FEATURE | BREECH BIRTH
take
away
...
BOTTOMS DOWN
Preparing for a breech birth
Sometimes babies
don’t turn, and
our ideas about a
successful birth
may need to be
redefined.
Story by REBECCA SERROUL
Y
ou dream about your baby’s birth. You write down an advocacy plan and pin
your hopes and dreams on a day — your future child’s birthday. And then, you find
out your baby is not in an optimal position. Everything changes: your baby is in a
breech position.
Babies want to turn. According to research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, there is less than a three to four percent chance that your child will be
breech at birth. Babies like to spin into a head-down position, often between 26 and 30
weeks gestation. The heaviest part of the baby is the back of the head, and so babies tend
to be in a head-down position. When they move down into the pelvis, they usually do not
move back up into a breech position.
The determination that your baby is in a breech position is made after 30 weeks through
palpation, and this is confirmed through an ultrasound. There is still time for the baby to
turn, and there is much that can be done to turn a baby — by the mother, other care providers or by an external cervical version (ECV).
what can you do as a mother?
First of all, we need to be aware of the emotional impact it can have on a family when they hear
that their baby is in a breech position. Often, so many hopes and dreams have been placed on
the birth, which makes it hard to suddenly start to think a