"Why would someone risk their own experience for a water birth or even a unassisted home birth with a known breech presentation?  For  the
babies experience, or for the family's.  The safety of the baby and  mommy would far outweigh my own desire for the sake of "experience"."

Let me clarify my first statement. I don't think any homebirthing mother would have a homebirth for the sake of personal experience over safety of her or her baby.  I do believe that it is the mothers right to determine her own level of risk and what she is comfortable with, after all she has to live with the consequences for the rest of her life, not the care provider.  So long as she is an informed consumer and has done her own independent research unbiased of any care provider.

Homebirth statically is the safest way to give birth for low risk women, breech is simply another position. Yes there are certainly some extra considerations that need examining, but look at the risks of standard management of breech extraction in the hospital systems. Automatic LSCS, which is hardly an optimal or safe outcome for mother or baby. If you are lucky you might find a practitioner (i.e surgeon in a hospital system) that will allow you trial labour, usually the woman has to have a epidural, just in case, time constraints, monitoring, repeated VE's etc etc. How many women having cephalic babies and so called low risk walk away from hospital having suffered PTSD, PND, birth rape, unnecessary interventions, unnecessary surgery, unknown care providers, policies that do not support normal birth. Add a variation of normal that isn't so common, such as breech and this consequences are almost totally unavoidable. If you are lucky to find a private midwife who is experienced in homebirth breech, her weight would be gold. 

From my own perspective, I live 400kms from the next private practicing midwife, 800kms from one that will practice breech birth. There is a surgeon 300kms away who will allow breech hospital birth with all the constraints above (breech extraction he calls it). So yes, for the safety of myself and my baby I would in this instance choose to have an assisted birth because I know that is far safer than the alternative. I usually homebirth with a midwife.  Would I plan a waterbirth? Not necessarily, although I would certainly have it available. I would plan to follow my instincts and do as I felt necessary to bring a baby safely into the world. In unhindered birth babies are very good at navigating their own way out.  At the end of the day, no matter how the baby comes out, no one can guarantee the outcome. LSCS has many consequences and increased death rate for both mother and baby something I would no be comfortable with.

Birth is birth is birth. You either trust it or you don't, but it isn't right to treat a healthy pregnancy, breech included, as a walking time bomb. That will only ever end in disaster. 

Experience is also very important, as it the start to motherhood. This experience will determine how the mother bonds with her baby, whether she will breastfeed. If she has PTSD, PND or complete begrudegment for the baby for the trauma it caused her (although the care providers fault, not the baby's) , for example then women are far likely to be less capable of beginning motherhood on the right foot. 

Goodness, I could ramble all day about this! But best stop for now :)

Blessings,
Rachael (Homebirth Midwife)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
GentleBirth Pregnancy and Birth Education
Rachael Austin RN, EM, IPN, Adv. CBE
Student M&CHN
Trainee ABA counselor 
Midwife in Private Practice
Ph: (07) 49 931 213
Fax: (07) 49 931 341
Mob: 0419750 780
Email: [log in to unmask] 
www.gentlebirth.com.au 

2008 - The Year of Homebirth Awareness.
Help support and value women. Protect their babies.
Tell everyone you know that homebirth exists as a VALID birthing choice!

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