Nimisha’s breech home birth
Every month, I go live on Instagram with my buddy Katie (Alternative Antenatal) – and this month’s was too good not to share permanently on the blog.
We spoke to Nimisha, who became pregnant with her first child in 2020.
By chance she found a Hypnobirthing book, in a pile of free books on a street near her home, and so began her journey to discovering the miracle that is the pregnant human body, the process of physiological birth, and the ways in which we can help ourselves and our baby have the most straightforward birth possible. Nimisha did not have any health issues or complications, and so decided that a home birth was the best option for her and her baby.
Towards the end of her pregnancy, Nimisha found out her baby was in a frank breech position. This means that rather than “optimal” position where the baby’s head is down at the bottom of the uterus, and their feet at the top – the baby was the other way round. Bum down by the cervix, head at the top of the uterus, and legs straight up in a V position.
Worried that this would scupper her chances of a home birth, Nimisha set about doing two things: doing everything she could to turn the baby to optimal position, and ringing around various hospitals trying to find out if she had any other option apart from a caesarean birth.
A bit of background on breech babies here –
In the late 90s, a multi centre research project began, to decipher whether it was safer for breech position babies to be born vaginally, or via caesarean section. This was called the Canadian Term Breech Trial (or Hannah trial). The trial was supposed to continue for five years, but researchers decided to terminate it early and publish the results because they felt that the data was strongly showing that caesarean birth was a vastly safer option for breech babies, than vaginal birth.
This trial has been widely criticised for the way the research was conducted, and issues with the methods, and it is generally accepted that its findings cannot be relied upon. However, the idea that vaginal breech birth was not safe spread like wildfire, and most pregnant people were told that a caesarean birth is their only safe option. This is still the prevalent thinking today.
Unfortunately we now find ourselves in a position where many midwives and obstetricians practicing today have never seen a physiological breech birth, and the skills needed to support breech birth have been lost. This is becoming an all too common story in maternity units.
Nimisha was not able to turn her baby to an optimal position, and understood that perhaps, this was just the way her baby needed to be born. So she set about arming herself with an incredible support team consisting of her fantastic husband Greg, her doula Naomi, and a midwife knowledgeable in breech birth, and after a 32 hour labour, her beautiful baby was born at home.
Her story is a wonderful reminder that we have all we need within us to birth our babies. Thank you for sharing Nim.