Breech Babies Club

A perspective on breech water birth

By Maggie Banks, Birthspirit Midwifery Journal 2009; 3:15-19

“The use of deep water immersion with mal-presentation (read: breech) is contraindicated in hospital clinical guidelines on waterbirth, and the use of water is absent as a modality in vaginal breech birth guidelines. Embracing these, giving birth in water to a breech baby would be out of the question for some maternity providers. Yet others are very specific in seeing breech presentation as a positive indication for waterbirth because of the buoyancy afforded to the baby and umbilical cord, both of which are kept warm in the water until surfacing into the cooler air Ponette”

http://www.birthspirit.co.nz/a-toe-in-the-water-exploring-breech-waterbirth/

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/

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 midwife-supported hospital breech birth

A midwife-supported hospital breech birth.

“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.”

“In the end, it was not where I had the birth that mattered, but who was with me.”

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

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

Emmanuel’s Breech Home Waterbirth at 20 days past due date

A planned home water birth of a breech baby at 20 days past due date.

“My first thought was to try and turn my baby, so I met with an acupuncturist and did moxibustion for a few days, but my heart wasn’t really in it. I had a feeling that this was my baby’s position of preference. The thought of just letting things be brought me peace, so I decided to stop attempting to turn him. ”

“Twenty minutes later I gasped “he’s here!”, as I felt his bottom “crown”. I’ll never forget the feeling; I cupped my hand around what felt like a soft peach coming out of me. I had read that there is usually a pause between the body and the head emerging, but that was not the case for us! The whole of his body and his head came out in one push! (one long, loud push!)

I scooped him up from the water onto my chest and asked him to breathe. After a couple minutes he did, but I wasn’t worried during this time, he was getting enough oxygen from the cord. I got out of the bath and walked into our bedroom. I couldn’t believe it! He was finally here! All nine pounds of him, so beautiful, and no trace of a conehead of course, having come out breech.”

“I am so thankful for the way things happened. I gave birth normally, naturally, intact (and no tear) and in harmony with my baby.”

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

Anton’s surprise footling breech home birth

A surprise footling breech birth at home, handled calmly and gently by an independent midwife.

” A few more pushes and a foot appeared and my midwife realised that not only was the baby breech, it was coming feet first. I had to get out of the pool, as the midwife needed to have full visibility of what was going on. I, understandably, could not move, and let that be known that nothing in this world would make me move. My midwife and my husband literally had to pull me out of the pool as I needed to get out.

I got onto dry land and leaned against our sofa. One foot was born first and then the other. With another contraction, he was up to his navel. His shoulder appeared then the other and his chin. Then two more contractions and his head was born. My midwife announced that it was a boy at one point, which I didn’t mind as she was telling me the progress of the baby being born. As Anton was positioned perfectly, he was born quite easily. My midwife did little to intervene in the birth other than support his body when his head was being born so it wouldn’t be flexed, as that would have possibly caused some damage.”

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