Footling breech - reassurance!

[Tor1142]

Hi everyone!
I’ve been a long time lurker on these forums but I finally feel like I need to post for (hopefully) some reassurance!
I’m 38 weeks pregnant with my first and at a growth scan at 36 weeks, she was confirmed footling breech. I’ve since been booked for an ELCS at 39+5.
I’m pretty scared I’m going to go into natural labour earlier than this and then just the general worry about baby being breech and there potentially being long term issues there.
Does anyone have any similar experience? Thanks so much!

I've not got any experience of this sorry. Have they said what would happen if you were to go into labour before your section is booked? I'm assuming they'd give you a section anyway?

@PanicBuyingSprouts thank you for replying the consultant said to get to the hospital immediately if any signs of labour, especially waters breaking because the cord can prolapse. That’s probably what I’m most nervous about, though hoping I’d spot signs of early labour well in time!

And yes they’d just do the CS as an emergency in that case

I'm sure you'll be fine. The risk of prolapse seems minimal and if it's your first baby you probably won't have LO that quickly anyway.

Just be firm when you phone the hospital. When I phoned with DC2 they told me to have a bath and call back in a few hours, I said "no, I'm coming in now". Trust your own judgement

My Ds was breach. I was booked for c section at 39 weeks but was told to get to hospital straight away if i started labour as breach labour can happen very quickly. Anyway, my waters broke at 38 weeks. I went straight to hospital where labour started very quickly (they were right). I was whisked straight into surgery and my son was born via emergency c section only 4 hours after my waters broke! So don’t worry - but any sign of labour - get straight to hospital!

They will have your baby out in no time if you go into labour early, so please don’t worry. I’d take it easy between now and then and stay close to hospital. But first babies are known for liking to go overdue

@PanicBuyingSprouts

I'm sure you'll be fine. The risk of prolapse seems minimal and if it's your first baby you probably won't have LO that quickly anyway.

Just be firm when you phone the hospital. When I phoned with DC2 they told me to have a bath and call back in a few hours, I said "no, I'm coming in now". Trust your own judgement

This is very wrong. The risk of cord prolapse is not ‘minimal’ with a footling breech presentation. Advice would usually be to get in touch with the labour ward/labour line ASAP should labour start before the planned section date as this would be an indication for an emergency section.

And I know that I say this quite a lot but don't wait until your waters have broken before going to the Hospital, DD was born in hers...

I had braxton hicks throughout which was a bit unnerving! I was monitored at the end, but the staff were more concerned than me. If you feel Labour coming on, then you’d have an emergency c section I’d have thought. Try not to worry.
When DD was born, she did look like a little frog for a few days, but no issues at all. Crawled and walked and aged 5 now. No issues to report.

Thank you all for your responses! Really helpful to hear experiences from others and positive outcomes
I am feeling fine at the moment and will make sure to get to the hospital quickly if anything starts to happen!