Empowering Birth Blog

Great Footling Breech Video

Check out this great video: http://www.homebirth.net.au/2008/04/breech-birth.html.  A great example of hands off the breech.

Blog about Breech, Twin, and Pre-term Births

I found the blog Breech Mama several months ago but it had not been updated in a long time.  Just checked it out and looks like the author is writing again.  Yay!  Check it out!  There is a lot more I would like to write but hate to take too much time away from my studies.  But I have a post or two in the works...  If you are considering a vaginal breech, definitely check out Breech Mama's great critique of the Term Breech Trial.

Cesareans are Risky

A recent study that looked at 97,095 deliveries in eight Latin American countries found that moms with cesareans had a higher risk of death and more complications for both mom and baby.

Regarding better outcomes with cesarean delivery for breech birth, I would have to add, based on my studies and conversations with midwives, that to ensure successful outcomes for vaginal breech birth, you need to be experienced (your average doctor has little experience delivering breech) AND you need to know your client (and how do you get to really know your client in 10-20 minute prenatal visits).  I wonder how outcomes are affected if you factor in the skill of the attending care provider and the length of prenatal visits.

Breech Birthers Should have Choice

Well of course they should!  My sweet husband sent me a link to this informative article this morning:

Breech birth women 'choice call' Pregnant women should be offered an alternative to caesareans if they are facing breech births, experts say.  Good to know people are talking about this.  I mean, what are people going to do about surprise breech when there are no doctors left with breech experience?  Shove the baby back up the birth canal and perform a cesarean?  One thing I would like to mention.  The article recommends against doing external cephalic version or ECV (attempting to turn the baby from breech to head down) unless an emergency cesarean can be performed.  Many midwives successfully attempt ECV out of the hospital.  According to Henci Goer, who has done an enormous amount of evidence-based research, "studies agree that ECV is safe and effective when practiced as directed, but that overly forceful manipulations can be extremely dangerous."1  So no need for a surgical team to be standing by, just find yourself a competent practitioner.

Henci Goer, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth (New York, New York, The Berkley Publishing Group, 1999), 38.