Talk to me about a breech vaginal delivery

[ItsMyLastOne]

I'm only 35+4 but my baby is breech or transverse (she keeps moving) and back to back. I have a presentation scan on Monday and if the baby is still breech or transverse I'll have to speak to a consultant about my options so I just want to start weighing everything up now.

Has anyone given birth, or attempted to give birth vaginally to a breech baby? Tell me about it please!

OP, there were a couple of threads on here a while back with a mother giving an account of a not good outcome which she attributes to the after effects of an ECV. I will link if you request it - I won't do so straight away as I really don't want to look as if I'm posting a scare story. The reason I have mentioned this is because this story really stuck in my head and made me extremely aware that monitoring immediately after an ECV might not be sufficient to eliminate all of the (VERY SMALL!) risk of something going wrong. Personally after reading that I would not agree to ECV.

I'll post a link if you wish, I really hope you don't think my post is inappropriate.

Hi,
I was 38 weeks in theory, but a couple of doctors did say he looked a bit younger. Weight was 3 kg. He did have problems with temperature and hypoglycaemia, which I guess may not have been a problem if it was later, but the blood mixing meant that the doctor advised sooner rather than later
In terms of recovery, i really needed help forthe first three days. At three weeks, I'm a little tender, but feel okay to do most things I usually do ( but not driving or exercising beyond walking ). Although I don't have another child to look after. I also spent 8 days in hospital, pretty much in bed, so had time to recover.
When my mum had my sister and brother (3 & 4), she hired a babysitter for a couple if weeks to look after the older children. Would that be an option?

Ooh, and to follow on doctor dwt, I think I read that story, and it did unnerve me. To be honest, deciding to have an ecv was a harder decision than deciding to have a c section. And I was worried for the entire five days between the ecv and the section. Still not entirely sure why I went for it!

Gave birth to my second baby on 4th Nov this year. Keeping it brief it was an hour long labour that was so quick i didnt make it to hospital and we were all floored to find him a footling breech with having no warning. Luckily he was a small boy and the birth was actually easier than my first, He had cord 3xround his neck :O.

I was told they would of c-sectioned me for sure if i had got to hospital. As footling breech is the most dangerous sort. Hes lucky he has no dislocations and im lucky i got him out.

Still cant believe the midwife and ambulance crew shouting they can see feet shudder!

doctordwt I'm pretty sure I know which thread you mean. I saw it a few weeks ago before I found out the baby was transverse. To be honest, that thread is the one thing that has made me very very wary of an ECV. It's because of that horrendous story that I've been thinking non stop about what to do. The scan showed the cord is (currently) completely out of the way and not wrapped around her at all, and my placenta is very high up and also out of the way. It's because of seeing that on the scan that I am considering it at all. She's also not fully breech, she's sort of at an angle, almost transverse, so they have said the risks are lessened from her not needing to be turned so far as well as the position of the cord and placenta. I'm still very worried though and will be insisting on lots of monitoring, I've also booked to see the mw 3 days later. It's hard to know what to do as I know the alternative risks of a breech delivery or CS.

Nano DP will be taking off as much time as necessary, and I have family around who I won't be able to get rid of will be willing to help a lot, so hopefully it wouldn't be as bad for me having an ELCS as it would be for many women.

Alamaya sounds scary! Luckily, because of the position of the baby ATM, she's far more likely to be bum first rather than feet first, so hopefully a breech birth wouldn't be too traumatic for me.

I had a C section with my 4th as he was footling breech. not one word uttered about even trying to delivery otherwise, by me or by consultant.
had another 2 VBAC (I wonder if 6th was technically VBAVBAC ) good luck.

OP - yes I'm sure that's the thread. It scared me as of course, the monitoring immediately afterwards didn't pick up a problem. I would think that if you are aware of the potential for a problem which wouldn't manifest as a disastrous 'gotta get baby out now' situation then you are in a better place with that - I would think a good thing to do would be to get it agreed that you would be assessed for blood flow through the cord/from the placenta prior to the ECV, and then another couple of times over the next few days?

That would be a good way to pick up on a slight compression/damage to the cord which could potentially deprive the baby slowly of nutrients/oxygen post-ECV - I gather that was what the mum in that thread deduced had actually happened. They do that kind of monitoring when you are overdue I gather (expectant management) so it should be possible??

Good luck. It's such a difficult decision, but it sounds as if you are really arming yourself with detailed facts about the actual positioning etc. I'm sure things will be fine either way.

'Its' The decision is going to be yours and it won't be easy.

Please be a bit weary of the 'spinning babies' stuff - when you actually look at the real evidence caesarean delivery is definitely a bit safer for the baby. However, vaginal breech isn't recklessly dangerous but it is a bit more risky. Even the NHS offers caesarean for breech and the NHS avoids offering caesareans wherever possible.

Something you might want to ask your consultant. ECV can turn a breech baby but the risk of an emergency caesarean is just as high.

ELCS is not that risky - the risk of caesareans is from emergency ones.

You might find this useful www.rcog.org.uk/files/rcog-corp/A%20Breech%20Baby%20at%20the%20end%20of%20Pregnancy.pdf

Hope it goes well

I had the ECV done today. It all went really well, the actual turning took 30 seconds. DP had popped for a wee just before the doctor was due to come and do it, but by the time he got back from the loo it was all over. I went all nauseous and faint during and after it, but at least it was done quickly. From their reaction it seemed like it was some kind of record!

They did a scan immediately after the turn and confirmed she was head down and everything was fine. Then I stayed on the trace for a while and the baby was fine, so after about 45 minutes they took me off it. The doctor came back and told us everything had gone well so fingers crossed we should have no more issues and should be able to have a normal delivery.

Well, that was at about 2pm, now I'm 85% sure she's moved back! :-(