To ECV or not to ECV.

[licadee]

36.5 weeks along....breech baby for about 5 weeks now. I have had major stress over this version thing and I don't think I want to do it. A 58% success rate isn't very promising, plus he could just turn back? Ugh.

Have tried cold peas, music, light, Webster technique, acupuncture/ moxibustion (second round yesterday), self-hypno (Turn Your Breech Baby by Hypnobabies), and started Pulsatilla yesterday. Oh and doing inversions and breech tilts every day.

From what I have read if he doesn't turn with the Websters and acu/moxi, there's probably a reason he isn't turning.

I was hoping for a water birth for this one. dS 1 wasn't breech, had hum vaginally.

Anyone opt not for the ECV and their baby turned? If so when? And was it completely obvious as they were turning?

Still have to try under water handstands and professional hypno.

The version just raises a red flag for me, ya know? Even knowing they do all that monitoring. I haven't decided 100% yet but knowing I'm pretty sure I won't do it already has me way more relaxed than I have been...which is another sign to me that it's the right decision for us.

Sorry for the ramble...

[fruitfulmomma]

Subbing... would love to hear answers...baby girl is breech again at 30 weeks, hoping she flips again but want to know my options...agree that ecv makes me nervous.

[AnnieA]

I found out at 35 weeks that DD was single footling breech. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I had looked forward to birthing a child since before I was pregnant. So I started doing everything short of an ECV. I was not comfortable with the risk factors associated with ECV, including needing a medical induction if the version stressed DD to the point that she needed to get out ASAP. I started going to my chiro every other day for Webster adjustments. I did frozen things up by her head. I got her to turn transverse one night around 37 weeks but she popped back up breech. I went to the pool and tried to do handstands underwater but felt like I was drowning so had to stop. I did pelvic tilts. The only things I didn't try were acupuncture and moxibustion. 

The day I had to schedule my c-section, I burst in to tears in the nurse's office. I had begged my OB to let me just go in to labor and then do the c-section but because of her presentation as single footling breech, he was concerned about cord prolapse if I was dilated and my water broke. So we scheduled it for a Wednesday. I went in to labor on the Saturday night before my scheduled c-section. I spent the night at the hospital and my OB came to do the surgery Sunday morning. DD flipped to frank breech during labor. After she was out, I heard one of the nurses comment that there was nothing that should have kept DD breech, meaning nothing obstructing her from turning. A few minutes later, one of the nursery nurses discovered that DD's O2 level was 54%. A few hours later, she was across town in the NICU getting her first ECHO to diagnose her congenital heart defect. She had her first heart surgery at 8 days old.

I've said for many years that babies are survivalists. They know what to do to try to be born alive. I'm convinced that DD flipped breech because of her heart condition. She may have been fine going through a vaginal birth with her heart condition but she may not have. All this to say that if you try all the traditional tricks to get your baby to turn and they don't, maybe they know what's best. It may be safest for them to be born via c-section, even though that isn't our ideal.
 

[Monkey Keeper]

We were going to attempt an ECV, but my son was vertex at the preparatory u/s. He varied from breech (single footling, sort of) to oblique to sorta-vertex from 34w until shortly before he was born. I really believe that Webster chiro coupled with massage to work on the soft tissue around my uterus helped him want to stay head down. Turns out I had polyhydramnios, so he had tons of room to turn whatever way he wanted, even though he was a big baby.  

It definitely is a frustrating time, but statistically most babies do finally turn to vertex, even late in the game. I'm glad we didn't end up doing the ECV because he most likely would have turned back anyway, if he wanted.