A breech birth is when your baby is presenting with his/her legs flexed at the hips and extended at the knees, or when one or both knees are flexed and not extended.
What can cause your baby to be breech?
- You have had more than one pregnancy
- You are carrying multiples (Twins or Triplets)
- To much or too little amniotic fluid
- Abnormal uterus shape
- Suffering from placenta previa
- Your baby has hydrocephalus (an abnormally large amount of fluid in the skull)
Delivering a breech baby
Most doctors nowadays believe that the safest way to deliver a breech baby is by means of a cesarean section in early labor or even before labor begins. There are some doctors who believe that a woman can give birth vaginally if the situation is right, but in most cases this requires the baby to be in a frank breech, with his/her legs are flexed at the hips and extended at the knees and in a women who has had normal deliveries in the past.Turning your breech baby
Attempts may be made to turn your breech baby from a breech position into a normal head down position. This would need to be done before your waters break, or at least in early labor. This requires the doctor to manually turn the baby into a head down position with his hands. There are however risks involved in trying to do this:- Rupture of membranes
- Placenta abruption
- Affect the baby’s heart rate
- Could speed up the onset of labor
Breech Birth
