What a weekend! Being at the Da-a-luz Temple, refreshing my Breech Birth knowledge and skills amid a group of amazing birth workers, taught by the amazing Deb Rhodes and finished off with a live zoom call to watch the recent triplet home-birth that happened in America, and discussion with the extremely experienced home-birth team of midwives.

This is the 2nd time I’ve studied breech birth with Deb, I love her blend of hard facts, stats, story telling, practicality and pragmatism with honouring the wisdom in women’s bodies, both the birthing women and in the hands of the attendant women!

The nuances in what is right for each individual, and allowing space for us to share our feelings and all go on this journey of learning together!

This was a brilliant refresh, as well as chance to further process a surprise breech that I supported previously.

But always one of the most inspiring things is coming together with other women who are so passionate about normalising birth and supporting each other, to further support birthing women around the world. Sharing this belief that by changing birth we can change the world. We are the change makers, we are the wisdom keepers, we are the ones they tried to burn - for good reason - we are powerful and when we come together we grow stronger still!

Oooh the extra lovely bonus of watching the recent TRIPLET HOMEBIRTH (2 of which were breech)
on zoom via Breech Without Borders was absolutely golden!!

I saw the pictures on Instagram on @Kemibirthjoyjonson page last week, so how amazing to see the whole thing, and hear from the whole birth team!! 3 midwives, 3 assistants Dad, Grandma and 1 POWERFUL MAMA!!

OK BACK TO SINGLETONS…

Did you know?

25% of babies are bum down at 28 weeks

7-15% are still bum down at 32 weeks

3-4% stay bum down until 37 weeks

This is a significant minority
So much so that breech / bum down is considered by experts as a variation of normal.

Is vaginal breech birth safe?

Many medical practitioners lost their skills in supporting vaginal breech birth after a flawed trial in the year 2000 (Hannah et al / TBT) mixed inexperienced junior consultants, and breech ‘extractions’ (legs in stirrups / using instruments) into the vaginal birth group, and then falsely concluded that only caesarean births were safe!!

Some 24 years later we are still living with the impact of this flawed and since debunked trial!

However now many midwives, consultants, obstetricians and other birth professionals are coming together to share these vital skills. Breech Without Borders is an international organisation with resources for parents and birth workers to re-skill and give women the care and support they deserve.

The Truth

Resources

I’m keeping this article short, but here is a list of resources you can access
if your baby is in the breech position and you want some more information or support at any stage of pregnancy.

Click on a picture below…

Leaving you with some pictures of the weekend,
we spent a whole day on normal breech birth,
and the normal rotation and dance of a breech baby through the pelvis,
which happens the vast majority of the time.

However as with head down babies, there are some times when babies need a little support.
Many birth-keepers are fascinated with these skills and constantly learning
although this is a medical skill that Doula’s do not offer, we ARE allowed to learn the theory!

It helps me infinitely to keep my awe and wonder of birth, birth-keepers and the traditional partera’s around the world.