Comments on: Vaginal Birth Better for Breech Babies Says Canadian Doctors

By: Kati

Kati — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:37:00 +0000

Gee, thanks Canadians. It’s not like the majority of American women who have breech babies at delivery time wish to be cut open and have their babies pulled into the world surgically. I’m so glad that your “evil socialized medicine” will pay for midwives and that your physicians do not have to worry about malpractice lawsuits as much as ours do here in the USA. That must make you all feel so good and proud of yourselves to say that Americans aren’t smart when it comes to birth. The only thing that separates us is a border of land, so OBVIOUSLY living further north (in most of your cases) makes you so much more informed and intelligent on this matter.

I am currently 36 1/2 weeks pregnant with fraternal boy twins, and have found out this week that they are breech/breech, when before, Baby A was head down, and Baby B was transverse. I’m trying like mad to turn them, especially since I’m trying for a twin VBAC.

I liked reading the article, and was happy for Canada. Now I’m just disgusted by the sour sentiments coming from MY neighbors to the North. Thanks a lot.

By: redpomegranate

redpomegranate — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:20:59 +0000

@Sharon, if your mother was “put out” then it was most definitely NOT a hands off breech delivery which is the method recommended for breech deliveries. With that in mind, any manipulation and likely the use of forceps might well be the culprit for your back pain. There is much to recommend vaginal breech delivery, there is also much to recommend healing modalities such as chiropractic, cranio-sacral therapy and the like to help heal birth injuries related to interventions and even normal variations such as the breech position.

By: TO Doula

TO Doula — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:50:39 +0000

Hi there,

Yes, in Canada new guidelines have been issued. But your headline is very misleading. They have *not* said that vaginal breech is better for babies, not even close. They have said it should be offered as a *choice* under certain carefully selected circumstances. In fact they say that being born vaginally is harder on breech babies in the short term, although they seem to do fine in the long term; and that since caesarean births are hard on women in the long run, women should be given the chance to weigh the risks and benefits and make a choice. The reality is that nearly a year after the report came out I still have clients being told they have to have a c/section for breech.

Science reporting in newspapers is notoriously bad. Please, never make conclusions based on a newspaper report! Here’s the original material you need to comment on:

http://www.sogc.org/guidelines/documents/gui226CPG0906.pdf

http://www.sogc.org/media/advisories-20090617a_e.asp (this one has a huge list of links to the rest of the technical and consumer info at the bottom)

Thanks for telling us Canadians how smart we are. But let’s not go *too* far over the top!

By: Jan Andrea

Jan Andrea — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:59:53 +0000

I was born frank breech in 1974, at Misericordia in Edmonton My poor mum was in labour for two days, and her doctor later lost his license, but despite all that, we were both healthy (well, aside from my mom’s double episiotomy…). Apparently my first act, before I was even completely born, was to pee on the doctor.

I did find it quite galling that if my own children, born in 2000, 2003, and 2007, in NH, USA, had been breech, I would have had no option but c-sections. Strange to think that we’ve gone backward since the 70s.

By: Susie

Susie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:32:52 +0000

My home birth doctor (Dr Nial Ettinghausen, deceased) assisted many, MANY breech births, with total success.

It’s so much gentler and safer a way for such a baby to come into this crazy world.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:31:58 +0000

sorry for my lack of editing…many errors in my long post!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:28:53 +0000

My son was a vaginal frank breech, arriving fanny first with feet over shoulders in May of 1971. He weighed 6 1/2 lbs & was possibly 3 weeks overdue. (for weeks, he slept in a frog-like position which was pretty cute!) My original date was May 18th, but at my last dr. visit, the date was moved forward to June 7th for reasons unknown to me. However, I went into labor on May 13th, probably due to having just moved into a new home and painting – both in the heat of Ft. Laud. with NO AIR CONDITIONER due to being “tricked” by a salesman.. – one learns a lot when young and trusting…) So I went into early labor & was given nothing for the pain. The whole labor was just 5 hrs & I was only 19 & wanted nothing to do with the “new” natural childbirth movement, but I guess it happened too fast to give me anything. At some point, my chart shows that I was given scopolamine (a drug takes away your memory.) Other than that, I had nothing. I was either torn or the doctor cut thru my rectum/anus, so I had stitches up the kazoo – literally! I have only a vague recollection of this “natural” birth, & the ob seemed surprised the next day that I had no memory of it! He did say that I handled the birth like I did it “every day”. Yeah, right..Maybe this is because I was 5’9″, thin and of strong Norweigian stock. I was never told of any trouble, but later found out my son had trouble after being in the nursery for a about an hour, was suctioned, place on oxygen & put into an incubator for several hours. His chart says he was found “complaining” which I think might be a code word for trouble breathing…I was told that his left hip was badly bruised and that this was a birth injury. He had an apgar of 8-10 at birth. I got his records when he was about 10 yrs old with a very high IQ but performing poorly in spelling. Turns out he had a learning disability impossible to diagnose due compensating for it. (right) The school system never did figure it out and just pushed him along. His memory still stinks & I believe this is from whatever happened after his birth that caused him to be suctioned. What was that “complaining” and how long was he having this trouble before he was “discovered” like that? A call had been put into his peditrician and his chart notes that many cc’s of mucus was suctioned out of his lungs. So, something happened and we were never told about. Currently, my son is 6′ 2″, but has one leg an inch shorter than the other – not discovered until he was well into his teens! (he looked a bit odd when he ran but I just thought that was him, not due to a short leg!) I am happy to report that at age 38, he is a new father & owns a successful business, but he still has issues with remembering things…
If my experience can help someone facing an option of delivering breech, or having a c-section, then it was worth the time to write all of this!

By: Vaginal Birth Better for Breech Babies Says Canadian Doctors : Eco … | All Things For Babies

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:33:31 +0000

[...] Birth Better for Breech Babies Says Canadian Doctors : Eco … Another decent blogger added an interesting post on Vaginal Birth Better for Breech Babies Says Canadian Doctors : Eco [...]

By: At Home In The Water : Eco Child’s Play

At Home In The Water : Eco Child’s Play — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:47:02 +0000

[...] tell them each their birthing stories. I’m grateful to be lucky and fortunate enough to give birth at home and have the opportunity to have a water birth experience. Even though the midwives [...]

By: Zambian Journalist On Trial for “Obscene” Childbirth Photos : Eco Child’s Play

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:28:30 +0000

[...] response, journalist Chansa Kabwela sent two pictures of a woman giving breech birth to women’s rights groups, Zambia’s vice president, and health groups. They were [...]