Breech delivery in Washington state?

[xzaviers_mama]

I'm going to see my midwife for my 36 week check shortly... at 34 weeks, she  believed the baby was breech.  She said that if he still was at 36 weeks, she'd send me for an u/s, and then talk about an ECV.  

I do not want to wind up at a hospital, being cut open.  I've already delivered 3 babies, with absolutely no problems, so I know that my pelvis is perfectly capable of birthing a baby's head.  I'm assuming that my midwives will not deliver me if they know he's breech, so I'm curious what my options would be at that point.  Would another midwife even take me on this late in the game?  And how do I even go about finding one who will deliver a breech baby?  

I've found a chrio close to me who specializes in the Webster Technique, so I would definitely try that if he's still breech today.  And honestly, I'm just not that concerned.  I know that very few babies are actually breech at the time of delivery... and even if he was, I feel confident that everything would be okay.  I just feel like everything is so up in the air right now... And dh is not keen on the idea of u/c.  *sigh*

[cameragirl]

I hope that the Webster technique works for you! It doesn't hurt at all, and the success rate is higher than an ECV.

[xzaviers_mama]

Originally Posted by cameragirl 

I hope that the Webster technique works for you! It doesn't hurt at all, and the success rate is higher than an ECV.

I watched a video of someone having the webster technique done, and it looked totally pain free!  The ECV... yeah... lol.  I don't love the idea of that at all.  Not to mention, I've read that some women are encouraged to take muscle relaxers, or even get an epidural for the ECV???  If I don't want to be exposed to an epidural for birth, why in the world would I want one beforehand?

[xzaviers_mama]

He's head down now!  Yay!

[cameragirl]

Alright!

[AlexisT]

Originally Posted by cameragirl 

I hope that the Webster technique works for you! It doesn't hurt at all, and the success rate is higher than an ECV.

The "study" that showed this was completely unreliable. It was a survey mailed to chiropractors doing Webster that asked them if they'd had any successes (so, a retrospective technique, subject to recall bias). Only 18% even answered. In 59 of the 102 claimed successes, breech position had not been confirmed by u/s.

[cameragirl]

Originally Posted by AlexisT 

The "study" that showed this was completely unreliable. It was a survey mailed to chiropractors doing Webster that asked them if they'd had any successes (so, a retrospective technique, subject to recall bias). Only 18% even answered. In 59 of the 102 claimed successes, breech position had not been confirmed by u/s.

I haven't read the story, but I do see a chiropractor that has had very good luck with it. ECV is only around 50/50 and is painful, so it would be worth a shot either way.

[womenswisdom]

Originally Posted by xzaviers_mama 

I watched a video of someone having the webster technique done, and it looked totally pain free!  The ECV... yeah... lol.  I don't love the idea of that at all.  Not to mention, I've read that some women are encouraged to take muscle relaxers, or even get an epidural for the ECV???  If I don't want to be exposed to an epidural for birth, why in the world would I want one beforehand?

The idea of taking a muscle relaxer (actually brethine, not a narcotic) or an epidural is to make the abdominal muscles as relaxed as possible so that the ECV has the best chance of being successful. If it comes down to doing an ECV with an epidural or scheduling a c-section (where you'll get a spinal for sure), I'd take the epidural and ECV.

[xzaviers_mama]

Originally Posted by womenswisdom 


The idea of taking a muscle relaxer (actually brethine, not a narcotic) or an epidural is to make the abdominal muscles as relaxed as possible so that the ECV has the best chance of being successful. If it comes down to doing an ECV with an epidural or scheduling a c-section (where you'll get a spinal for sure), I'd take the epidural and ECV.

Absolutely!  However, I would have rather delivered a breech baby.  Especially since this is my 4th child, and I know that my pelvis is capable of delivering a full term baby's head.  

I'm just glad I don't even have to worry about this decision anymore...lol.  I suppose the baby could still flip over if he really, really wanted to.... but he better not!

[maztec]

In case you end up breech (hopefully not).  There are doctors in the area that will do a vaginal breech delivery for a frank presentation, as long as the mother had previously had a natural delivery without any complications.  You would have to satisfy all of the criteria for a breech delivery, which includes it being a second vaginal birth, but it is possible.  From there, you have to overcome the hospital's restrictions on such things - which is doable.

Criteria:

* Second Vaginal Birth

* 5.5-8.8 lbs

* Head flexed

* Frank presentation

There are other doctors at Swedish that will also do vaginal breech delivery's in some cases.  None of them like to do them, but they will do them if necessary:

David Luthy

Jim Harding

Dale Reisner

Tonya Sorenson

Supposedly at UW the following doctors will do them for a second vaginal delivery:

Dave Eschenbok

Tom Easterling

Tom Bennedenny
Zane Brane

Jeroen Venderhoeven

My wife and I researched this recently when we found out our first baby was breech.  Ultimately we had a cesarean, but we managed to get the best possible cesarean given the circumstances (including delayed cord clamping).