Monday, October 13, 2008

A word of advice

If you decide to have a cesarean section for breech presentation, insist on an ultrasound to confirm the position right before surgery. Otherwise you might end up with a c-section, only to discover the baby was in fact head-down. A L&D nurse tells of one such "surprise vertex" that recently occurred while she was on shift.

Another piece of advice for those who would accept a cesarean for breech presentation: insist on waiting for labor to begin, rather than scheduling the surgery in advance. That way you know the baby is ready to be born, and the baby can even benefit from some early labor. And of course, you might just be surprised to discover that the baby has turned around!

9 comments:

  1. Hi Rixa, I was thinking after I read this nurse's story about the breech birth that the really good insider stuff from the hospitals is always "anonymous". Nurses are afraid to lose their jobs if they disclose what goes on behind the closed curtains. Pretty intimidating so everyone stays quiet. I think I'll do a blog post this week on some of the stuff I have from nurses. Thanks for putting this up. G

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  2. I wish I could shout from the rooftops about this. I was staring a c-section in the face for breech presentation, but my baby was able to flip after my chiropractor did the Webster Technique on me. I am a fan through and through, and will be forever grateful to the very smart women who told me to find someone who did that technique.

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  3. Ditto exactly, to what Kelley said!!!
    just for the record that she's not just a fluke :)

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  4. I totally agree. But when I made such a comment to a fellow blogger who had booked a c-section due to breech, she got mad and started getting nasty. Turns out I had missed the post where she said she didn't want any advice on turning the baby or waiting or horror stories. I apologized profusely, but she never responded. I wrote on my blog how I felt about her use of 'horror stories' to describe women's birth stories (of which I did have one scary one), she got more mad....
    Is there a tactful way to ask/tell women to not assume breech at 37 weeks means breech at delivery, and that labour is actually GOOD for the baby?

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  5. All the Doc's I know do an u/s before the c-section to see if baby has flipped. It takes more work for all of us to do a C-section. We would rather not if we can help it. ANd we don't do C-sections on babies who are 37 weeks and not in labor that is a recipe for respiratory distress.

    And I am a nurse and I am not afraid to lose my job. HOwever, I am not at liberty to discuss patients stories. Hippa.

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  6. I agree too, this is what I would do if I found myself in that situation. However, I wonder how many doctors would even be willing to allow a woman to go into labor with a suspected breech? If the woman has had a previous C they will tell her she risks uterine rupture, and if she has no history of a section, they will be concerned that if labor goes quickly they'll be faced with delivering a breech vaginally which most OBs do not want to do. I don't know that I can blame them, with the way people sue these days over the slightest little things. My homebirth midwife has no problem delivering breech babies, but I'm sure she has had more experience with that than the average OB.

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  7. I imagine you could go into the hospital when you know your labor is well underway. The literature I have been hearing about from my Docs is that labor before c-section is beneficial for the baby. So that is a good question on how many would have you labor before doing a c-section. I have seen one breech delivery at my hospital because the woman was fully and the butt was almost out.

    Some of our Ob's have trained in other countries too. And that often means they have had to do vag breech because there was not or open and ready. You cannot assume the Docs especially if they are over 50 and have an accent, arer not well versed in breech delivery. What are pipper forcepts for?

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  8. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I especially appreciate your sentiment on a trial of labor. Aren't contractions there to help baby get into a "good" position?

    Amy

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  9. If your baby is breech... try visiting a chiropractor who is trained in the Webster Technique. There is a 90%+ chance the alignment of the pelvis in this way will turn a breech presentation!

    And... just a reminder. Babies can be born safely in the breech presentation. www.inamay.com

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