"Access for a vaginal breech birth"

At 34 weeks pregnant we discovered that our baby was breech, this was my second pregnancy and my first was very easy and straight forward. My midwife at Fiona Stanley Birthing Centre warned me that the obs would strongly recommend a c section but I can still have my baby vaginally if that’s what I wanted, however the hospital itself was apparently very inexperienced with this and usually referred breech births to another hospital who it seems have recently stopped taking these referrals as they felt Fiona Stanley needed to gain the experience themselves being a tertiary hospital.

So with that in mind we tried everything to turn our baby, moxibustion, spinning babies, acupuncture, and I had an ecv booked in, hopeful that we wouldn’t have to make that decision. The ecv at 37 and 2 was unsuccessful, and straight away the doctor told me that now they book me in for an elective c section, to which I replied “well that’s not my only option?”, I recall the doctor looked taken aback that I would even suggest a vaginal birth. Anyway, clearly I felt they did not support it and said if I was adamant I wanted that they’d like to book me in to speak to a senior consultant which I agreed to, and by the way they never actually organised. I also booked in for a c section at 39 and 2 but still felt like this was not the route we were meant to take. And on top of that when I tried to push this back a week Fiona Stanley told me I couldn’t do that as their waitlist was full.

I did a deep dive into breech births because I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision for both of us and I was fully informed about all of my options. I was not going to be pushed into anything just for the convenience of the doctors or by them projecting their fears onto me. However, I wanted to make that choice for the right reasons too and knew that if anything went wrong it would be fully on me and as so many people were unsupportive, I needed to be at peace with that. I spoke to many midwives, read many studies and listened to podcasts that really cemented my decision. Breech is just a variation of the norm and what the medical world did after TBT2000 was infuriating.

Anyway, my partner and I decided to change hospitals as that was the recommendation from everyone and we would both feel more comfortable in the hands of people who I felt actually had experience. I had no doubt in myself but so much doubt in the people around me.

It was a very stressful week after going in and speaking to one of the consultants who said I couldn’t have our baby there due to my postcode, we eventually managed to get a referral and was able to have a planned breech birth at King Eddie’s but also booked in a c section as back up on 25th Sept where I would have been 40 and 2.

Our baby was born at 13:13. I knew my instinct was right and that they did not want to be cut out, they wanted to come the way they wanted which was feet first. Our baby’s apgar scores were 8 & 9, they’re perfect and healthy, born into a room full of applause and high spirits.

The more I looked into breech births the angrier I got at the medical model and system in general. I believe WA is meant to be one of the worst places when it comes to supporting breech births and the lack of education around it. They should be looking at each individual case, present you with your options and give reasons as to why you would be a good or bad candidate for it. Fiona Stanley have apparently hired a specialist in breech births which is great, but if most of the obs are still so negative and unsupportive I feel not many will choose to go down the vaginal route so they probably won’t have a job for long! I hope that these doctors start to try and make a change.