When birth plans change. Breech birth story.

This episode we have a birth story for you. Being a Pregnancy Birth and Beyond show, we don't actually have a lot of birth stories on the show, so this is a real treat. There is a wide range of birth stories from horror stories to empowerment stories and everything in-between. And than within each birth story there are a number of versions, there is the medical story, the social story, the close friend story, the couples story, the baby's story, the personal story and what I find most interesting is the story beneath the story.


Our guest is Jazzie and Lessie (Jazzie's mum, and now a grandmother). Jazzie's pregnancy might have begun like many other first time parents. Jazzie had what is refereed to as low risk pregnancy. Meaning she had no health considerations that could potentially negativity impact on her labour or baby. However sometimes the unexpected happens.

This episode we hear not only about Jazzie breech vaginal birth in hospital but also about her decision making, the kind of care she received, what helped and what didn't and more here on Pregnancy Birth and Beyond media.

How common is the breech position?
Breech position, which is bottom first, accounts for 3% to 4% of term pregnancies.
Breech positioning is more common in preterm babies with 25% in breech position at 28 weeks,
The majority of breech babies born in western industrialised cultures including Australia are born by elective or planned Cesarean.


If your baby is breech, what choices do you have:
Every situation is different, some breech births are more favorable to a vaginal birth than others.
You get to decide what is best for you and your baby.
Your options are:
planned caesarean section
attempt vaginal birth

There are studies on breech birth, for example Term Breech Trial and the Pre-MODA study which both had some different concluding results. So a breech birth presents with potential risks for the baby, this could be the type of breech, or other identified risk factors for example intrauterine growth restriction, which is a very small baby for its gestational age and parents genetic disposition. And further to the safety of vaginal breech birth is the competency of the care provider. When a healthcare provider is skilled at breech birth it is, according to Pre-MODA study, just as safe to have a vaginal breech birth as it is to have a C/S and you also have to consider the long term health implications and not just the short term. So in a short term, you could view a planned c/s as less risk adverse for the baby as in it is planned, relatively quick and hyper managed . however, the longterm health of the children born via c/s is not fully understood yet, and studies coming out are concluding mode of birth does have an impact on the health of babies and children, meaning vaginal birth overall, population based have greater health benefits for both baby and mother. C/S babies have increased need of stays in NICU, increased difficulty with early breastfeeding, less diversity in the babies microbiome, Plus all the psycho-social aspects of wellbeing to consider.

In preparing for this episode I found a great resource for parents who baby is in breech position after 36 weeks. Go to www.breechbirth.net it is AU and NZ based site.

www.sarawickham.com has a number of articles on breech birth, including on the Term Breech Trial, and also on c/s.

Www.midwifethinking.com and

www.evidencedbasedbirth.com

Produced and presented by Lara Martin
Copyright PBB Media and Lara Martin 2019
www.pbbmedia.org