When you find yourself carrying a baby who is in a breech position, life seems to turn upside down. It did for me! I had already had three normal pregnancies and deliveries when at 30 weeks, we found that baby #4 was frank breech. Click here to read the whole story.
One issue that I dealt with was having to find a different care provider with only 10 weeks left in my pregnancy.
At the beginning of my pregnancy, I had decided to see a midwife and deliver the baby at her birthing center rather than the hospital. Due to Florida law, midwives are not allowed to deliver breech babies, among many many other restrictions. So, with her help, I “sort of” began to look for a different doctor. I say “sort of” because I was really thinking that this baby would eventually turn head-down and we could have a normal delivery in the birthing center.
Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting a doctor to care for you and your baby during your pregnancy and delivery:
* Experience: Has this doctor ever delivered a breech baby naturally? That one question will stop you from seeing the vast majority of doctors, unfortunately. Because of the trend toward cesarean sections for more and more deliveries, there are many doctors who haven’t even studied how to deliver a breech baby, a few who have seen one and a sparse handful that have actually attended one. In my opinion, you and your child are at a greater risk when having an inexperienced doctor deliver your breech baby.
* Willingness: Is the doctor willing to deliver your baby naturally, or at least let you try? The doctor I found is very friendly to women who find themselves in a situation where other doctors would automatically perform a c-section such as twins, VBAC and breech. He delivers in the hospital and, up front, he told me that if I didn’t show sufficient progress, a c-section was still possible. I was just glad he was willing to let me try.
* Hospital Policies: If you have found a doctor who has delivered breech babies before and s/he is willing to do the same for you, that doctor probably has an agreement worked out with their particular hospital about delivering breech babies. When I called my local hospital as a potential patient, they told me that it was hospital policy to perform a c-section on all women delivering breech babies, end of discussion. I asked them to fax over the paperwork so that I could read it for myself – they suddenly couldn’t find the hospital policy! Make sure you see their policy for yourself.
If you can overcome those hurdles and you are able to find a doctor to care for you according to your desires, you just might have the natural birth you are looking for!
I am so very thankful that I was able to find a doctor at the last minute (the VERY last minute, as in the DAY I delivered!!) who was caring and honest with me at every turn. He never promised that I would definitely have a natural birth, but he let me have a really good try and he did everything in his power to help me to that end.
(If you happen to be in the Florida, here is the website of the doctor that I found. I drove three hours to get to him and it was well worth the trip!)
