Warning: Full nudity!
I like this video for how it shows a frank breech vaginal birth. See how the bottom comes out first, quickly followed by the legs and feet? Notice how the time between the bottom being birthed and the head is less than eight minutes. My understanding is that it's important for the head to be birthed within about 10 minutes after the body, as head entrapment is one of the biggest concerns with breech birth.
The only thing I don't like about this video is how much the midwife touches the baby. Everything I've read about breech birth, including Michel Odent's work, has said it's best for the mother and baby to be untouched. Mom should be upright and let the baby come out. Coached pushing is not advised, as it's best to let the mother's body push the baby out naturally. I was so grateful to my midwives who simply observed my breech baby's birth, and resisted the urge to reach in and try to manipulate his body. It was a truly amazing experience for everyone there.
yikes. a little to hands on, and pulling for me. i was nervous the whole video! and bummed we didn't get to see what happened to the baby. was he ok? someone kept saying "don't pull on him!" was that the dad? sigh...this was hard for me to watch. poor little guy
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Robin! This was very hard for me to watch and I felt as though I was invading the privacy of the moment! The only reason the baby came out "before 10 minutes" is because they did manipulate it. I was really bummed as well that we never saw what happened to the little guy! He was VERY listless and never made a cry. In my opinion, with a breech birth especially, things can go very wrong very fast, and there is no way to know that until it is sometimes too late. I know that birth is a natural process, and I don't expect everyone to run and get an epidural, but I do think there is a point when you are putting your baby at risk!
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