Jan 16, 2014

36 Weeks with an upside down baby

At my midwife appointment on Wednesday I got some news that kind of shocked me a little bit. My baby appeared to be upside down - or rather sitting right side up. Julie felt my belly and she wasn't sure so she also had Eve come in. No one was really quite sure and so they sent for an ultrasound to confirm. If baby is breech right now we'll need be sure of it and start to make some things happen to turn it around.
So Friday afternoon we went for yet another ultrasound - Eric got to come with me which was really nice. This is ultrasound #5 - no perfectly healthy woman or pregnancy gets 5 ultrasounds - I'm just blessed I guess.
 My midwives did mention to me briefly that a vaginal delivery is still possible with a breech baby, it's just a bit more complicated and so we would talk about the options when the time comes.
Sure enough, that baby is right side up. It's just sitting in there cross legged - much like its mother likes to do. In fact when I was told that that was the case I was sitting on the bed cross legged and she looked at me and said, "much like you're sitting right now". Oops. Sorry baby, you're already getting things from me. When the tech told us it was breech right now, she said "you will be booking a C section then?" and I said no, that's not the plan. I was so confused, because my midwives didn't make it seem like that needed to be the plan. 
I called my mom that evening and spoke with her. Until then I was completely unphased by the whole thing. I was still excited about labour and delivery and meeting our baby - which is how I've been feeling for the last few weeks. I was a little naive I guess. My mom delivered one of her babies breech, and didn't even know it was until he was coming. Mind you, she is a birthing machine, but I guess I just assumed it was doable and so I am going to do it.
The weekend was spent with prayers and exercises and readings to get baby to turn around.
  Today I met with midwives in clinic again. This time it was Helen. I had many questions for her, including why the tech assumed I'd be booking a C Section. She told me that it has been the way for many years in Alberta to do automatic C Sections for breech babies. She said that many doctors have lost the art of delivering a breech baby, and she thought it was sad. But vaginal deliveries have started to come back. Further research done in to the study used to do away with them in the first place, showed that the numbers were skewed by other factors and that it's actually quite safe to deliver under certain conditions. She said that the new South Calgary Health Campus built here recently is making a sincere effort to hire and train doctors willing and able to practice in this way, and that I will be in good hands going down there.
She recommended some things to try to get baby to turn - such things as chiropractic care, acupuncture, some homeopathic herbs and some exercises to try at home. She said she's fairly confident that we've got the time still to let baby move around. I'm about 36 weeks and 3 days, so there is time yet. She also talked to me about an ECV and asked if I'd be interested in trying that. We went over the details of what that would include and she gave me a lot of information to read.
Tonight happened to also be the evening class that fathers attend as well, so she told me she'd gather some more information and things for me and Eric and I could speak with her after the class and get things sorted out together.
When I came back with Eric in the evening she went over what exactly an ECV looks like and told us that she would try to get us in for one. We will be waiting on call for the next few days to see if that will come.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so excited for you and Eric and your new baby!
    When I lived in Calgary I worked at a Family Wellness center near Market Mall - the one Dr that works there, Dr. Patricia Hort, is amazing! Specializes in pregnancy and has a whole section on breech on her website.

    Here is her website:
    http://drformoms.com/

    Here is the section on breech:
    http://drformoms.com/pregnancy-prenatal-chiropractic-care

    Hope this helps!

    Jenna

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