Surprise Breech Delivery {Home Birth}

So, 8 months ago I gave birth to my first baby – a beautiful boy, a healthy 3.6kg (8 pound), delivered breech, vaginally, at home! He wasn’t diagnosed breech by my midwives & Dr’s, his position was not easily detected by feel as his legs were up around his head & everything more or less felt the way is should. -Alanna

I had a wonderful & straightforward pregnancy, so we decided to go for the Home birth option as it was something i was really keen on. At 40 weeks & 1 day I woke up at 3am with mild contractions. I was so excited I woke up my partner to tell him the good news- to which he replied, Midwives orders – go back to sleep you need to save your energy!! I couldn’t sleep, so got up & baked (as you do!). I made lentil & veg pies for dinner, & muffins to snack on during the day.

I did go back to bed, and then to the couch, and then back to bed, and so on for the best part of the day.

At about 6pm the contractions started to increase slightly, although I had it in my head that I would be laboring well into the night as I’d been told first babies can take their time! We sat down for some dinner (although I did more of a pace around, eat between contractions sort of thing) and then hopped into the shower. I told my partner he should call the midwives & as I was feeling a lot of pressure like I was needing to push.

I hopped into the birth pool, my waters broke (with a loud pop! Wasn’t like the lovely warm gush I had seen in so many movies), and soon after the midwives arrived. This was a huge relief & they said I could start pushing if that’s what I needed to do. The midwives saw that there was some meconium in the bottom of the pool & asked me to hop out as they could not see what was happening.

After a vaginal examination they determined that my baby was coming bum first! They had to ask whether (for legal reasons) I wanted to call an ambulance, or carry on at home. I just remember looking at my partner, squeezing his hand really tight & crying. My midwife said,  “It’s OK, it’s the same labour, same amount of work for you, the baby is fine and you can do this.”

So we carried on.

About 45 mins later my little guy was born, bum first, then the legs sprang out & down, then finally his head was born. He was arrived at around 9:45pm. The most vivid image I have is of bending over & seeing his little body hanging from me, his head still inside, and thinking just one more push and I can hold my baby. It was almost surreal.

It wasn’t until the days after that the immensity of it all dawned on me. I asked my midwives all the ‘what if’ questions I hadn’t thought to ask when I was pregnant. It had never even crossed my mind that I would birth a breech baby.

In hindsight I’m glad it wasn’t diagnosed. I think my whole pregnancy would have become about the breech factor, trying to turn baby, and probably accepting that my dreams of a natural, vaginal, home birth were not going to be a possibility.

As it were I was blissfully unaware, and in the end all went more or less to plan. I would not change a thing. There are always risks with any birth, & for us it came down to the trust we had in our midwives. I don’t think you can underestimate the role of your care givers, especially in a situation like this where you’re thrown a complete curve-ball right in the middle of your transition phase!

It’s like that saying (one of my favorite labor mantras) – She believed she could, and so she did.