vaginal delivery of breech baby- am i crazy?

[taytotayto]

db number two due in 5 weeks, currently breech and i really dont want a c section. im going to push for a normal delivery, however baby is going to be a big one, estimated 10lb!!!!
should i not bother asking for a normal delivery if baby doesnt turn and just accept a c section.
has anyone delivered a big breech baby normally?

I was in this position 2 years ago, OP, and got quite excited in the end about my planned breech birth, after loads of Mary Cronk research. I was actually a bit disappointed when the baby turned (on his own) a few weeks before delivery). So don't get too het up about this; do your research and choose what is best for you and your baby, but bear in mind that many turn!

lazygaze i cant thank you enough for your imput. it was great to read. i would also like to thank everyone else for their support and imput also.
ive emailed mary conk and she very kindly emailed back but she never mentioned hands off the breech. can someone tell me what exactly this means. does it mean no intervention before the birth ie induction as well as epidural etc. dd 1 was induced and needed forceps in the end but i recovered so well it was amazing.
right this is what i think ill do:
ill have my rescan in two weeks, if still breech then ill see my consultant and ask him to be completely honest with me and tell me if a natural birth would be possible. if he hesitates ill ask him why and ask him what he would advise his wife/sister to do. ill also ask my midwife if there are any midwives in the hospital that are experienced in delivering breech babies and try to get to speak to them, see what they have to say and take it from there.
the consultant and midwives can read my notes and give me their honest professional opinion which ill follow.
ill also try to get the baby moving naturally and do some research on this tonight and also accept help at the hospital to do this if they offer it.
again thank you all for your support. its given me the confidence to ask questions at the hospital and at my midwife visit. x

Do think about trying an ECV. They get some bad press, in the same way that people are negative about vaginal breech births, but it's def worth looking into. The success rate is 50% overall, but much higher if it's not your first baby (presumably cos stomach muscles are less firm). It's uncomfortable but by no means agony, and apparently it's rare for babies to turn back (though the rumour mill will tell you otherwise). Find out whether your hospital do them and how many they do - when I had mine a few years ago the consultant (major London teaching hospital) reckoned they did about two ECVs a week, and that the last time they'd had to do an emergency C-section as a result was five years ago. Which seemed like pretty good odds to me.

And in fact my baby did turn, thus sparing me the whole vaginal breech vs caesarean argument. You've had good advice on here - if it does come to a vaginal birth, do discuss with the hospital about being assigned a midwife who is experienced at delivering breeches. When I was discussing it with the consultant before the ECV he explained that since the results of the Term Breech Trial (which are actually not reliable for all the reasons that other posters have outined, and also because they lumped together natural with augmented and instrumental breech deliveries, which are not the same thing AT ALL) because the caesarean rate has increased for breech presentations, many midwives and drs have become deskilled at natural breech deliveries, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy about the danger of breech births. So worth making sure ahead of time that the staff who are actually there will support you in what you decide to do.

I am hesitating to post this as I do not want to be insensitive and I am not sure this is helpful.
But anyway, here it goes. A good friend of mine insisted on a vaginal birth with her big breech baby and it didn't go well, at all.
Apologies if you didn't want to hear this.
I guess all births are different.

What happened Maternelle?

The baby got stuck and was short of oxygene and then died.
My friend only wanted the best for her baby and she was left destroyed by the experience.

www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=3376

I personally wouldn't.

Hands off the breech means not touching the baby as it delivers , so as to not stimulate breathing. Google it. What ever you decide to do make sure you are well informed and have plenty of support. For whatits worth, Dd1 turned at 38 weeks

I would go with the consultant's advice whether it's a CS or not, even if you do feel well informed on vaginal breech births.

I am a breech baby (my mother had a vaginal birth) and had my own breech baby by EMCS this year. My mother was booked in for a C section but her consultant, who did lots of scans and had a fair bit of breech experience, thought I was in a good position (well, as good as you can be the wrong way round) and my mum had a 'good pelvis', so thought it would be ok. And I was :)

My own daughter was an undiagnosed breech - they only realised when I had a VE when I went into hospital while in labour. Admittedly, they didn't go into lots of detail about it but when they realised her position from a scan, they said a CS was the safest option. I questioned it, of course, having known that breech births were possible, but wasn't given a choice. However, even if my DD's position was favourable and my pelvis was a good shape (I don't know if these things were the case), his decision could have been based on the level of experience with breech births in his staff, at that hospital etc. I think you need to consider this too, because midwives and doctors etc have far less expertise in this area than they used to, simply because more breech babies are being delivered by CS now.

My EMCS was actually fairly calm and I recovered very well, even if it has taken me longer to recover emotionally, but that's a different story. I know that having a CS can be scary and disppointing, but the safety of your baby has to be paramount.

I would try to contact Mary Cronk - she is an independant midwife who specialises in breech birth.
If not look her name up on google and read as much as you can. She is a fantastic midwife and will tell you what to say to your consultant when he says no!!

The main trial (that said it was safer for section) was the Hannah trial which has since been discredited, but medical bods still seem to quote it.

oh - and good luck with whatever you decide

the new NCT magazine has a nice article about breech birth on the last page :)

Maternelle, was it your friends first baby? Tayto has already proved that she can give birth to a big baby. As I said before there are always positive and negative stories, I'm really sad that maternelles friend had such a terrible outcome :-( It is SO IMPORTANT that if you decide to go for a vaginal breech delivery you have well experienced people around you- there are signs that can indicate that things will start going wrong. Take on maternelles comment, but remember that situations like the bay getting stuck can happen whichever way the baby comes out.
Tayto 'hands off the breech' means that when the baby is coming out that no one should pull it, or try to maneuver it or anything- kind of obvious really! I thought this was so there was no damage to the neck I actually didn't know it was to do with stimulating breathing (trots off to do more research).
I was yelling 'KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF!!!!' over my shoulder to the 7 paramedics standing (looking petrified) in a semicircle behind me (on all fours) when they arrived in my tiny living room 4 minutes before my son was born onto the floor.. my 10 year old daughter didn't stop taking the mickey out of me for ages with that one ;-) xx

Maternelle I hope my message didn't sound dismissive at all, was trying to write that message quickly whilst baby is sleeping and didn't re-read til posted x

I would probably go for it, OP, but a lot depends on presentation. Babies have been known to turn during active labour, btw, even big ones. My understanding (something for you to research) is that if trial breech fails to progress then best to go straight to EmCS; faffing about with other interventions not usually worthwhile.