So what exactly are the risks of having a breech?

[mum2george]

The mw's keep saying that they either aren't sure which way up the baby is or they say that it is Ceph but they aren't certain.

If I do end up having a section I want to be aware of it beforehand so that I can sort out care for DS while I'm away.

Have got an appt at the hospital on Friday to see the consultant to find out which way around it is, (arranged by me as the mw seems a bit too relaxed about it IMO).

I know that there are risks giving birth to a breech baby naturally but I'm not exactly sure what the risks are. Can anybody enlighten me?

ps was 3/5ths engaged last Tues, and 35 weeks tomorrow and had DS at 38 weeks-if thats any help.

See if you can get a MMR scan. I had one for my breech baby, which showed that my pelvic outlet wasn't as big as I'd always imagined it was (what were those big hips for, then?)

My mother was a midwife who'd seen a lot of breech babies with badly bruised heads as a result of vaginal deliveries. She gently put these facts to me. I chose a Caesarian, which went very well.

Dr Thomas Stuttaford wrote recently about the effects of difficult deliveries on children for the rest of their educational lives and how little is known about the long-term repercussions.

If you have good sized "outlet" (lovely word) and a not too big baby things may look quite different for you.

This is an interesting thread. I always felt like a bit of a wimp having a section for my DD.
She was always breech, never turned. The midwives were convinced she had turned, and everything was fine, but I had to go in and have a scan on an unrelated issue and they found she was still breech. Even after that, when the midwives felt her, they said they thought she was head down (but she wasnt).
They said they would turn her for me, but there were risks with that as well, and at the time my blood pressure had gone very high and they were worried that I was going to have pre-eclampsia.
My husband and I were unsure about the turning because if they damaged the placenta then it would be an emergency section and I did not want to have that.
My mum had her own advice. When she was pregnant with me, she was due to have a section as I was breech. They arrange for her to go in on the 6th as it was her birthday on the 5th. However, I had other plans and came very quickly on the 5th. I was a natural birth, but my mum said she felt more in control as her body had experienced labour before
Based on all the evidence I'd been given, (the % of breech births at my chosen hospital etc) plus how I was anyway (high blood pressure, and stressed after several different ocassions of no fetal movement) I decided that a section would be a better route for my baby.
I think I may have chosen a different route if she was my 2nd, but I dont know.

I'm glad your little one has turned btw mum2george

Could somebody out there give me some sensible advice please. My question is, Should midwives be able to tell if a baby is a breech position during pregnancy. Even at the time of going into labour. For one week I was told my baby was transverse but then was told everything was fine and I wasn't told at any point about any signs of a breech birth and now my baby has been born with hip problems and has to wear a wheaton-pavlik harness 24 hours a day. At the moment I feel angry that surely if a midwife can say a baby is transverse then how can they miss that the baby is breech.

Linzey sorry to hear about your experiences.

I would say that if you can (or if you have any doubt) about the presentation of the baby, ask for a late scan.

With all 3 of mine I had scans at 36 weeks as the MW couldn't work out if they were palpating a bony bum or a head. Turns out DC1 was just a bony bum, as was DC2, but DC3 who seemed the least likely to be breech was extended breech up until about 38 weeks.

Scan scan scan is they way to confirm the presentation of the baby...

Not read all the threads here, so someone else might have suggested it, but try moxibustion - much, MUCH higher success rate than manual turning

aim.bmj.com/content/20/1/26.full.pdf

one of the NHS trust here uses it rather than manual turning - I had a breech at 36w and those i spoke to about MB highly recommended it, I did some exercises off the spinningbabies website which worked for me

Linzey, sorry to hear your dc has hip problems. How long does the harness have to be on for?

My dd was a missed breech. My community midwife told me she was head down and I saw a midwife in the labour ward when my waters were leaking who also said head down.

It wasn't until I had an internal with a 3rd midwife later that day that it was picked up. There was a lot of meconium in my waters. They confirmed it with a portable ultrasound. I ended up with a emcs as it was too late to try to turn the baby.

I am pg with dc2 and convinced this one is breech, I will be demanding a confirmation scan this time round.

Linzey, transverse lie is much easier to pick up than a breech as the two big lumps are completely away from way they should be. Ie they are at the sides as opposed to one down near the pelvis and one up near the ribs. Some breeches are really easy to pick up as the head is easily identified, perhaps through feeling that when it is manipulated the rest of the body doesn't move (as it would when you swish the bum from side to side) other times it is really difficult to pick up a breech, sometimes I have difficulty feeling anything at all, especially when a woman has a bit more padding than your average pregnant lady. Other times I've been convinced it was breech and referred woman in for a scan (though we won't scan until 37 weeks as prior to that it's irrelevant) and have been surprised to hear that the baby obviously just has a particularly bony bum.

Unfortunately with abdominal palpation there is a huge element of guess work, us midwives haven't been fitted with x ray eyes yet and there are no guarantees, yes with experience we get better but there are always some babies that catch us out. Sorry to hear about your baby, those harnesses look so uncomfortable but it's unlikely that your midwife picking up the breech position would have made any difference as far as I'm aware.