Can you be made to have a c-section

[rubyslippers]

Am 30, nearly 31 weeks PG so I have a bit of time but i want to be prepared

baby is breech (moved from transverse)

Consultant has told me that options are:

ECV at 37 weeks

if that doesn't work, an c-section

there is nothing in between apparently

i do not want a c-section if i can avoid it all - can you not "birth" a breech baby?

can i ask them to consider a natural delivery if baby stays breech?

not quite sure of my rights and would be good to be armed with plenty of info

(Alos, am well aware baby could move in the next 5 weeks or so)

TIA

MNing on all fours

not sure if that was on the spinning babies website

Hi. There is still plenty of time for your baby to turn so hopefully that may still happen.

There is lots of stuff here about breech, including some stuff from Mary Cronk. There are also a couple of stories of births that had bad outcomes under 'difficult breech births' so be aware if you may not want to read. If it was me I would go for a natural delivery, but you will be in for a fight.

Good luck!

Hi - just to add to this (and i haven't read all the posts in detail) my baby (born in March) was a breech baby and I had a c-section. I am in Italy so things may be different - but they scanned me constantly to see if the baby had turned and one of the midwives also performed the Bowen Technique on me. Nothing worked. They even scanned me 2 hours before my c-section was planned and baby had not turned. The don't offer the ECV here - but it turned out that dd had the umbilical chord wrapped around her neck twice. I'm not sure this can be spotted on a scan. It's tricky to balance the pros and cons of a c-section (and i didn't want one unless I really needed to) but I think that I did the right thing in having the c-section given my circumstances. I hope this helps.

Ruby - not sure if this helps but this is a fantastic link of a home breech birth. It's not medical facts or anything but might give you the confidence that a natural vaginal breech birth is totally possible and the midwives don't even need to do much!

C-sections carry the same risk as delivering a breech baby with an experienced attendant according to Benna Waites in this brilliant, no nonsense book on breech birth

The book goes into some detail about what you can do to turn a baby, what the risks are of vaginal birth with a breech and the alternatives.

It's not hysterical or pro this that or the other. It gives you the facts and helps you to make up your own mind.

Tangle delivered a big breech baby vaginally IIRC.

thank you very much

will have a look at the links and recommendations as well

much appreciated

asuwere - Those pictures are awesome

If you are thinking about the small midwife led birthing centre option, I would investigate this now. Maybe it is different in other areas, but my local one refused to take me because I am mildly athsmatic, and they said they only take low risk births. (I told them that unless there was likely to be a dog in the delivery room, wheezing was unlikely to be an issue, but they still refused )
So they may not be keen on a breech birth.

I've been outed already

DD was my 1st, 9lb 12 and born at home with IMs as a footling breech. She'd been frank breech from about 28 weeks, went to full breech somewhere around 40 weeks and stayed there till a few hours before I went into labour (I had a scan earlier that day) at 41+3. A deciding factor was that we could find MWs that had availabilty and had extremely strong breech experience. Even though she wasn't in the "best" position, it was still pretty quick (7 hours of active labour) and a lovely calm experience (I'd even say I enjoyed it!)

The study that shaped breech practice throughout most of the developed world was the Term Breech Trial by Hannah et al, which was published in the Lancet in 2000. They found that vaginal breech birth was riskier than CS and so, almost overnight, CS became standard for breech. Since then the study has been discredited on a large number of points (even some of the authors say the findings should be discounted), and a more recent piece of research conducted in Paris in the last few years found that method of delivery made no significant difference to outcome, but that vaginal birth was marginaly better (they did have quite a strict selection criteria for mothers that wanted to go vaginal - so does Mary Cronk...).

If you choose to accept an appointment with a consultant, remember that consultant obs tend to be surgeons and that most of them will have very limited experience of any type of vaginal breech and even less experience of vaginal breech birth. CS to bring a breech baby into the world is much further into their comfort zone. They will also more than likely follow NHS advice, which is to recommend a CS for breech or if the mother doesn't want one, a medicalised vaginal breech delivery.

The Benna Waites book is a very worth while read, as is "Breech Birth: What are my options" by Jane Evans (published by AIMS).

Our conclusion was that breech birth is not intrinsically dangerous - but that breech birth with MWs that don't have the experience is. And that's the crux of the matter - finding MWs that have the confidence to sit on their hands while labour progresses and the skill to recognise when that's no longer the case and a CS is now the best course of action.

Fingers crossed your LO turns and you don't have to make the decision, because it isn't easy and there is no single right answer. If you've got any questions about my experience, please ask

Glad you liked the pictures Ruby - makes me all teary everytime I look at them!

I remembered that I had another really good link - it's from the BMJ so is based on some real facts and does show a lot of the flaws with the original breech study that Tangle mentioned. You will have to register but it's free and you only need to give your name and email address.

Tangle - i really appreciate you taking the time to post your experience

it is reassruing to know it can be done - sounds like you had an excellent experience

i feel i have so much more information to go on now

x-post

will check the link - thanks

that was it, the term breech trial! i kept wanting to call it HOOP but i know that was something different.

think the key to this is going to be the care givers.. and your hospital is now on notice to find you a MW with the skills to deliver a breech

ruby , have jsut forwarded my reply from Saint Beverley Beech !! what a star that woman is