Can I hear some positive breech stories? Googled and scared myself silly

[sundayfunday1010]

Hi I'm two days away from 36 weeks and have been googling all sorts on breech babies, from how to turn to what it might actually mean about the health of the baby. Of course, this was a stupid thing to do and now I've scared myself silly as to why the baby may be breech.

Is it really as uncommon in the UK as the stats suggest?

I don't know actually know anyone else who has had a breech baby, so potentially yes. Just hoping that by reaching out I can hear some positive stories in terms of outcomes and give myself a bit of reassurance!

Baby has been breech since about 28 weeks so think it is pretty comfy where it is.

Yikes! Before I terrify the poor OP, I’m only referring to the risk of vaginal delivery of breech babies.

Sometimes an edit function would be so helpful.

Both breech, both planned C-sections (separate pregnancies), no problems with hips. I wasn't breech but did have hip problems. FIL attempted to cheer me up at the prospect of the first C-section by claiming C babies have higher IQs! They are both at grammar school so he might have had a point.

I've just had a baby who was breech. He was turned by ECV at 36 weeks- it wasn't too bad, certainly not as bad as people made out. I then went on to have a normal vaginal delivery. He has little froggy legs which is normal for now, considering his position was breech since about 26 weeks. He has a hip scan later today actually!

I had an undetected footling breech, she was doing the splits with one foot near her ear and the other hanging down. I had a vaginal birth with forceps for her head at the end while the rest dangled out. Was like something out of James Herriot ! There was about 10 people in the delivery room. No pain relief, they even took the gas and air off me so I ‘ could concentrate better’ . At the end, the fucking end, when I had delivered her. They gave me a spinal block so they could dig out my retained placenta. I then didn’t see her for 2 days as she was in nicu and and I could be moved. So if I were you I would have a elc and make peace with it and try and relax. Apparently her delivery was very dangerous and she was very lucky. She was absolutely black and blue really badly bruised all over and her face was cut from the forceps. She was in nicu for 10 days ish and I had to go home and leave her as there were no empty parent rooms. All this was because of her traumatic delivery. She had ‘ clicky hips’ which is common in lots of babies, and had lots of tests on her hips and was monitored for quite a while and all was fine but she has had some minor problems as an adult, however I understand any hip problems come from her brutal delivery. So again, have your baby nicely and calmly with elcs and don’t worry, I’m sure your baby will be unaffected by their position.

My second DC was breach, I had a planned section at 39 weeks, which was really calm, and a surprisingly nice experience. She was referred for a hip scan at 2 weeks old (apparently our hospital do for all breach babies) which came back that one hip was slightly underdeveloped. They thought it would self correct, so they booked us to come back at 8 weeks, by which time it was perfect. Don't know if it made a difference but we used cloth nappies and carried her in a sling a lot, which are both ment to hold babies legs in a good position for healthy hip development.

DC2 was an undiagnosed breach baby. I have a child who had hip dysplasia but they were head down throughout. There is an increased risk of hip dysplasia for a breach baby and your baby will have a hip scan (at approx 6 weeks) but it's certainly not guaranteed they'll have hip issues.

My baby was breech. I didn't try anything to turn her and had an elective c section which was fine and recovery was quick. The first couple of days were sore. I would opt for a c section again. The baby was/ is fine, no hip issues. It took 5 days for my milk to come in, that was the only issue really. Turned out she would never have turned as the umbilical cord was short, so I'm very glad I didn't try.
Her cousin was breech, discovered in labour and SIL had an emergency section. The baby also had no issues and is fine.

My daughter was breach. I knew through the whole pregnancy. Tried to turn her at about 37 weeks, which was hellish. I wish I hadn't agreed to that part. Scheduled c-section at 38.5 weeks and it was a lovely experience for me. No complications at all and my daughter is a perfectly healthy 8 year old. I had my son vaginally before the section and the pain from the tearing was 1000 times worse then recovery from the c-section. All the best OP!

I had two breech babies, the first was emergency c-section at 37weeks (36corrected) due to other issues, but she is a healthy, but small 5 year old now.

The other was breech, traverse (ouch), breech too, she an elective c section as they didn't want other issues reoccurring from previous. She is now a bigger but healthy 3 year old.

I had an ECV to turn baby at 37 weeks as she was breech. She had a hip scan a few weeks after she was born and there were no issues

I had a footling breech which was discovered at 38 weeks, waters broke the next day and I had an emergency c section (previous birth was less than an hour so they rushed me through).

Section went really well, no hip issues detected at the scan.

Just reading about the froggy legs made me smile! OP - I wasn’t prepared for them so that was a big shock. Lasted about 5 days if I remember rightly - was a little difficult dressing him in babygros!