12 weeks post birth and still troubled by missed breech!

[Nicsav]

I have a wonderful 12 wk old daughter. Which is the first thing to be grateful for. Although I still can't get my head around the ordeal I endured during my labour. I already have a 3 year old son. I had him naturally after a very long labour and him being 12 days late. My daughter wanted to beat this by causing me to be induced. After 3 days in hospital (making me 42 weeks and 2 days - 16 days late) being induced, having 7 internals and being told the head was engaged and yet I was not dialting and cervix or head could not be reached....! I had been contracting but still not dialting -no one seemed concerned that this was
my second labour and nothing was happening. Thank god that after the 3rd night in hospital and heavy contractions for 8 hours my waters broke - at last! I was examined and promptly told oh dear I can feel feet! I was mortified.... I was then rushed through and greeted by a doctor who then also confirmed that I wasn't the 4cm that the MW had stated but in fact 7cm and was given options for c section or normal delivery. Still in shock and first chance of pain relief, I was a little high on gas and air and not taking it in. Then I was told the risks were greater for baby for normal birth due to her being footling breech. Agreed for c section but then needed it emergency as I was fully dialated and ready to give birth. All went ok ish but I only now am starting to recover fully physically. My daughter has hip displacement due to being breech and is in a brace and I have the obvious physical scar that will fade but the deep scars are the mental ones I am battling with. I was breech at my 20 week scan - why was it not followed up? I was supposedly head fully engaged from 37 weeks ( basically assumed as they couldn't feel the head) and yet they couldn't sweep me as couldn't reach head. The same message echoed during induction process in hospital and no one thought to wonder why I wasn't reacting to the process or wondered why the head appeared to be engaged and yet my cervix was not reachable. I may not have been able to change the breech position but if someone had picked it up I could have been mentally prepared for c section, had baby at term, not had 3 days in hospital treated like meat with unnecessary internals. Had sufficient help for my 3 yr old son when recovering from c section. Been prepared for some of the issues that breech babies an suffer from. I sometimes wonder should I just get over myself but I feel I can't until I get some answers. I was told the hospital were carrying out an internal audit but yet to hear findings. One midwife even dared to patronise me by suggesting my baby turned after she examined me....!

I'm so sorry you had to go through this. Maybe in a few weeks you can ask for an appointment with the head of midwifery or consultant to discuss your issues and to have a look at your notes.

I have also suffered a traumatic birth at the hands of incompetent midwives and doctors (like you long and poorly managed induction). It's taken me lots of counselling and ultimately medication to get my head round what happened to me, and 16 months on I am starting to feel a bit more normal.

Give yourself time and then try and get some answers, but sometimes there aren't any

Hth xx

my friend had a missed breech too... found out the morning she went in the hospital to be induced ... managed to turn the baby but it ended up quite messy with forceps, episiotomy etc

MWs get it wrong quite often, again, the cost saving obsession in the NHS means you don't get scan...

in Italy and France you get a scan every week on the NHS after 37 weeks.... and one everyday after 40...

also when you get into the hospital and you're in labor... you get another scan, cause babies move also during the last few days...

in UK if you have 3 scans throughout the whole pregnancy, you're lucky...

Hello, i had an undiagnosed breech too.
I got to 10 cms dilated befroe they knew he was bottom presentation.

So i was given a general anaesthetic, knocked out completely and when i woke up i had a wee tiny 5lb baby as i had been suffering with pre eclampsia and my baby had inter uterine growth retardation to boot!!

Ds still has, to this day 5 scars where they slashed the small of his back trying to break my waters over and over again. These look like he was attacked by a knife weilding loony.
Obviously they could not break my waters because his little bum was plugging the exit. He pood with distress and it was then that they realised because poo doesnt come out of a head does it!

So an awful lot to take in, not surprising i was hit by PND badly.

After a day or two, the midwife who was with me came to see me. She went through my notes with me. She answered all of my questions. She must have spent about 2 hours with me.
From that chat, i felt peace, i felt resolute that actually they did what they needed to do to keep me and my baby safe. That midwifes voice is what i remember from the whole thing. It was forceful, it was controlled and it was her voice that i heard say..."its breech".

I highly recommend that you get your notes and a midwife to go through them with you. It is healing i found.

Sympathies, i know what you are talking about. I have never met any one in rl who this has happened to.So its nice to chat to some one else who understands.

Nicsav my story could have been yours if it was not for my brilliant midwife. I was booked for a homebirth (2nd one) and at 38wks (app was at docs surgery) she had a feel and thought something just doesn't feel right. Sent me straight up to hospital for a scan and confirmed the bum she thought didn't feel right was in fact a head and he was firmly engaged bum first!

The doc then said we do C/S on a Wed & Fri which would you prefer? I said not on your nelly I've booked a homebirth. Long story short, different doc managed to turn DS round, acupressure massage on toes by Shiatsu practitioner and DH daily ensured he stayed turned round and the following week he was born at home uneventfully.

It didn't really hit me about what could have been until much later, and I really felt for you reading your post. You have so much to deal with post natally with a newborn and another child to look after you shouldn't have this to deal with too! Please follow it up with the hospital and demand they look into it. Also try and get yourself some counselling too. You are physically and emotionally shattered and you need some help and support. Good Luck

Thanks so much for all your advise and support. It's nice to have some understanding. I don't have PND but I do feel angry and emotional about the process. I will definately follow up with hospital and birth trauma assoc. I can sometimes be a bit like a dog with a bone with some
things so needed a sounding board to check I wasn't being OTT about my experiences. Thx all

I had an undiagnosed breech. Had my routine MW spots and she was head down, head engaged. My contractions started early morning, were getting closer went into hospital at 11.30am, was checked by MW who said I was 4cm dilated and head was down. Sent me down to the midwife run unit (where I was adamant I didn't want to give birth due to no pain relief or doctors). I got in the pool and within a few hours the pain was really intense- MW said they didn't examine until 4 hours after first exam. In the end I was in such agony i yelled at hubby to get them. They checked me and I was 8cm and finally gave me some gas and air!

Decided as I had got to 8cm with no pain relief I could deliver naturally in the birthing unit and felt very safe.

My waters then broke in the pool and out came the meconium. Was then rushed upstairs to labour ward due to risk of infection.

They sat me on the loo said that they could see the babies head and that I was doing really well. I was in absolute agony and it took my mum to say that something wasn't right.

They then re examined me and realised it wasn't babies head but her bottom!

Long story short I was already pushing when consultant rushed in so had her naturally.

How 4 midwives missed that she was breech makes me so cross and upset and thinking about the risks and what could have gone wrong makes me sick. I'm so thankful that my baby is ok, but has today been fitted for a pavlic harness due to hip issues.

I'm seeing birth reflections councillor as I need to talk it through I think and find out how they got it so wrong. Baby could not have turned at last minute as her legs were pinned against her face and she had a little ridge on her head from where she was under my ribs. All the midwives that came to see me said "oh a little breech baby" without even knowing!

I feel empowered that I managed to delivery her naturally, but wondered how many other women had this happen??

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