Another breech question - how different to a normal birth?

[AngeK]

Hello,
My second baby is currently breech at 36 weeks and I have a meeting with the hospital next week to discuss options. I'd like to avoid a Caesarean if possible but I was wondering if anyone has had a breech vaginal birth and how different it is to a 'normal' birth? My first labour with DD head down was very straightforward, 10 hours active labour, just gas and air and no tearing and I recovered quite quickly. I have read that a breech birth MAY be more painful and slower and that intervention is more common. Has anyone found that to be the case?
Angela

Hi Angela,
I've only had the one, so can't compare, but she was 9lb 12, took about 7 hours and was born at home with no chemical pain relief (TENS during 1st stage, nothing at all for 2nd) as a footling breech.

I used Independent Midwives so that I could by sure I was going to be attended by people experienced in breech birth. They actually thought that women that'd had both head down and breech often thought the breech was less painful to deliver (everything gets stretched by a nice squidgy bum ).

Can I ask where you've been reading? My take would be that a breech MAY be more painful and slower, but equally it MAY be less painful and quicker... Intervention may be statistically more common, but that may be due to perceived rather than actual need - there are two schools of thought on how to assist a vaginal breech: the Dr led, medicalised, "we will deliver your breech baby so you need to be in stirrups so we can wave our forceps" version and the Mary Cronk/Jane Evans "hands off the breech and let the women birth her own baby, preferably on all fours". In the latter intervention will be very rare (births tend to be either spontaneous, natural and straightforward or stall and end with a CS), whilst in the former I'd imagine it's pretty common as you're a) putting the women in the worst position to give birth and b) assuming it will be required.

If you can get hold of them, two books I found very informative were "Breech Birth" by Benna Waites and "Breech Birth: What are my options" by Jane Evans. IMO they both gave a much more balanced view of things than I got from the NHS.

After doing a lot of reading before making the decision we did we came to the conclusion that birthing a breech baby vaginaly is not necessarily more dangerous than a CS, but that it IS dangerous to try and do so without midwives experienced and skilled in breech birth. Sadly, CS has become so common for breech babies within the NHS that the number of NHS midwives with those skills is decreasing fast (thanks to a piece of terminaly flawed research called the Term Breech Trial). Hence why we decided IMs were the way to go.

Fingers crossed you have a productive meeting next week, and I hope you have a good birth experience (whatever it may turn out to be)