek to encourage labour to progress. They all went into the local town for breakfast.

My husband made me breakfast of yoghurt and fresh fruit but I promptly threw this back up again. I was in the kitchen on my exercise ball and could feel myself drifting away from my husband and the environment around me and retreating into my own body. Once the midwives arrived back at 8.30am, I was in established labour. The midwives did not carry out any internal vaginal examinations, rather they read my behaviour to assess progress.

I had never really considered where I would labour in the house but I remained in the bedroom. I recall it was a lovely sunny day outside but we kept the curtains closed to create a more ‘safe’ enclosed environment. The Natal Hypnotherapy relaxation music was playing in the background for the duration of the labour and we had lavender essential oil in a diffuser. The midwives were very respectful of our own space and left my husband and I alone for much of the time.

My waters broke in our bathroom during one of my contractions at around midday. I realised I was getting ever closer to meeting our baby!

My husband and I were prepared for the transition stage from labour to pushing. However, I do not recall this period in the labour, nor does my husband; although, in retrospect, it may have occurred when I asked the midwife if I could use gas and air. I think this was a moment of slight panic in my mind when I knew I was entering the final stage and thought I may need assistance. The midwife gently discouraged this and I was happy to proceed without gas and air. I did have 2 paracetamol at some stage but not sure they would have had any effect whatsoever!! I did, however, use my TENS machine throughout labour and found this really helpful for easing the effects of the surges and it also served as a distraction, together with the tools I learnt with Natal Hypnotherapy. I also made loud chanting sounds of AHHHHH and OOOOOM to get through the surges which I learnt from JuJu Sindin’s Birth Skills book – I would highly recommend this.

At around 3pm ish we were all preparing for the birth of our daughter. The midwives prepared the bedroom with the dust sheets and old bedding. I assumed a side lying position on my left side. This was an odd position in the sense that I had never considered this position in any of my birth preparation classes.

I recall the bedroom was very hot as we had to use a heater to ensure the room was sufficiently warm to receive Beatty. During the pushing stage, my husband cooled my forehead with a cold flannel which was replaced regularly by the midwives to ensure it was cool. I also had lots of coconut water throughout the labour, together with ice cubes, made of honey/lemon and himalayan sea salt, raspberry leaf infused water and black molasses in hot water to maintain my energy levels.

Beatty was slowly descending but I could sense that the midwives were keen for me to change positions, although they very much allowed this to be led by me. As a matter of common sense, it would have been more logical for me to be in a vertical position/all fours. I had pulled a muscle/ligament on my left side at some stage during labour so I was not desperate to change positions, as I knew it would hurt. However, something urged me to jump onto an all fours position. Once I changed position, Beatty seemed to descend much quicker.

The midwives have since commented on the extent of my movements during this stage – I was almost kneeling at one point, then swaying my hips left to right and then leaning forwards in a prayer position. All of this behaviour was instinctive, rather than conscious, and the midwives believed this assisted our daughter’s birth. It felt like Beatty and I were doing a little dance with one another. I was comforted that our daughter was almost dancing with her little legs hanging out of me and she was a lovely colour, whereas some of the videos I had seen of vaginal breech deliveries involved a baby looking a little limp and blue.

I recall the sensation of our daughter’s bum coming out and then her legs. I could sense when Beatty’s body had flopped out. I recall looking through my legs and seeing Beatty hanging there, with her head inside of me. We had kept the sex of our baby a surprise so I was constantly asking the midwives if they could discern the sex. As our baby passed urine, they could tell it was a girl. My husband and I were so surprised as 95% of people had said they thought it was a boy. While we had no firm view either way, we had become convinced that it was a boy; it was a lovely surprise to hear it was a girl.

I did not have another contraction to push out Beatty’s head for around 5 minutes. It felt like a long time. The midwives were not too concerned as our daughter’s lips were peeping out of me and her lips were opening and closing to take in air. The only time the midwives intervened was to lightly move the cord to allow our daughter to breathe safely.

As no contraction came, I pushed without a contraction and my daughter was born at 4:17pm, exactly 14 days after her due date. It was the best feeling. My husband, who had been attending to me the whole labour, gave me a big kiss and then the midwives put our daughter in front of me on the floor. I couldn’t believe she was ours. I didn’t pick her up straight away while I took it all in. I then held her close to my chest – skin to skin – and we had our first cuddle as a family.

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Our daughter was 8 lbs 9 ounces (the midwives did comment on how big she appeared as she was being born – I always had a strong suspicion that she was going to be a big baby!) and 52 cm long – although she appeared much longer; most people have passed comment on this since her birth. Our daughter scored 9/10 on her APGAR score.

Given established labour started around 8.30am that morning, labour was fairly quick. I also only suffered a minor tear which did not require any stitches. When I spoke to a midwife before the birth she told me that breech births are generally fairly quick and that generally women don’t tear – so breech birth does have its advantages!

We then all moved to our bed with our daughter in my arms while the midwives tidied up around us. One big bonus was that the student midwife used to be a chef so she made an amazing breakfast for us of eggs, bacon, spinach and tomatoes – beats hospital food any day!

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One of the midwives also made me a lovely placenta smoothie and I ate some of the placenta immediately after the birth, when resting in bed. I cannot be certain, but I attribute the fact that I did not suffer any baby blues to the placenta which I consumed. I believe this regulated my hormones and replenished vital nutrients lost during labour.

I will treasure forever the memory of the three of us snuggling in bed that evening. If we had given birth in the hospital, my husband may have been asked to leave us that evening which would have been awful. This was another (of many) advantages to a home birth.

DSC_0867-copyOur daughter was slow to latch on but after a couple of days of practice, she was guzzling away – her new found hobby.

If the hospital had had its way, our daughter would have been born on 15 August 2014; that was not her time. In fact, the midwives noted that our daughter did not show any signs of being particularly over her due date. We were delighted she came naturally on her true birthday and not a date fixed by a hospital.

We did not name our daughter until a couple of days after the birth; such was our belief that our baby was a boy, we had not properly considered girls’ names. On Tuesday 26 August, we named our little breechling Estelle Augusta Barker – inspired by the main character in Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations, Estella. A strong, formidable character which we hope Estelle will be, too.

BIO

Ali Barker gave birth with the assistance of Maya Midwives, Kathryn Weymouth, Liz Nightingale and Suyai Stenhauer. Ali is married to Sam Barker and they are looking forward to celebrating 10 years together this summer 2015. They are very much still in love and have enjoyed every single moment spent with their breechling, Estelle.

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, home, independent midwife, planned, vaginal

A home birth of first-time twins – second baby breech

“We soon realised that just as annoying as Jo Public’s views were romantic, the NHS’ policies and attitudes to twins were shocking – routine intervention, endless scanning, water birthing out of the question, expected epidural and C section ‘very likely’.”

“We decided at this point to go with our initial instincts and discuss the situation with an independent midwife. Valerie Gommon was recommended to us, she came round for dinner and for the first time in our pregnancy we discussed our options with a professional practitioner who seemed to use common sense and wisdom rather than fear of litigation. We decided for the safe arrival of our girls, in a relaxed atmosphere where I would feel empowered and in control, £3,500 was worth every penny. To put this into context of our spending this is twice as much as we spent on our car and 35 times what we spent on our wedding. Independent midwives are not just for the rich; we believe the money was well-spent and actually fantastic value for the level of care and amount of time Valerie and her colleagues spent with us.”

http://www.3shiresmidwife.co.uk/homebirthtwins.pdf

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, home, independent midwife, midwife, planned, twins, vaginal

A midwife-supported home breech birth

“I was surrounded by mothers who all labored at one time. With the next contraction, I began thinking of my midwife, the talented Lora Burgess who passed away last year, who worked with Evelyn who always said that there are some births that fathers shouldn’t attend. She was right… With each contraction, my midwives, my mother and my friend would breathe with me, sigh with me, and rest in between. They labored right with me and their support, along with counter pressure from Christina, and her whisperings of support and love made me feel that Lora was right in the room with us, nodding her approval and smiling.”

“I didn’t want a c-section unless my baby was in danger. She never was. 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.”

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

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: ECV, home, independent midwife, planned, vaginal

A breech home birth for a first time mum, supported by independent midwives

“I spent the next 30 hours desperately trying to find an independent midwife with breech experience, and preferably Mary’s recommendation, who could take me on at short notice. Eventually, and having spoken to many wonderfully helpful – but unavailable – IMs, we found Lynn. Little did we realise how short this notice really was – following a few contractions which woke me up during the night, I was in established labour within about 9 hours of confirming our midwife. I was in denial for a while, I couldn’t believe it was such a close call, but eventually had to admit that the contractions had been regular for a couple of hours and we needed to phone Lynn and bring our meeting time forward to NOW!”

“He’s found his voice more now but is still usually a delightfully contented, but expressive, baby and I can’t help but attribute this to the calm and relaxed manner in which he entered the world.”

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

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, home, independent midwife, midwife, planned, vaginal

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

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, home, independent midwife, vaginal

Home breech birth photo series

An amazing sequence of photos showing a hands-off hands-and-knees breech birth with the baby’s knee presenting first. Delayed cord clamping allows the cord to refill after being stretched during the birth.

http://www.londonbirthpractice.co.uk/index.php/educational-info/36-home-breech-birth-photo-series.html

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: footling, home, independent midwife, midwife, photos, planned, vaginal

A calm hospital breech birth (undiagnosed)

“James was born after a 5 hour labour, no interventions or pain relief and I feel far better this time round than after my first! (Apart from lack of sleep that is!). We are all doing fine and James is a thriving, hungry and smiley little thing. I’ve even started to think after 6 weeks, I could do this again…”

“At one point a midwife rushed into the room announcing I couldn’t possibly give birth on the floor – “it’s against hospital policy”. She stormed out again not waiting for a reply. Sarah and I looked at each other, nonplussed. Sarah left to have a discreet word with the ward manager – we didn’t see that midwife again.”

“The hospital midwife pressed the monitor against my tummy, even though the baby’s body was by now hanging outside. She was laughingly redirected.”

“I was initially gutted not to have my dream home waterbirth. But I am very happy with the outcome. I avoided all interventions, used no pain relief, didn’t tear or even graze. This time there was no terror of going to the loo after delivery! Last time I’d had a bad un-stitched tear, retained product and post-natal infection. This time, the most I suffered was a bruised nasal bridge from pushing my face into the armchair!”

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

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: hospital, independent midwife, undiagnosed, vaginal

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