I had a good idea that the baby was breech in the week or so before labour. I didn't tell my midwife, and didn't let her examine me. This was in the US, and they are not big on abdominal palpation anyway.
I did tons of research on the internet, and found out that if it is a frank breech, there shouldn't really be any problems. If it was a different kind, then the chances are labour simply would not progress. The key thing is not to intervene at all, unless it is clear there was to be no progress, in which case C-section is the safest option.
I would say the only noticeable things in labour is that the contractions didn't get on top of each other - they pretty much stayed at 2-3 minutes apart, but did increase in intensity. The other thing, I had backache during contractions only, and not the whole time as you'd get with OP. This was manageable by going on all fours.
When the baby emerged, there was fresh meconium as the bottom was squeezed (not a sign of distress). The midwife was surprised to see this bottom and then made an emergency call for an OB. Meanwhile, the baby more or less slipped out about 2 minutes ahead of any help arriving.
There was no damage to me, and breastfeeding was fine. The one problem with the baby is that she had a dislocated hip (CDH) - this would have been caused by lying breech rather than the actual delivery. By 12 weeks, everything was fine with her (she was monitored by an orthopaedic surgeon).
I'm not sure what the hospitals are like here, but in the US, the normal thing would have been to go for a c-section without considering any other factors. If I were to have fought for a breech delivery, I would have had to do it in an operating theatre until the full pressure of the medical system. I probably would have had to be on my back for the continuous monitoring, and therefore not been able to cope with the pain on my own. That would have meant and epidural, synto etc - which increases the risks substantially of something going wrong - moreso in breech - it is much, much safer to have a c-section than a medical vaginal breech. For that reason, I kept quiet about it, but was very vigilant of the warning signs myself.
I recommend you google around for 'Mary Cronk' - she is a recently retired independent midwife who specialised in more complicated home births - breech, vbac, twins etc. She is very empowering and encouraging.