Breech Baby - how bad is the delivery?

[Elf1981]

I know I have some time yet for things to change, but just wanted a bit of advice.
I'll be 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow with my first baby. The past two scans that I have had (one last week, the other two weeks previous) have shown that my little bub is breech. On the first scan it was an extended breech. On the second, still breech but one leg flexed, the other extended.

The hospital have told me that the usually wait til about 36 weeks to re-scan (I think at the advice of the community midwife from when they've felt the position) and then if bubs is still breech, it's up to me whether I have a "natural" birth or a C-Section.

The hospital doesn't do manual turning and my placenta is anterior and I've read they wont manually turn if the placentas in that position. I know there is the possiblity of bubs turning by themselves in the next week or so but if they dont turn, what's the best thing?

Is a C-section far safer for breech babies?
Would my chasing a "natural" delivery lead to an emergency C-section if things don't go to plan?

I'd love to hear people's experiences. Just wondered if anybody had any info for me?

mp - that's the scenario (body out then epis/forceps for the head) that is supposed to be unnecessary and more damaging than cs - now I shall have to go back to the research to find out why. Really hope that sproglet does the decent thing and presents head down reasonably soon so that none of this is an issue. It's currently still "free" according to m/w.

Hiya,
My DD was breech, we found out at 35 weeks. She was my first and i was scared of having section.
I was very upset cause i was looking forward natural birth. They offered ECV ( External Cervix? version), which they turn baby outside. We went ECV at 37 weeks, i was worried cause she was big baby, luckily they turned her. To be honest it was not easy,it doesnt heart that bad but it feels strange. The consultant who does turning said that i was lucky that had lots of water. Also she was one leg flexed and one extended. When i had ECV, all the medicals, including midwife,consultant, doctors they were very nice and they assured baby was fine during the process. They have tried twice, first time it was young lady doctor, but she couldnt cause DD was big and heavy to lift of the pelvic bone. So they called head consultant, and he turned it in couple minutes.
And i had my DD just 1 week after the ECV. She was fine, we have her hip checked, cause shes been breech, she is 4 months and we have ben another check up and they told us that she is 100% normal so we dont need to worry. It is just, we dont know how long baby was in breech position. So they said its hospital policy to check breech babies when they are young.
I hope your bub will turn itself cause you have couple weeks to go. in my case i was in late weeks of my pregnancy and my baby was over the average.
My friends baby was breech but her cord was short so she didn`t have ECV and had c section.

Any question please just ask or CAT me.
All the best to you and your bub

Elf, they don't advise a vaginal delivery for a footling breech as the foot can break the amneotic sac, the cord slip out and the bottom come down and trap it, IYSWIM.

Ds was a footling breech, i had a planned section and was 100% fine. He is now a strapping 5.5 year old.

I know the thought is a bit scary but honestly I was totaly fine, and so was he.

Good luck.

Elf, don't worry about a C-section, they are much less stressful and easier to recover from than a difficult vaginal birth where things go wrong. I've got friends left permanently incontinent by vaginal births, and in one case needing corrective surgery, but I don't know anyone who's had major problems after a C-section.

In your position I would go for the C-section if baby doesn't turn. Hospitals nowadays lack the practical experience of vaginal breech births, so why risk it?

mary cronk has her own website mary cronk

she may be worth contacting for more advice.

its great that your hospital are offering you the choice, most don't! that obviously means that their midwives are trained and confident in the art of delivering a breech, which as with all births that are strightforward is easy - hands off until delivering the head. i would just have a discussion with tehm about the chances of delivering naturally and how many women who are diagnosed breech go on to deliver naturally with little intervention. i must say it is a fnatastic sight to see, starnge too, your waiting for a head and then this little bum sticks out instead!

i'm quite envious that you have the choice, my second was a breech and i had to have him delivered by section because his brother was an emergency section 4 years before so no choice.

I hope your midwife and hospital are supportive in the decisions you make.

p.s if things didn't go to plan then a c-section maybe inevitable, but then so can a head down baby iyswim.

DS was an undiagnosed breech. I had actually read up on the subject while pregnant and decided that I would opt for a c-section if that happened (as it turned out that's what I did get although it was an emergency due to the late diagnosis )

I felt, and still do feel, that the risks to the baby of a vaginal breech birth are just too great. My c-section wasn't nearly the bad experience that I thought it would be and if I get pregnant again will have a scheduled section with no qualms whatsoever.

I was the same as you jabberwocky, undiagnosed breech, bottom presentation. They saw it hanging out when i got to 10cm dialated! He had passed muconium which was the start of things as muconium doesnt come from a head does it.
I had pre eclampsia so was induced at 36 weeks, the had a few attempts to break my waters and eventually did.
DS now has scars on his lower back and bottom from the hook they used.
I had a GA wasnt given a choice and i dont even remember discussing it.
HOWEVER, it was THE absolute correct decision for me, made on my behalf.
I felt safe, cared for and in control, my midwife was superb, confident and i felt that she treated me like i mattered.
I will be forever indebted to her for all that she did for me that day.
Ds was safely delivered and i was given great care throughout.
If your baby doesnt turn then i would urge you to make the safest decision for you and your baby, read up and educate yourself as far as possible.
I didnt have this luxury,

Like DonBean, I had an undiagnosed breech, I was told he'd turned at 32 weeks and every midwife there after said the same until 10 hrs into labour and someone felt a bottom!

I "choose" to have a emergency caesar as I was exhausted and the hosp. was down 4 midwives that night (with 2 sets of twins being born as well).

I have to say, I am v happy with my choice, we neither of us had any ill effects and I read some worrying stats on modern breech birth afterwards that made me glad we took this option.

Having said that, my MIL gave birth to 2 breech babies vaginally (DH & SIL), so it can be done. I think the important thing is get to know your midwife, if you have confidence in her/him you have a far greater chance of having a good birth experience.

As to worrying about the CS, I have what borders on a phobia about going numb (in antenatal, when we talked about epidurals, I nearly passed out!), but it was no where near as bad as I thought it'd be BUT I am a born worrier and was glad not to have a scheduled CS date to look forward to IYKWIM

As an aside, did any of the other breech mums find their babies were abit "lazy" when it came to crawling and walking? We had two in my AN Group (DS and a girl) and neither was much interested in crawling - we put it down to being breech.

Intersting thoughts about breech babies being slow to crawl, but my ds didn't fit the pattern. Crawled at 8 months and walked at 13.

They did check his hips over at a few months because of the position he had been in (footling breech) and he was fine.

Ds crawled at 5 months and walked at 8 1/2! They did check his hips carefully at first, though as I guess there can be some issues with frank breech babies. His little legs were all up in the air for a week or two.

mine didnt crawl till about 10 months and then it was a funny little manouvre, not what i would call a proper crawl but it got him effectively from A to B. He then walked at 11 months.

My baby is still breech at the moment, I'm now 33 weeks pregnant.
Midwife has said she'll see me in 2 weeks, then at 37 weeks. Then if still breech she'll refer me to the hospital at 38 weeks. Any ideas what the hospital's opinion would be? Would they tell me to come back in a week for a section? Surely 38 weeks is a bit late to be meeting the consultant about talking about a section, and would leave no room for manual turning (if they'd do it, I don't think they do, esp as my placenta is anterior).

Any info?

I was told an ECV would be done at 37 weeks. Theres a chance of sponteneous labour so the baby needs to be old enough to come out. I'd at least ask to see someone before 38 weeks (my DS was born then!) so that you can discuss the possibilities - you don't want them to back you into a corner options wise.

I had a breech baby naturally and it honestly wasn't a problem. I didn't have any drugs and was left unscathed .

I suspected that my baby was breech and decided to keep the information to myself (no examination in late pregnancy). I read up a lot on breech births (the term breech trial had recently been published at the time and there was plenty of debate about it). The research was pretty clear - you either go the completely natural route with absolutely no medical assistance (aka "hands off the breech") or you go for an elective C-section. Messing about with a vaginal birth - induction, acceleration and forceps - and you are more likely to have problems. In the TBT, the doctor-led vaginal births had a worse outcome than midwife-led births.

When you have a trial of labour, the labour will either proceed steadily to birth, or it will stop after a time. If it stops, then there is a problem with the fit and the safest option from that point is a c-section.

I had breech baby (first baby).

Elf insist on the scan before 38 weeks. It will be to late to try ECV by this stage.

I was very insistnet on trying for a natural delivery and my hospital (the royal surrey in Guildford) were very suppotive. My consultant also agreed to a 'trial of labour' as long as I didn't go beyond my 40 weeks. Al agreed that it would be only feasible is a I dilated at a rate of 1 cm an hour. After lots of curries, sex and pineabpple I went into labour two days before by elective CS. After 9 hours of labour I was still only 3.5 cm so had a CS. It was all fine.

Ther is a very slught increas ein morbidity for breech babies - but this is very very slight. (i.e. approx from 1 to 3 in 3000).

Good luck

That's hard when a dilation rate is imposed on you, Dophus.

With my breech baby, the most noticeable thing about the labour was that it was a lot slower than I anticipated and the contraction pattern was fair constant (instead of the ctx getting closer together).

I was upset fr a few weeks following the birth and disappointed I had a CS. I'm OK with it now and look forward to a natural delivery with the next!

dophus thats the hospital where i was born

One thing I was told by the midwife (whilst trying to decide about a section) was that you only have to dilate to 7-8 cm to begin pushing. Was anyone else told this?

I think they assume that by the time the bottom is out, you'll have made the final 2 cm

My second dd was a footling breech, and although I tried everything (accupuncture, hanging elegantly off the sofa with my bum in the air and elbows on the floor, being mauled around by the consultant etc) she stubbornly refused to turn. I'd dreaded going into labour as I wanted a home birth (Sheila Kitzinger says it shouldn't be a problem, but my hospital disagreed, to put it mildly...), and I was told I could try a vaginal delivery, but I'd definitely have to have an epidural incase I needed a section.

In the end everything went fine. The epidural was wonderful, and the midwife fetched a mirror so I could see the tiny purple foot emerging, like a gruesome special effect from a science fiction film! At that point I was whisked into theatre and told to push very hard-- the consultant was hovering with his scissors looking anxious. Luckily she shot out with the next push.

I was happy with the information and degree of choice I was given, and felt confident in my decision to try for a vaginal delivery-- but then it was my 2nd baby and I'd had a very straightforward delivery 1st time round. It's really hard to weigh up the information, take on board the horror stories and scary statistics and make a balanced choice. Just wanted to let you know that it wasn't such a bad thing for me.

Good luck!

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omgosh!!! giraffeski i am so sorry!! has bozza emailed you? i will send it to you on tues, or straight to her if it's easier

My last check (a couple days ago) has given me the scare. My twins have turned to breech and horizontal positions just over the last couple weeks and so the doctor has now said I have 100% chance of c-section. And this scares me really as this is my first. Just the thought of undergoing surgery scares me. And I have heard stories of other people just doing a lot of walking around and have successfully managed to deliver naturally and the babies have turned in the right positions.

arlynab - There was a thread the other month about ideas on turning breech / transverse babies. Non have been too good for me so far (got another visit with midwife next week) but still worth a try. Also, if you have the "mumsnet on babies" book, that has a lot of good ideas about turning. Hopefully your babies will turn. I'm with you with being frightened about the idea of surgery, esp when I was so blase through the rest of my pregnancy, always skipping over the c-section chapters in books thinking it wouldn't happen to me. That'll teach me to be arrogant!!

I think one of the reasons why my baby hasnt turned yet is that they seem to have rather long legs (!) When I've had scan measurments done (last one about two weeks ago) the leg measurements were off the chart, so am beginning to panic that the baby wont turn because they haven't got enough room. Probably being paranoid.

Will have to see if they've turned next week...