Version question: sends baby into distress?

[JorgieGirl]

I have a friend who is 36 weeks with her first and baby is stubbornly breech. She has been doing everything in her power to get the LO to turn. Everything. She is scheduled for a version at 37+1. However, she has been warned that the chances of it failing then needing an immediate c/s due to baby being sent into distress is a possibility, by a friend.

I am not well versed on breech knowledge. Is this a legitimate concern? Does anyone have info on me as far as success rates for versions and failure rates followed by emerg. c-sec?

[AlexisT]

It is possible. AIUI, sometimes baby is breech for a reason--it's tangled in the cord. Turning a baby in this position can cause distress.

That said, there's a reason ECV is normally done while you're hooked up to a monitor. If there are any changes, they stop. I've heard of several ECVs that got stopped, but emergency CS is really rare. I've heard of it happening, but never personally heard a story about it. Docs are a lot more likely to do ECV than vaginal breech, IME, and we all know how liability-concerned they are.

[GoGoGirl]

My DD was breech and I had a successful external version at 36ish weeks. My midwife and the perinatologist explained that there was a possibility that if something went wrong, they would need to do an emergency c-section. The nursing staff was less gentle about it, they kept calling the procedure "an external version and possible c-section." The consent forms I signed were also for an external version and possible c-section. But all that said, they monitored me and the baby closely during the version to make sure everything was fine. If the baby had gone into distress, they would have just stopped the version.

[kitkatkaddoodle]

I've seen lots of versions, and only a handful of those ended up distressing the kid enough to need a c/s. Probably three or four during the 12 years I spend as an L&D nurse. Quite a few were stopped due to maternal discomfort, with a much smaller number stopped for some heart rate decels on baby's part that didn't warrant immediate immediate delivery.

Possibility of an emergent c/s? Yes. Likely? No, not really, though she should be prepared.

[Kidzaplenty]

[Megan73]

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18978117

This study seems reassuring.
I have read that a version can cause abruption or feto-maternal hemorrhage but according to this meta-analysis complications are very rare - even emergency sections.

[kltroy]

I had an unsuccessful ECV at 37 weeks for my son. I was told, as part of the informed consent process, that you wait until 37 weeks because there is a small chance of the version causing distress and necessitating a c/s. 37 weeks for my practice was the "balance" of maximizing chances that the baby was small enough to flip but making sure that baby was still mature enough that it would be fine on the off-chance of that distress occurring.

In my case the doctors gave it 2 good tries and when it was clear he wasn't going to flip we all agreed not to push it any more because there was probably a reason he was stuck breech.