Could you ladies give me your breech birth experiences and knowledge?

[McSnail]

Hi - not been on the childbirth forum for ages, but I found it a great source of advice and support when I was due to have my first baby 5 months ago (Incidentally the labour was NOT what I'd hoped for. 36 hours of labour, a failed forceps delivery, then an emergency c-section followed by a spectacular haemorrhage. But I am a warrior now, haha! Plus, my daughter is fabulous )

Anyhoo - back to my original purpose. My sister is 33 weeks pregnant. Her baby is breech. Obviously the baby may move by itself, and she's booked in to have it manipulated (don't know the correct medical term for this although she did tell me)

If it stays breech though, what can she expect? Will she be offered a C-section? Or will she still have regular labour followed be emergency c-section if needed?

Also, if you can be bothered relating your breech birth experience on this thread, that would be great. Will put this on the Pregnancy forum too.

Many thanks.

Thanks! Very informative.

My third child was discovered to be breech when his bum emerged rather than his head. They had NO IDEA this was about to happen, nor did I.

Emergency alarms were pressed, about 20 people seemed to appear from nowhere and I gave birth kneeling up, hanging onto the bed head for dear life, 100% naturally.

I think some of the people were there just because they hadn't seen it before tbh! Anyhoo, he came out easily enough, his head got a little bit stuck and I was tired by this time altho it had been quick. he needed a bit of oxygen.

DD1 was born as a breech baby at home with IMs. I've put my story up a number of times - you should find it if you search - but I'm happy to answer any questions about the experience and our decision making process.

I agree with what Loopymumsy said. "Breech Birth: What are my options" by Jane Evans is also worth reading.

We didn't book IMs till I was about 36 weeks. We had the "So, your baby's breech" conversation with a registrar, and were told pretty well verbatim "we recommend a CS for breech babies because of the Term Breech Trial. We know its badly flawed but its the best we've got." (The Term Breech Trial is the paper written by Hannah et al that LM refers to. It was published in The Lancet in 2000 - you can read it on their site for free by registering - and is now discredited to the point nearly all the original authors agree it should be discounted). If I'd used that logic at university I'd have failed, and if I'd tried at work I'd have been well on the way to being sacked - it didn't really inspire me to follow that advice. When we asked about a vaginal birth we were (reluctantly) given a very medicalised model - as vaginal delivery if you use the distinction given my Mary Cronk.

All that said, I do believe that the best way to reduce the risk of vaginal breech birth is to have skilled HCP's, and as LM said, those skills can be hard to find. One of the factors in us going for a vaginal breech birth was that we could book IMs with very good breech skills. Like it or not, the conclusions of the Term Breech Trial were adopted throughout the NHS and, in consequence the vaginal breech birth rate in the UK went through the floor. This has resulted in MWs becoming, as a population, deskilled for breech birth.

Our conclusion was that there is no right way to birth a breech baby. There is no risk free route and the risks of the different options are not directly comparable. Its a very hard and very personal decision. I hope your sister has a good experience, whatever way up her baby is and whatever decision she makes

Thanks Tangle, that's interesting.