theborrower - I'm not sure I understand you. To me, there was a vast difference between a hands-off breech birth (which is what I was happy to try) and a medicalised breech delivery (which I would have had a CS to avoid). There are different ways to "manage" a vaginal breech - the birth I had involved me and DD, with two breech experienced MWs keeping a watching brief whilst sitting on their hands. It was a very different experience to the version of vaginal breech that the NHS registrar offered me - where they would, fundamentally, have delivered my baby from me (in theatre with a large supporting cast). When I was trying to decide how the best way for my breech baby to come into the world I was very keen to know what the options were, and I wanted to be very clear what version of vaginal breech was on offer before I did decide.
IMO taking the consultants advice needs to be done from a position of information. Consultants are, by definition, surgeons who get called in to solve problems when things go wrong. I'm very glad they're there and have strong surgical skills so that the problems can be solved in many cases. But depending on the individual, that doesn't necessarily mean they will give impartial advice when one "solution" (breech being seen as a "problem") is surgical and well within their comfort zone, whilst the alternative is something they may well have little if any experience of.
I completely agree that the safety of a vaginal breech lies in the experience of the attendents. And that MWs skilled in breech birth are getting harder to find. But that doesn't mean they don't exist - many Independent Midwives have these skills and, as the experience on this thread has shown, they are not extinct within the NHS. Consultants are not the experts on the skill sets of the MWs within the unit they work in - that's the role of the Head of Midwifery. If a unit has a HoM that is supportive of vaginal breech, then there may be a number of MWs who have the confidence and experience to see breech as an "unusual variation of normal". And the HoM will be aware of this.
Trying to define the "safest" way is not trivial. Birth - CS or vaginal, breech or cephalic - comes with risks attached, risks that may not be directly comparable. Those risks will be different for every woman - depending on the exact position of her baby, the skill sets of the HCP's available to her, her personal medical history and any plans for the future expansion of her family. They will also be perceived differently depending on that woman's life experience and personality. To me, there is no universal "right" or "best" way to get a breech baby born (or any baby born). There's just the way that's most right (or least wrong) for any particular woman at a given point in her life.
One thing I'm glad about is that we knew DD was breech from 28 weeks so we had a lot of time to get our heads around it, to do as much research as we could, to talk to as many experts as we could find and to make our decision. Being told, whilst in labour, that your baby is breech and "we have to give a CS or the baby will die" (as happened to one lady I know of) makes it very hard to do anything other than take the consultants advice, especially if you haven't had a chance to research the midwifery skills within the hospital before hand. But MadreInglese has the opportunity to do that research, if she wishes to, and can make her decision accordingly.
If, as an individual, you wish to put your trust in the consultants and not question their advice, that is your choice. I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong or right to do that. Equally, if you choose to question the consultants and get a 2nd opinion from another consultant or an experienced MW then that is your choice. I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong or right to do that either. All I'm trying to do is make women facing a very difficult decision aware that they do have a choice, if they want to exercise it.