ECV experiences?

[Poppins2016]

I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant with a breech baby (confirmed at my last growth scan and midwife was sure the position hadn't changed when I saw her yesterday).

I have a growth scan and consultant appointment today, where I expect we'll end up discussing pros and cons of ECV. I've read the leaflet provided by my hospital's trust and done a little research, but figured I'd ask for anecdotal experience here. I'm aware (and very much hoping) that baby might still change position on their own, but need to be prepared in case that doesn't happen! I'm also trying to be conscious of position when seated/lying down and have been signposted to the Spinning Babies website in the hope that it helps!

So... for anyone that's had an ECV, how did you find it? Positive? Negative? Would you do it again? Any regrets? How was the discomfort/pain? Was it successful?

Hopeful bump... (wouldn't usually bump this early but appointment is in a couple of hours)! 🙂

My baby was still breech at 37 weeks when I had an ECV. I researched the pros and cons and decided I wanted to give it a go so I could have a natural birth. The ECV didn’t work for me as my baby kept moving out of the doctors grasp. I didn’t expect how uncomfortable and painful it would be, I ended up with quite a bruised and sore bump for a few days after. If it works the pain would be worth it however for me that wasn’t the case

Thank you for sharing @Babyshep, that's a really helpful perspective re the discomfort/pain being worth it if it works (sorry to hear it wasn't successful for you).

I haven't personally had an ECV but I am a midwife and worked in a breech clinic so I saw soooo many ECVs. The statistics are 50% success rate but that means 50% of babies go head down AND are born vaginally head down. It doesn't count as successful if you have one and it works & you have a caesarean for another reason.

Almost all of the women I saw said it was much less painful than they thought. Fairly quick procedure. If it doesn't work you can repeat it. It it's too sore you can ask them to stop trying.

I hope everything goes well for you :)

I had an ECV with my DD and found it okay. It was pretty intense and uncomfortable whilst they did it (full on knee on the table arms dug right in) BUT the pain faded quite quickly afterwards my ribs were sore for a few days but nothing too bad. The ECV was successful (I didn't hold my hope with having a high BMI and it being my first baby). I would try it again if this baby is breech too as I desperately don't want a c-section.

I’ve had one and wouldn’t have another one.

That isn’t because mine wasn’t effective (baby did turn during the procedure but I then went on to have an EMCS due to failure to progress on my fourth day of labour, then baby delivered with cord wrapped around its neck) but because it was incredibly painful and traumatic. I’d had some kind of patch/cream applied about half an hour before the procedure, but it didn’t really have an impact. I had no idea how physical it would be and how shocking I found that.

In my subsequent pregnancy, the baby was breach until week 35, but I’d already decided that if it didn’t turn of its own accord, I wasn’t having an ECV.

I seemed to lose the ability to speak during mine, it didn’t occur to me that I could have stopped the ECV at any time. It didn’t feel that way at all.

I don’t remember having an appointment with a consultant beforehand to discuss it but I guess this probably varies by trust. I knew I had a choice but the midwives didn’t really act like it to be honest, more like ‘next step is ECV, we’ll book you in for next week’ I was given a leaflet, decided to go for it as wanted to avoid c-section and baby was born vaginally 2 weeks later - head down and labour was 3 hours with no complications so I would definitely do it again. It was uncomfortable whilst it was being done but the part where the doctor was actually turning the baby probably only took 5-10 minutes

Had one at 38 weeks as I really hoped to have a straightforward birth. It was not as bad as I thought it was and I was on my own due to covid. Quite uncomfortable but manageable.

Unfortunately mine didn’t turn despite having better odds (second baby!). But I’m glad I tried.

Thank you, everyone.

It turns out that either the midwife was wrong or my baby turned in between seeing her and my scan, because I ended up not even having to discuss the option of ECV after the scan confirmed baby was head down!

@SacramentoQueen I'm seeing a consultant due to growth concerns, so discussing ECV would have been a useful additional conversation but not the primary reason for attending the clinic.