There are so many reasons that come up for pregnant women who would like to have a vaginal birth after a cesarean … having a breech baby is just one of them. We live during a time when modern maternity care is available. Imagine if there was not even an option. There would be no ‘choice’. You would not have had your previous surgical birth so the question would be unnecessary.
This means you have to think through why you had your initial Cesarean and how you would have managed that experience had medical care not been there. As unnerving as this thought is, you need to look at the difference between your hopes and your reality. With medical care still available you can ‘choose’ a Breach VBAC yet know there is medical care.
What does this all mean?
Actually, it means women are sort of committed to having a non-medical birth and in the back of their mind they will use medical care for many reasons that have little to do with safety. Because your baby is breech, you fall into that category. A breech baby is now considered to be a high risk. In fact, a posterior baby is as well. So, the narrower definitions may have something to do with the huge increase in surgical births.
It may be that your obstetrician or midwife can attempt an external version to turn your breech baby into a head down. That might work or the baby might rotate back. There are reasons your baby may choose a breech position that you don’t fully understand such as the shape of your uterus or pelvis, where the placenta lies or how the cord is relating to your baby.
Prepare your pregnant body for birth
Birthing Better VBAC online birthing class is full of skills that were developed by fathers and mothers equally as a way to deal with all sorts of medical issues … breech babies were just one of those. They focused on how to help their baby get out of the pregnant woman’s body. Their unique circumstances were what they were up against but preparing their pregnant body to birth helped their baby come down, through and out with no or less trauma to both the mother and baby.
Common Knowledge Trust houses all the Birthing Better skills and we have a specific VBAC online course for you.
- Start around 24 weeks and slowly work through the skills that will help you create space inside your pregnant body for your baby.
- Write a Skills-based Birth Plan so your obstetrician or midwife knows what skills you are learning and will use to help your baby be born safely.
- Commit to using your skills to work through your baby’s birth journey no matter what.
- Take seriously your capability to make your pregnant body more pliable and mobile and then use the birth and birth-coaching skills to make certain you cope and handle the naturally occurring pain of labor contractions.
You have the ability to increase your ability to have a successful VBAC with your breech baby. We know.
Birthing Better skills were developed by moms and dads in the early 1970s in the US and used by many thousands globally in all types of birth. Birthing Better VBAC online birthing class is housed in Common Knowledge Trust.