unplanned Archives - Breech Babies Club

An undiagnosed breech birth in a midwife-led birth centre!

“Today my beautiful baby boy is 5 weeks old! I can’t believe it’s going so quickly, he has grown so much already. Motherhood has so far been how I expected and totally not what I expected at the same time; but I’ll save that for another blog! ”

“A few pushes later and the bottom was out, a couple more then the legs and torso. I was nearly there, ready to meet our baby, I was still using the gas and air and had Paul holding my hand encouraging me the whole time. The contractions subsided a little with the head still not delivered so I had to have a small episiotomy. The baby was here. But no crying, Paul went to the midwives to check all was ok…Then there was the cry.”

http://babybreezeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/my-birth-story-undiagnosed-breech.html

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 hospital breech birth – too late for a c-section!

“Doc came in and said too late for epidural and c-section, then I needed to push, they said go with your body and do whatever it tells you to do. I asked how long it would take to push her out, Doc said quite awhile as this is your first, I then had to push again, couldnt stop myself, I remember people shouting out the door DELIVERY PACK NOW, I pushed 3 times, then everyones voices went faint….Im sure I passed out as the next thing I know is Im looking at my baby on my chest!!! ”

“It took awhile for her legs to come down from round her ears and she is being monitored as one of her hips has a problem but appart from that she is perfect, and I cant wait to do it all again!!!”

http://community.babycentre.co.uk/post/a4721225/natural_breech_birth

An unexpected breech birth by emergency c-section

“At my 35.5 week check up they did an internal exam and said my son was head down. I was so relieved! I still honestly didn’t understand how I could have the bumps and kicks where they were, and where they weren’t (never in my ribs), and have my child be head down, but I trusted my doctor.

I should have trusted my gut.”

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2013/04/06/breech-birth-story-cesarean-after-unexpected-breech-presentation/

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 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!

“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

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

A surprise breech home birth

“My midwife said, ”It’s OK, it’s the same labour, same amount of work for you, the baby is fine and you can do this.”

I don’t think you can underestimate the role of your care givers, especially in a situation like this where you’re thrown a complete curve-ball right in the middle of your transition phase!

It’s like that saying (one of my favorite labor mantras) – She believed she could, and so she did.”

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2013/12/15/surprise-breech-delivery-home-birth/