Story by Hannah Croker.
I’ve been inspired to share my breech vaginal birth story after seeing pictures of an amazing breech vaginal birth on your Calmbirth Instagram story.
I was planning a homebirth with a private midwife until after two unsuccessful ECV’s my first baby remained breech at 38 weeks. The obstetrician who performed my first ECV commented how calm and relaxed I was during the procedure and I credit this to listening to the Calmbirth tracks and religiously practicing the Calmbirth breathing techniques throughout my pregnancy after my husband and I attended “calmbirth via zoom” with Karen McClay.
We had an appointment with Dr Pesce & Michelle Underwood (Clinical Midwifery Consultant) at Westmead’s breech clinic who advised me that I was a great candidate for a vaginal breech birth.
My water broke at 6am when I was 39+1 weeks pregnant. We made the 2hr drive to Westmead and contractions started at midday. Once labour established around 5:30pm things progressed quickly and we welcomed our little breechling into the world at 22:29pm!
I couldn’t recommend the breech service at Westmead highly enough, I was supported to use the bath, a heat pack and upright positions throughout the labour and both the medical and midwifery staff provided an extremely woman-centered and supportive environment.
I wanted to share my photos and birth story so that others can see that birthing a breech baby can be an amazing & empowering experience and not something to be feared. My favorite picture is the one with the midwife on one side and the doctor on the other, both with their hands clasped together, a beautiful depiction of “hands off the breech”.
