Breech Vaginal Delivery? - lurker from Dec 2012

BLuvsE · May 2012

New here with a quick question... I usually post on December 2012.

I just found out that because of the shape of my uterus, my baby is more likely to be breech. I am currently choosing between two doctors - one who automatically does c-sections for breech presentation, and one who says "you have options." I am currently working with the first doctor and really like him, but I don't like the "automatic c-section" deal.

Anyone here give birth vaginally with a breech presentation? Do you have any information about the risk/benefit of vaginal vs. c-section for a breech baby?

Thanks!

kami1977 · May 2012

No actual experience with a breech delivery but you can look at The Thinking Woman's Guide for A Better Birth by Henci Goer. It looks at the research on various interventions and summarizes them. She has a chapter on breech babies, her conclusion is a C-Section isn't always automatically indicated and that in certain breech cases a vaginal delivery is safer than a breech one. She also cites all the research she uses in a chapter at the end of the book so you could look at the actual research yourself. var fctb_tool=null; function PQr12US27F91(t) { fctb_tool=t; start(fctb_tool); }

sschwege · May 2012

kami1977:
No actual experience with a breech delivery but you can look at The Thinking Woman's Guide for A Better Birth by Henci Goer. It looks at the research on various interventions and summarizes them. She has a chapter on breech babies, her conclusion is a C-Section isn't always automatically indicated and that in certain breech cases a vaginal delivery is safer than a breech one. She also cites all the research she uses in a chapter at the end of the book so you could look at the actual research yourself. var fctb_tool=null; function PQr12US27F91(t) { fctb_tool=t; start(fctb_tool); }

This is the book I was going to recommend as well.

Celyn · May 2012

I didn't deliver that way, but I was born that way

What kinds of options is Dr. #2 giving you? Is he certified for breech delivery?

dmhrn13 · May 2012

the problem is there are not many people with a lot of experience doing vaginal breeches, because its almost always handled my C/S now. i am a CNM & in our practice breech is an automatic C/S.

there are some homebirth midwives out there who do breech deliveries- but there are a lot of risks & you need to think long & hard first. we had one of those in our community recently & it did not end well.

my advice would be to look for a "old school" doctor- this usually means OLD that has experience in doing them if you really want to try for a vaginal birth. there are still some out there. if you've had a baby before you're chances are higher because you've got "a proven pelvis" and things are stretched.

of course, you may have a head down baby! you can also see a chiropractor & acupunturist to increase the chances of the baby being in a head down position in the first place. I'd start seeing them around 28-30 weeks.

good luck!

pianist1989 · May 2012

I know in Canada they are trying to push for more vaginal breech deliveries if the baby is frank breach. This website has lots of breech birth stories, including a recent set of twins that were both breech. There are lots of other cool natural birth stories on there too.

https://birthwithoutfearblog.com/

pixieprincss · May 2012

I don't have personal experience, but I came in because I find the lack of options for breech births intriguing and frustrating and in my quest to learn more, I just finished reading a chapter about this in the book Pushed, So, that one might be a good one for your reading list. The title isn't that obvious, and I don't have the book in front of me, but it is one of the first couple of chapters.

MrsI · May 2012

Lurking...

Just wanted to give you some hope. I was also told I would have a c/s because of my uterus shape. Well DD ended up head down and then my uterus prevented her from turning at all again so I ended up with a natural labor like planned. Don't be defeated yet

sccalla · May 2012

My daughter was breech up until a couple days before I birthed her. My backup midwife--I found a midwife who would deliver breech since the midwives at my birth center aren't allowed to--lent me a book called Breech Birth Woman-Wise by Maggie Banks. My husband and I found it very helpful.

abbyful · May 2012

Not my personal experience (well, I guess it sort of is).

I was born breech, feet-first. That was back in the early 80s, they still wanted to do a c-section on my mom, but I was born so fast they didn't have time to prep her for it. (She taught school all day, I was born at 5:30pm.)

RockyMtnMama · May 2012

I had a breech vaginal delivery with midwives about 3 1/2 years ago. It wasn't planned to be - we all missed that the baby was breech until I was pushing and he was out 27 min later.

The things I had going for me:

-Wasn't checked early, so nobody knew our baby was breech and didn't have the option to transfer for c-section before birth was imminent

-Back-up doctor to midwives is a breech delivery teacher for the nation's doctors so one of the midwives had attended vaginal breech delivery (Dr. Michael Hall - if you're looking in the CO area)

-Baby was frank breech (butt first, not footlong/feet), which is much "safer" for delivery

-Second time mom with one unmedicated birth under my belt already - second time moms have it easier with pushing and final labor stages, so they are better candidates.

We've moved away from that state and so if my current kiddo is breech, I would have to travel hundreds of miles to find a doctor/midwife who wouldn't go directly to c-section. Honestly I'm torn as to what I'd do if the baby was breech this time - I keep joking with friends about free-birthing at home.

Let me know if you want more details or want to read the birth story...here it is: https://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/2942580.aspx

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Breech Vaginal Delivery? - lurker from Dec 2012

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