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Hannah’s story – a midwife-supported hospital breech birth

Our baby girl was born on Saturday at the hospital in Truro, Cornwall. She is perfect! We had an incredible VBB, assisted by a lovely midwife. If anyone out there is feeling overwhelmed and unsure about their breechling please know that VBB can be so special.

Briefly, our little one flipped at 37w2 much to my surprise as my first was born vaginally head down so I hadn’t even really thought about breech at all. We went to the hospital to confirm and they immediately jumped to elective section and throwing quite a lot of data at me. It was overwhelming and I felt as thought something was “wrong” with me. I felt pressured to try an ECV but I went home first and did a loooooot of research. The internet is amazing. I decided to try the ECV. It was unsuccessful and now we know that the cord was wrapped around my baby’s head twice so I think that was what stopped her from turning. I doubt I would do an ECV again. I found it to be a very emotional experience.

So I moved on and decided to embrace my breechling as I was now 38w. I didn’t try moxibustion or anything else apart from continuing on with my daily yoga practice (which I did all along anyway). I let go of my homebirth plan because I couldn’t find anyone in my area to support me. I contacted the head of midwifery at the hospital and sent her my VBB plan and request for second birth partner (my doula) which was granted. I also spoke with Kemi Johnson who was just absolutely so supportive and reaffirmed my faith in myself. I filled my mind with positive VBB podcasts and stories and websites and videos. I also wrote an emergency C section plan and spent a little bit of time thinking on that.

My waters broke on Friday night/Saturday morning at 1:30am. The waters were red with quite a lot blood which is a bit scary. I was told to come straight in, the midwife on the phone was so excited when she heard I was planning on a VBB. Hospital was over an hour drive away and when we arrived I was still losing quite a lot of blood. I allowed the doctor to do a VE. I was 3cm. They asked if I wanted to do a section because they didn’t know where the blood was coming from. I declined and asked to wait a little longer as I felt fine and baby was happy. Surges had begun inconsistently. They agreed I could wait but they asked to put a canula in my hand so they had quick access to a vein should the bleeding get worse very quickly. That was scary and also very uncomfortable. But I felt it was a fair compromise.

My labour took a few hours to establish because I kept getting interrupted by various doctors giving me their unwanted opinions about my decision for a VBB. But the bleeding had stopped and waters were coming through clear now so my worry decreased. I got really annoyed with two male doctors pressuring me to talk about my c section plan should labour fail to establish within their timeframe since waters had broken. I just ignored them. When they left I asked my doula and partner to go and speak to our midwife.

They told her no more people in the room. Only her. No one else. They gave me my safe space back.

After that my surges came properly, soon they were just 2-3mins apart and lasting at least a minute each wave. I used my hypnobirthing and essential oils (lavender, frankincense and clary sage). My doula supported my back beautifully with a pressure point. My partner was amazing, reassuring and loving and supportive.

After an hour the midwife came to check in and she noticed that things had ramped up a lot. She asked to do another VE. I agreed but asked that she didn’t tell me my dilation, she was a bit surprised but agreed. Afterwards she told me I was 9cm. But after the check she just said we were going to get ready to meet baby soon. She began to get the room ready and spoke to me about staying standing and trusting my body to guide me into whatever position I needed to be in. I was on my yoga mat, kneeling and leaning into my partner. I began to shake and I knew I was in transition. All I could think was “the only way to my baby is through each wave”.

My midwife gently guided me in trusting my body and reassured me she would be hands off unless absolutely necessary and would talk to me the whole time. She told me not to push until there was just no way I couldn’t. She told me to breathe and take my time through each contraction.

Pushing began and lasted just 11 minutes, midwife called in second midwife to be present. This part was hard. Her one foot came out first, then her bum with her other leg. She was hanging beneath me, the midwife said I could reach down and then I felt her! We discovered we were having another baby girl! I cried! Then the midwife could see her arms were caught over her head. She asked me if she could assist baby because she was a little stuck. I agreed, it was very intense but I see in the video how gentle she was releasing the arms. After the arms were out I could feel the hardness of her head, it was soooooo hard after the squishy body! Midwife said to wait for the next surge and when it came to give everything. I did and she was out! Midwife told me to stand still as she unwinded the cord from around baby’s neck after which came her first cry as she was passed straight to me.

We did it! Euphoria.

The placenta took about an hour but we enjoyed golden hour and baby girl was just perfect, so alert and content. She scored 8/10 on the Apgar at birth and 10/10 after was few minutes. She began rooting and immediately latched on and started asking my body to feed her.

Later I was told that there were doctors and a neonatal specialist outside the door. But the midwife told them she would press the button if she needed help and otherwise to stay outside. She was absolutely incredible. I feel so lucky to have had her assist us in this birth.

Our baby girl was born at 12:54pm and weighed 3.4kg and we were discharged a couple of hours later. No stitches for me this time around.

I know it’s a bit of a long story but I also know there are others out there looking to stock up on positive VBB stories so this is for you. Our bodies are amazing and however we birth our babies, head down, head up, through a section, we are all incredible for what we go through.

Sending love to you wherever you are on your journey.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: diagnosed, foot-first, hospital, midwife, photos, planned, upright, vaginal

My birth story – Sarah & Ronnie

We found out at our 29w growth scan that baby was breech but were told not to worry as baby had plenty of time to turn but me being a bit of a worrier went away and did the thing I tend to do and turned to google!

I found myself doing lots of research on breech babies and birth options and I decided then that if baby was still to be breech further down the line I wanted a vaginal breech birth. In my case knowledge is power and having researched I felt a lot more calm and relaxed about what might happen if baby were to stay breech.

At 34w I went into hospital with reduced movements and got chatting to one of the lovely midwives and she said she could refer me to The Safe Active Birth Team that consisted of Supervisors of Midwives for support with my plans and I’m so glad I agreed for her to do that. The support I received from them was amazing, we chatted about everything I wanted and none of it was too much of an ask and a specific ‘plan’ for me and baby was put in place. One of the midwives asked if it was ok with me that she would like to be on call for the birth, to which I agreed. Knowing someone I had met and who knew what I wanted would potentially be there made me more relaxed.

I saw 2 consultants at around 37w after it had been confirmed by a scan that baby was still frank breech, they both fully supported my choices of a vaginal breech birth and understood my reasoning of declining an ECV to try and turn baby, they also answered any other questions that I had
.
We left it that I would see the consultant again at 40+5 if baby hadn’t arrived before that. From 36w I had some reflexology sessions and as I passed my ‘due date’ I started to feel a little fed up but I think that was mostly to do with hormones, tiredness and being uncomfortable.

I saw the consultant at 40+5 and we decided that if baby hadn’t arrived before 42w we would go in and have a planned c section, even though it wasn’t what I wanted, I felt that by that point I would have given my body a good amount of time for things to happen spontaneously and if it hadn’t then I had some time to come to terms with having a c section.

As I reached 41w I went for another session of reflexology and had a good chat with the midwife who did it, I then headed to the hospital for a sweep which didn’t go ahead as my cervix was too posterior too reach. I came home feeling a little deflated and had a really good cry for no particular reason, and I mean good as it took a while for me to stop crying at anything and everything.

I went to bed early only to be woken at 2.30am with pains, I started to time them to which they were coming every 5 mins. I gave it half an hour before waking my husband and I called the hospital at 3.20am. The pains became more intense quite quickly so I put on my TENS machine and started getting ready, My mum arrived to look after our eldest and we set off to the hospital at 3.50am. Whilst in the car the contractions started to get more intense and closer together, I called the hospital again and asked them to contact the midwife from the Safe Active Birth Team to let her know so she could make her way to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at around 4.30am and were greeted by a midwife who showed us to a room, she did my blood pressure and temp before hooking me up to the wireless monitoring to keep a check on baby and then she went to start filling the pool with water (the consultants were happy for me to use the pool to labour in). The midwife from the Safe Active Birth Team arrived shortly after and with the contractions I started to feel a bit pushy so I asked for some gas and air. We moved down the corridor to the pool room where I got on the floor cushions on all fours before being asked if they could examine me to determine where we were at. I agreed and was happy to hear that I was 8cm, I was feeling a lot of pressure. I went back to all fours and after a couple of minutes baby’s heart rate dropped and took a little while to come back up so the consultant came in and asked me if I would get onto the bed. In the mean time a number of other staff came into the room and stood well back to watch the birth (I had said I didn’t mind others watching when we were originally doing the birth ‘plan’ and I was asked again if it was ok whilst I was in labour). It’s not very often people get to see a vaginal breech birth especially in our NHS trust with if being quite small.

Pretty quickly I was 10cm dilated but baby’s heart rate dropped again so it was advised by the consultant that an episiotomy would help baby be born a bit quicker. I started to push and baby arrived into the world bottom first after 5mins of pushing.

We had another boy!

Ronnie was born at 6.05am weighing a healthy 8lb 15oz.

He didn’t need any support with breathing, we had delayed cord clamping and some skin to skin then about 20 minutes later my husband cut the cord and had a cuddle whilst I had some stitches done. After that we were left for a good hour or so to have some lovely skin to skin and take it all in. We stayed in hospital for observations to be done on him due to him having slightly low blood sugar at birth but there were no further concerns and we went home the following day!

I’m so proud of myself for trusting my instincts and believing in my body knowing what to do. This was 100% the right decision for both myself and baby!

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, hospital, midwife, photos, post-dates, vaginal, water

An unassisted footling breech homebirth in pictures

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2012/01/31/pictures-footling-breech-baby-born-into-dads-hands/

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, footling, freebirth, home, photos, planned, unassisted

Footling breech baby caught by dad – with photos!

A planned unassisted footling breech birth at home!

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2012/01/31/pictures-footling-breech-baby-born-into-dads-hands/

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: footling, home, photos, unassisted, 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 hospital breech birth from the dad’s perspective

“They assured her that the epidural tube was not connected, and told her she had to trigger another pushing wave. They told me to kiss Nicole, to try and help the process, because kissing can promote the release of oxytocin, which stimulates uterine contractions. And so, with about a dozen people around the operating table, I started making out with my wife. ”

http://spencerrankin.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/claires-birth-story/

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: diagnosed, doctor, hospital, photos, planned, vaginal

Triplet home water birth – 2nd baby footling breech

“My double footling baby B from my triplet home birth in 2006.”

“Max is the one on the right with the little purple foot. His one foot was fairly bruised from funky positioning for a few days.”

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2012/01/30/triplet-home-birth-photo-of-2nd-baby-born-in-water-footling-breech/

Filed Under: Birth Stories Tagged With: footling, home, multiple, photos, planned, triplets, water

Home breech birth 2003

Home breech birth 2003

“After ten hours, I went into the birthing pool (cow trough) and began second stage. I found the pushing more challenging than my other births, however in the end I birthed my baby who was born doing the splits with the longest umbilical cord ever ( I still feel if I had done the ECV she could have knotted her cord)”

“I am so grateful to the wonderful midwife who allowed me to birth at home. The experience was empowering and inspiring and I hope more people come to realize that breech is a variation of normal.”

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2013/08/20/home-breech-birth-draft/

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

A planned breech home water birth

A planned frank breech home birth in water.

“I knew I had a little girl at this point but her head was yet to be born. I also knew we were at the ‘three minute critical phase’ – she had to come out within three minutes as the placenta usually detaches once the body is born. I had no contractions at this point, was exhausted, but pushed for all I was worth anyway. The midwife inserted her little finger into my daughter’s mouth and lifted the body while I pushed and she was born – with the placenta on her head!”

“It was the single most empowering moment of my life – even now 17 years later!”

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2013/03/25/it-was-the-single-most-empowering-moment-of-my-life-frank-breech-homebirth-in-water/

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

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