Saturday, January 12, 2019

Breech baby, breech baby, give me your hand

Many years ago, about thirty-seven in fact, when I was pregnant with Elder Son - middle child - it was discovered that he was upside down in the womb. The doctor had a go at turning him round but she didn't seem to try awfully hard and he stayed the same wrong way up for birth.

In those days, back in the dark ages, c-sections weren't automatically offered/encouraged for breech babies as they are today, so it was just a normal labour and birth. Normal-ish.

It must have been a quiet night in the labour ward as there were three midwives in the delivery room. Because baby was breech he had to be delivered with forceps by a doctor. In this case a trainee doctor. (Four people.) Who had to be accompanied by an experienced consultant. (Five people.) In case of emergencies an anaesthetist had to be present. (Six people.) And I am convinced there were two of those too. (Seven people plus Husband and me, making nine of us.)

Party time!

'We'll just fix your legs up in these stirrups.' 
Elegant.
'And get the forceps ready.'
Nice.
'Now, let's go.'

To be honest I don't remember it being any worse than my other labours and all was well when he came out. 

I've heard a breech baby described as someone who will look at life differently. Elder Son tells me that in work his cheerfulness/contentment/niceness is regularly commented on. He's certainly very laid back and happy with life.

Maybe coming out bum first means that rather than saying, 'Oh no, is this the world? It looks a bit scary,' you're saying, 'This is me! Ready for an adventure!' 

4 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

A breech baby literally "hits the ground running," it seems to me.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

After the first one, I couldn't believe my grandmother had given birth ten times. Fortunately amnesia sets in soon after!

SharonLarkin said...

When I was pregnant with the gruesome-twosome ~ aka my delightful son-and-daughter twins hehehe ~ one of the babies was breech. The midwives kept telling me that it was bound to be a boy and they were right LOL I had a c-section because of other slight complications, and the fact that my daughter is all of two minutes "younger" than her brother still seems to rather annoy her ~ you'd have thought she would be over it after 28 years LOL

Liz Hinds said...

True, Debra.

Amnesia is a wonderful thing, Sonata. WE would all be one child families without it.

I doubt she'll ever get over it, Sharon. Having one breech and the other not - I was going to say sounds complicated but actually they would fit together rather well like that. Sort of cwtched in together.