By Julie Stockman
My first homebirth was a planned breech birth. Yes, you read that right. My midwife, my obstetrician and I knew (via ultrasound) that my daughter had flipped to a breech presentation two weeks before my due date and we chose to continue our homebirth plans in her breech position rather than try to turn her or use a hospital birthing center.
I feel so fortunate to have been able to both have my breech baby at home and to have had the support of my midwife and obstetrician to do it. I know that most expectant mothers in the US don’t have this option.
So why did I? What factors helped me achieve the homebirth I wanted and avoid the c-section that our hospital routinely schedules for breech babies?
For me, it was completely due to having the support of my birth team. I have heard from other moms that most homebirth midwives won’t do a breech birth – that they won’t do any high-risk births, actually. I can understand why. The legislation in most states makes delivering babies at home risky for the midwife, and sometimes even for the parents themselves. If this risk is inherent in the birth from the get-go, avoiding additional risks only makes sense.
My midwife happened to be one who was comfortable and experienced with riskier births. She took many things into consideration when deciding whether or not she was okay with different turns your pregnancy might take, such as your previous birth history, your previous relationships with her and other providers, your body structure, your medical history, your compliance with her prenatal nutrition program, her experience, her many, many research hours on the subject of birth, both academically and personally, and finally – her intuition. The bottom line? There was more to being high or low risk client than a standard checklist of blood pressure numbers, lab results and baby positioning.
I checked out. I had had a previous birth (in a hospital) that was induced cold when I was 37 weeks along due to high blood pressure and a diagnosis of possible pre-eclampsia. My body responded well to the induction and it did not end in a c-section. The hospital birth told her I was able to birth vaginally without a problem, even when induced early.
My midwife insisted I follow Dr. Brewer’s Blue Ribbon Baby diet to address the blood pressure issues. I had a history of diet elimination to control chemical sensitivities, so following a specific diet was not a big problem for me. She paid a lot of attention to my liver function at each prenatal visit and near the end, consulted the backup obstetrician to obtain blood pressure medication to see me through the final few weeks.
Wait a minute….the backup obstetrician? How did that happen? So many homebirth mothers either have to hide their homebirth plans if they seek any standard prenatal care or at the least, have to defend them each visit.
The midwife I had chosen put a high priority on authenticating homebirth as a valid choice in the US, which it hasn’t been in decades. To this end, she accompanied her clients to the hospital if a transfer was needed, at definite risk to herself. Through this practice, she had met and developed a professional relationship with a local obstetrician who supported homebirth. And so, a backup ob/gyn became available for our area.
When I went in to the homebirth backup ob/gyn for an ultrasound at 38 weeks and we saw that the baby had flipped breech sometime in the past two weeks, the decision on what to do was left to my husband and me.
We could try to turn her under close ultrasound observation or we could leave her alone and deliver breech if need be. I chose the latter. Sometimes, they explained to me, a baby will turn itself late in the pregnancy due to a cord issue. In these cases, it can make matters worse to try to turn the baby. This weighed heaviest on my decision. It made sense to me, and my mama’s intuition told me not to turn the baby, and I listened.
I can’t say the birth was an easy one. It was a long labor. Early labor went on for a day and a half, then active labor for 6 hours or so. When it came time to push, she seemed in some form of half-in, half-out for 45 minutes. This would surely have sent me to surgery in the hospital, as the waterbirth I had at home kept her skin from touching the air and kept her from trying to breathe.
She was born into my arms, at home, healthy and safely with no surgery. I can thank only my birth team for this.
When I hired my midwife, I didn’t realize how valuable those different traits were. I happened upon her through local lists and thought her personality made her a good fit. She wasn’t the cheapest, she often rescheduled or came late to appointments, and she was blunt and to the point – a conversation style that can upset a hormonal pregnant mama.
But after two successful homebirths with her – one of which only a handful of midwives in the whole country would have touched (“Breech?!” “History of pre-e?!”) – I hope I never have to find another midwife. If I do, she has taught me a great deal in what to look for.
Julie Stockman lives in Farmland, Indiana where she homeschools her children with her husband, Jeff. She spends her days baking, gardening, keeping chickens, exploring the nature around them, practicing gratitude and mindfulness, and writing about it all on her blog, Heirloom Homestead.
Other Posts by Julie Stockman:
When Mama Really Does Know Best: Why I Love Tandem Nursing
Ideas for Finding a Good Naturopath or Nutritionist in Your Area
