Sarah’s Birth Story - A Surprise Breech Delivery!

We are so honored to share birth stories on the Enriched Birth™ blog. Familiarizing our audience with birth and how differently it can be experienced by each birthing parent is something we care deeply about.  We share these stories in their original form so that they reflect the feelings and voice of the authors. Sometimes birth is ecstatic, peaceful, positive, and joyful. Sometimes birth is painful, difficult, and disappointing. But birth is always raw, always incredible, and always personal. 

Our goal as childbirth educators is to give expecting parents the information, tools, and resources to feel empowered and thereby have a more positive experience - even when their birth does not go as hoped. Birth can not be controlled, but as you’ll read  in many of these stories, the availability of consistent support and informed decision making  are such important aspects of a birth experience.

Thank you for reading!

At my last few prenatal OB appointments I asked about the baby’s position. I felt kicks in places that I didn’t expect. Since my pregnancy was rather smooth, the last ultrasound I had was the 20 week anatomy scan. Part of me was secretly hoping for another ultrasound so I could see the baby’s cute little face again. At each appointment, the doctor used their hands to push down on my belly and check for a head. Each time they said something like, “yeah, that feels like a head down low - heading into the pelvis.” I had my doubts, but I thought, “what do I know? I’ve never done this before.”

At 5am on a cold, dark Saturday morning in January, my water broke in bed. Somehow, I moved faster than I had the entire last month of my pregnancy and made it to the bathroom without making a mess. We had planned to go to the Auto Show that day since we were in the market for a new car. I’m so glad it didn’t happen a few hours later!

I hung out in the bathroom while my husband got everything together. We took our time getting to the hospital, even stopping to grab some breakfast on the way.

When we got there, the labor and delivery unit was very busy. They eventually took me back into a triage room, checked to see that it was my water that had broken, and measured my cervix. I was already 3cm dilated and I hadn’t felt a thing yet. It felt almost as if I was getting a great deal on labor! I was hoping to deliver without an epidural, while keeping an open mind, and this boosted my confidence quite a bit.

I was in triage for a while before a delivery room opened up. We finally got up there around 10:30 and they started pitocin (a synthetic drug to encourage contractions) right away. Things started getting real around noon with intense contractions. After almost two hours, I looked at my husband and told him to get the nurse and tell her I wanted an epidural. The nurse came in to measure again and told me I was 9cm dilated. I thought “Ok - I made it this far - I think I can do this,” so I gripped the side of the bed and my husband’s hand and tried to keep breathing. 

Very soon after, I felt the urge to push. We called the nurse who called in the doctor. They broke down the bed and put my legs up. I was squeezing my husband’s hand so hard that I was a little worried I might break it and he wouldn’t be able to hold the baby. 

All of the sudden, I looked up and there were nine nurses in the room. Two were on the phone. Two were holding my legs. The rest were frantically preparing things around the room. The doctor was taking off his gloves and stepping away as another doctor was scrubbing in. The new doctor took a look and very calmly said “Your baby is breech. The head is not down - it’s the butt coming out first.”

My first thought was that they were going to have to do a C-section. I had kept an open mind and really just wanted this baby out safely, so I naively said “OK - just take it out,” secretly hoping to end the misery of contractions.

He said “It’s too late to change course. The baby is too far down. You have to push it out.” He must have noticed the complete shock on my face. He said “I have done this before. It’s going to be OK.”

He started applying medical grade olive oil to help prevent tearing (which I had never heard of, but found amusing) and I started pushing. I can still remember the burning. At one point, the doctor asked if we knew what we were having.  We said no and he said “well, since it’s butt first you can take a look.” I personally had no desire to look at what was causing my pain and my husband is the queasy type who took off his glasses so he couldn’t see anything on purpose, so neither of us looked. 

I was ugly screaming at the nurses. At one point, I looked at my husband and said “I can’t do this.” One of the nurses looked me in the eyes and said “Listen to me. You have to keep pushing to get the baby out. You can do this. You have to.” Something in her tone made me think that something bad was going to happen if I didn’t get this baby out. Minutes later, they placed the baby in my chest. It cried and all the nurses looked relieved. In all the chaos, no one told us the sex, so I said “what is it?” They laughed and told us it was a boy. We fell in love immediately. 

We hung out in the delivery room for our “golden hour,” just the 3 of us. Then they moved us to our recovery room where we finally got some food - grilled cheese and tomato soup was the perfect winter comfort food!

Aside from learning that a breech (butt-first) vaginal birth is possible, my main take away from this experience was that I needed to trust my intuition and to stand up for myself if my concern is brushed aside. During my next pregnancy, at every appointment, I mentioned the fact that I wanted an ultrasound when I checked in to the hospital to deliver. They promised me that I would get one. I did, and of course my second was head down.