Reply #36: Some midwives do, some don't [View All]

[LeftyMom]

It's a matter of the state's legal climate, the midwife's insurance requirements, her personal comfort with delivering a breech birth vaginally, the child's presentation and a whole host of other issues. Most midwifery books discuss the pros and cons of home birth for breech babies and how to best deliver them vaginally.

It's also possible that they delivered unassisted. Some women who birth UC would stay home for a known breech, others would not. Some would try to turn the child, others would not. Almost all women who UC would transfer care and go to the hospital if they felt the situation was beyond thier control.

The trend toward abdominal birth or breech babies without trial of labor in the hospital setting isn't new, I was born that way. (Two weeks early, BTW, it seems odd not to wait until term or labor to see if a baby would turn. My sister was born *three* weeks early by planned caesarean, her doctors were so determined to avoid the dreaded VBAC.) For the most part it's defensive medicine, and not evidence based care. Some breech presentations can be delivered vaginally with good results, others don't make it through the pelvis and really have to be delivered abdominally if the baby can't be made to change position.

Edited in defense of the english language.