Has anyone tried an external version?

[Charity]

We just found out on Sunday that our baby is breech, and after five days of trying various other things to get her to turn, we now have an appointment on Tuesday for a version--at which point we'll be exactly 38 weeks. I'm still not sure I want to go ahead with this, so I'm looking for advice!

What do you all know about ECV? Would you do it if your baby was breech at 38 weeks? (We had planned a homebirth, but I'm not comfortable with trying a breech birth at home.) If you've had one, what did it feel like? Is it standard practice to get drugs to relax the uterus, or is that part optional? How worried should I be about the risk of putting the baby in distress?

And--did it work for you? Any advice would be much appreciated.

[onelilguysmommy]

id get my butt to a chiro before doing it. there ARE risks to it.

my mom had a version with my, i wouldnt turn. (though i was 12lbs and they did more than an extrnal version...then cut my head open for testing, but thats cause of her health problems :Sigh: oh..and then i moved right back where i was. again anyway. )

but it doesnt always work, and when it does, if the babys comfy like that especially if its cause of your bones being even slightly misaligned, theyre likely to flipflop back.

id try ANYTHING before attmepting this, but thats me.

[chinaKat]

Well, I did try anything and everything before I tried ECV -- chiro, acupuncture, inversion, hot/cold, flips in the pool. Nothing worked. I had to have an OB do the ECV -- my MW doesn't do it -- I went with one that had a particularly high success rate.

I wasn't too psyched to do it but I was desperate.

Baby was frank breech at 37 weeks 1 day the day of the ECV. I had it done at the hospital, they gave me a drug to relax the uterus, it stayed in my system about an hour, with the only side effect being it made me a little jittery (think too much caffeine).

There was a tech doing ultrasound while the OB did the procedure. The OB's plan was to pop baby's bum out from under my pelvic bone and up out the pelvis, and then have the baby do a somersault.

Unfortunately, it didn't work for us. Baby didn't want to do anything but be bum down.

It wasn't horribly physically painful, but it was emotionally difficult for me when I realized it wasn't going to work.

I'm waiting to go into labor now, and hoping the baby will flip with the onset of labor.

I hope your baby flips!!!!

[g&a]

Not in your DDC but had to reply. I had one with my dd, 3 years ago. They didn't give me any drugs. We tried it at 37 weeks, which is standard for here. If you try it too late the chances of it working are lower.

Yes, it hurt, but the resulting c-section hurt much more. I would do it again for sure. But I would go to a chiro and get the webster technique done first, and try moxibustion - both those things have pretty high success rates, and are less risky than a version.

There are 2 risks:
1) worst case scenario- while turnig something happens with the umbilical cord (pinching, wrapped around neck?) and baby doesn't get enough oxygen. They will be monitoring the fetal heartrate the whole time for this. This happened to us, but the heartrate went back up again. We decided to stop trying after that. It was pretty tense, but the baby was just fine. If the heartrate doesn't go back up you have an emergency c-section immediately. they are totally prepared for this so it happens pretty fast. Our Dr. said this was very rare, and he'd never done a c-section for it.

2) Messing with your uterus starts labour. This also happened to us. I think it's more common than above, but not really commmon. Not necessarily a big deal since you're already at 38 weeks.

Here is our birth story, in case you're interested:
here

hope that helps! Best case scenario would be to find someone who would deliver your baby breech, of course!! If you can do that, I don't see why not a homebirth. From what they told us the biggest risk is shoulder dystoxica, in which case, I don't think a hospital would necessarily provide any more help than an experienced midwife at home would. It just depends what your options are in terms of healthcare providers.

g.

[willoLevin]

No experience here, but definitely try an acupuncturist first (for moxibustion and possibly needles as well.) The success rate measured in some Western studies is around 85% for turning breech babies. My acupuncturist has a 100% success rate so far in her practice.

Baby-flipping vibes from me to you...

--willo

[Charity]

This is very helpful--thanks everyone. I've tried acupuncture, ice, heat, music, inversions, pulsatilla, and am still doing moxibustion. (The chiropractor I called actually recommended trying a version first because we're so far along, and then if it doesn't work, to call her back.)

g&a--thanks so much for sharing your story. I'm so sorry you had to go through so much pain.

chinaKat--here's hoping your baby flips before or at least during labor. I'll keep thinking head down for your baby and mine.

I think we're going to go ahead with the appt. on Tuesday, and our mw will come with us. Wish us luck!