Come on baby - do us a favour and turn round!!

So why do some babies choose this way?

I found myself whispering to my gorgeous breechies in the womb, please love, its a lot more understood the head down approach. It means we can use the water and have chilled out midwives. Please love just do a flip now.

But they knew the way they wanted to come and I visualised most crucially that we would have appropriate care givers with us, skilled midwives in both cases though neither touched my baby as it was being born - Hands Off the Breech! In both cases my main care giver was my doula as she held me emotionally and wholly in her positive regard, confidence and perfectly chosen words at key points.

My niece also presented breech so perhaps my sister and I had that-shaped uteri. This same niece alongside my two breechies have a particular shaped head, wider forehead and big, like mine. The two cousins who presented head down had much smaller heads.

A year ago I was blessed with the experience of listening to Mary Cronk, a very skilled midwife who has specialised in normal breech births throughout her long career (there have been very few midwives who have been able to sustain this skill since the blanket move towards cesarean - Mary was one who has bridged the generation or two that lost the knowledge - those of us heralding the reskilling process are warmed by the greater number of women able to experience safe normal breech births). She shared that sometimes a breech presentation is indicating that something is wrong with baby. However, you can tell that all is well, that the baby is uncompromised, if labour continues progressing. If baby descends and progress is made each contraction then all is likely to be well.

There is loads more information about the nitty gritty here www.breechbirth.org.uk


So everyone who wants to should get to give this a go in my view. There's nothing like the feeling of bicycling legs half way out of you! Quite cute. Or in my son's case simply cradling his bum while the rest waited to born.

Who knows why?!

Its just the way some of them choose to come :)