Vaginal delivery breech birth

[cockcrowfarm]

I am 39 weeks pregnant with first child. The baby is breech in frank breech position. The hospital said as baby is slightly small and i am slightly large they will let me try vaginal delivery.
I will be closely monitored and i know there is still a higher than normal chance of emergency csection. Can anyone share their similar experiences?

My dc3 was a vaginal breech birth. It was a surprise and I was completely fine until I got to the hospital and they found out.
My instincts were telling me to stand up and sort of hunch over and I was fairly comfortable.
As soon as I got to the hospital they made me get flat on my back with my legs in stirrups. It was more painful than any of my other births but was the fastest, only 3 hours from start to finish.

Huge risk for the bb, especially for the first, as you have no previous history of a successful vaginal delivery.
If you end up with the whole body delivered, the cervix stretched over the shoulders but clamped at the neck and now wait for the head to be delivered brain damage is the biggest risk. Then if the head can’t fit through the pelvis, in the OR, the body needs to be shoved back through the cervix at a huge risk of damage to the cervix and bleeding. All the mean while very few Dr’s have medical experience of breech vaginal deliveries.

Wow, 3 hours! Great to hear a more positive story. I've read that more upright positions are better and in my head I'm imagining a cow type position to be good because i can't lie on my back comfortably at all. I'll speak to consultant more about positions next appointment.

My first was a franklin breech (which my midwife completely missed). I had an excellent consultant and had an elective c-section which went very smoothly. Awake for the whole thing. Baby very happy and no trauma to either of us.

Do think very carefully about whether to try the vaginal delivery route. The advice from my consultant was "not to go there" and I'm very glad of the choice I made.

Not what you want to hear but you need to know - friends baby died as she attempted VB with breech baby. Cord prolapse Emergency c section just wasn’t quick enough to save him . I’d have an elective.

Knitclubchatter
From my research the risk wasn't huge at all but obviously since most woman have csection i still feel a bit nervous about the choice. Can you give me some statistics or suggested reading that can show me objectively the extent of the huge risk, i dont want to put the baby into big danger. The team do have experience so that will help.

Retired MW, all data old. Ask your consultant, they will have more recent figures.

I really want to try for vaginal birth but i am still considering elective csection. Im not in the UK and using an international hospital abroad. The medical are happy to allow attemptwd vaginal birth as long as baby is less than 3.5kg.

Knitclubchatter
Thank you, ill be meeting them again on Tuesday so i will ask what are the numbers for that hospital.

Hey there I found out lo was breech at 42 weeks turns out he'd been breech all along. I actually opted for a c section. I'm not saying that's right for you but it felt right for me in my situation. I do want to say that my c section was straight forward, relaxed and recovery was OK after the first few days really.

Speak to your consultant again and ask benefits, risks, alternatives.
breechbirth.org.uk/tag/breech-team/
Is a interesting resource, NICE guidelines, and Royal College of obstetricians and gynaecology have patient information leaflets too.
They will offer to turn the baby after 36 weeks, that is also worth discussing.
The reason for a decline in breech births was a study in 2000, the term breech trial which recommended C-section. It was quite quickly identified that the trial had some flaws and further studies have shown breech birth in the right circumstances for the right women is not as risky as the term breech trial suggested. So discuss this with your team too. A skilled experienced practitioner is crucial in vaginal breech birth so make sure you are confident in your team.

This is different but twin 2 was breech for me. She came out bottom first. Textbook birth with no issues. However I had just given birth to twin 1 which was head down. That obviously made a big difference to my cervix etc.

umberellaonesie
Thank you for the link. This is more similar to the information i was reading. I tried ecv a few days ago but it was unsuccessful. The hospital said i am a good candidate to try vaginal birth as my pelvis is wide and the baby is about 3kg.

I had a breech baby. She was frank breech, which really isn’t much different to cephalic.

The key thing is to not do any kind of intervention - no induction, acceleration or pain relief.

It either totally natural or a c-section.

Google “Mary Cronk”.

I was determined to have breech VB with DC1. Hospital v supportive but in hindsight it was a bit foolish, as it ended in an EMCS as DC1 got most of the way out before getting stuck, so the resultant section was technically difficult and also happening because DC1 was distressed. All completely fine, but only because medical staff were excellent and we were quite lucky. I should probably have gone for a elective section as I had no previous history of birth. DC2 was vbac, so no issues there.

My second baby was in the frank breech position and I had a vaginal delivery. I was able to push the baby out and only ended up with my legs in stirrups to help deliver the head.
My doctor was happy to do a vaginal delivery as it was my second and I had no problems with the first. I also had a room full of doctors and nurses as there are not many born this way anymore and they have to witness so many breech vaginal births.
I hope everything goes well with your birth which ever way you decide to go.

Forgot to say, I am Australian and so born in a hospital in Sydney and son is now 33 years old, so things have changed I think since then.

Thank you for responses. i still have a small hope that the baby will face the correct exit but in the meantime it is very useful to read your experiences.