Mum-to-be with breech baby is shunning hospital for home water birth

[TheHerald]

A mum-to-be who has been advised to have a C-section because her baby is breech is instead raising £2,000 for a private delivery at home in a birthing pool. www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plymouth-mum-determined-breech-baby-boy-home/story-25901543-detail/story.html

[Starlightbright1]

I would like to know how she plans to raise this..I certainly wouldn't give to pay for someone's labour when she can use NHS...

This is also the same paper for the sad face invoice man...

Strange place to live

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

Her choice.

[SoonToBeSix]

Selfish, ignorant woman . I hope SS are involved.

[SoonToBeSix]

Informed not involved!

[HollyBdenum]

TheHerald - are you just plugging a link to your paper in the hope that Mumsnet will be outraged and the story wil go viral?

[Quitelikely]

Is that even legal?

[tomandizzymum]

Her choice. Some (very few, but some) nhs hospitals offer breech delivery. I know someone who had 3 and I suspect 4 (but hasn't arrived yet) naturally. Her husband was very skeptical but felt better when talking to the consultant. I was due one too with number 4 but luckily he turned.
it's risky but it is very much her choice

[HollyBdenum]

I know people who have had a vaginal breech birth in a hospital, and others who have done it at home with an independent midwife. From what they have said, the home births seemed a lot safer as they were being done with very experienced midwives who had done a lot of breech deliveries. The hospital ones were with doctors who had very little experience of breech birth and it showed.

[elfycat]

Call SS?

Because a woman is making a legal medical choice?

I've witnessed breech births in hospitals, fewer and fewer as the years go by. But if done correctly are calm and safe. It's just there are less experienced staff willing to do them, especially in hospitals where they are very often short-staffed.

[elfycat]

sorry fewer*

[Jackieharris]

Good on her!

[ElectraCute]

Of course it's legal. Why on earth wouldn't it be?

As a pp says, the problems usually arise when inexperienced doctors perform dangerous breech 'extractions'. I have been at home breech births with midwives and none have been problematic at all.

It is a huge shame that fewer and fewer midwives or doctors are able to get breech experience, hence it has become an emergency situation.

As for involving social services...words fail me.

[SoonToBeSix]

She is putting herself before her child's safety. The breech home birth is against medical advice it won't be such an amazing birth if her child dies.

[26Point2Miles]

Lol at call ss

Hey, it's her body! Her choice.... The child isn't born yet so really it's down to the mother

[ElectraCute]

And what if that medical advice is flawed?

The blanket advice on c-section for breech is based on a widely-discredited study. Women have every right to challenge it and make a different decision. If the midwife who will be attending the birth is experienced in breech then I see no major issue. Clearly neither does she.

[TooSpotty]

I was offered a home breech birth on the NHS.

Call social services IMMEDIATELY.

[ElectraCute]

Contrary to popular ignorance belief, women who choose home birth do so after weighing up all options and often putting huge amounts of thought, consideration and research into the risks and benefits.

It has nothing to do with selfishness or putting herself before her baby.

[scaevola]

I understood the article to be saying that, as a matter of policy RCOG advises CS for breech presentations, hence hospital recommending it, but that they were also happy with a vaginal birth. So she's not ignoring medical advice, just changing the setting for one of the options the hospital was OK with.

Personally, I would prefer to avoid a CS but would want to be in a hospital (ideally a home-from-home type unit) because if something went wrong whilst the head is still in the mother's body, outcomes can be very poor, and every minute of transfer time can really matter.

[ElectraCute]

Have just seen who the midwife is. I would have no problem at all with Jane Evans delivering any baby, in any position, anywhere! She is a hugely experinced midwife and a specialist in breech birth.

The scandal of this story is not that the mother has chosen to birth at home, in water, but that there are no suitably trained or experinced staff at her local hospital.

[Eltonjohnsflorist]

My understanding was you have the right to either if these things (homebirth against medical advice and vaginal delivery of a breech) or both - no one can force you into a c section. She doesn't need to go private and pay- presume she's doing so to get this particular midwife. God knows why she's fundraising, why doesn't she just get a credit card or overdraft? It's not up to other people to worry about.

[hoobypickypicky]

"Selfish, ignorant woman . I hope SS are involved."

Involved, informed, neither is appropriate for an adult woman making a perfectly legal choice about her own body.

Do you not think that women should have bodily autonomy SoonToBeSix?

[TooSpotty]

You can't be forced into having your baby in hospital but it's a myth that the NHS must provide you with a midwife at home. Usually they will but the obligation to give medical assistance can be met by sending paramedics, who don't have specialist training. Nor, in the event of a midwife being dispatched at the last minute, is there any guarantee that they would have experience with breech birth.

This woman is taking the responsible step of hiring an extremely capable midwife with great experience of breech birth. If others want to contribute to the costs of doing so, that is entirely up to them.

[Notmymonkeys]

It's quite common in my area for women to have vaginal breech deliveries. We have a number of midwives who are trained and experienced in breech birth, including some who attend home births. The main risk in most breech births is having an attendant who doesn't know what they're doing. RCOG advise CS because midwives and obstetricians have become deskilled in breech delivery in recent decades. This is starting to change.

[seaoflove]

Yup, her choice. I happen to think she's prioritising her birth expedience over a guaranteed safe delivery by CS, but it's still her call.

[expatinscotland]

Her choice.