Joy in Birthing

I was born feet first back in the days where all breech births were considered ‘normal’ and women were allowed to labor and deliver vaginally. Unfortunately today 99% of all breech babies are delivered via cesarean and two weeks before their due date as with all cesarean deliveries adding significant risks to mom and babe. There are several natural techniques to turn your baby around (read this,) and hypnotherapy has been known to be a very successful tool (Turn Baby Turn CD.)

But some babies simply do not want to turn around before delivery. Watch this amazing video of a home breech birth, please note that in most US states midwives are legally forbidden to preform a beech delivery.  Find a doctor in your area if you can there are still some out there:

Below please read the Coalition for Breech Birth Statement
Vaginal breech birth was practically banned following a significant international research study in 2000. This study, the “Term Breech Trial” or TBT, appeared to prove that caesarean section was substantially safer for the delivery of all breech babies. The trial was highly criticized, but many birth care providers took this opportunity to do what they wanted to do anyway – to stop offering vaginal breech birth to their clients, and to insist instead upon a surgical delivery. Very few centers continued to offer vaginal birth. To read the original TBT report, click here.

In addition to all the professional criticism, the TBT’s own two year follow up negated the original results, suggesting that any difference in safety between vaginal and surgical birth of a breech baby is negligible – for both mother and child. Despite this evidence, many Birth Care Providers (BCPs) still avoid balanced informed choice discussions with their clients, denying them the opportunity to make an informed choice. Most frequently, it is flatly stated that surgical birth is the standard of care, and that is what is going to happen – regardless of that mother’s individual circumstances. If vaginal birth is mentioned at all, it is brushed off as an inferior, unsafe choice. However, cesarean surgery, while it presents many advantages for the surgeon, has lifelong ramifications for the birthing woman and her family, including issues with subsequent pregnancies, secondary infertility, Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC) availability, and depression, not to mention a risk of death in childbirth increased threefold over vaginal birth.
Women should not be obliged to accept these serious risks as “standard of care” when clinical research clearly demonstrates that vaginal birth of a breech baby does not pose an increased level of risk. In addition, the recommendations of professional organizations such as The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada do not support automatic caesarean for breech. Yet, time and again, vaginal breech birth is presented as tremendously difficult and dangerous, and cesarean risks glossed over.

Our mission is to fill the gap in the informed choice discussion by offering women the evidence-based information and the vital support they need to make their own decisions.

Please read the research on breech (research) there are a few doctors in Los Angeles that will deliver a breech baby (no midwife can do it at home in many states legally.)