What is Breech Birth?
The ideal position for a baby to be born is a vertex or head-down position. This allows the widest part of the baby’s body to descend into the widest part of your pelvis, making it easy for the baby to maneuver without damaging any nerves or bones near the head and shoulders.
However, in about 3% of term pregnancies, the baby is not head-down and instead presents as a breech.
What is breech birth?
A breech birth is when the presenting part of the baby’s body (the part that will first enter the birth canal) is either the buttocks, the legs, or the feet.
Feet-first breech is the most complicated breech positioning since it poses a higher risk for cord prolapse and nerve or structural damage if attempted to deliver vaginally.
Can a breech baby deliver naturally?
In some cases, vaginal breech births can be safe, but they require special experience in delivering breech and carry a higher risk. It is also important to perform vaginal breech births in a setting where emergency care can be provided quickly in case of complications:
Some of the risks of delivering a breech baby vaginally include:
- Injury to the umbilical cord which can lower the oxygen supply to the baby, putting them at risk
- The baby’s head can get stuck as they are unable to navigate through the pelvis
- Injury to the baby’s nerves can cause permanent damage
What happens if my baby is presenting breech early on?
We repeat an ultrasound at 36 weeks to check if the baby is still breech since most babies take the head-down position by 36 weeks.
If your baby is still breech after 36 weeks, we refer you to the hospital for breech birth. The specialists at the hospital can then recommend if you qualify for a vaginal birth or if you’ll need a C-section.
There are only a handful of out-of-hospital breech providers around the state. Birth centers are restricted from offering breech birth services due to the increased risks to the mother and the baby.
Can you turn a breech baby?
In some cases, you can turn a breech baby into a head-down position through a process called external cephalic maneuver. It is performed after 37 weeks and requires close monitoring of the mother and the baby to ensure they’re not in distress.
To perform the maneuver, your healthcare provider places their hands on your belly externally and applies firm pressure on your abdomen to rotate your baby until it heads down. This is a risky procedure and may cause the uterus to cramp, inducing labor in rare cases. Due to this, birth centers typically don’t perform the external cephalic maneuver.