Vaginal Breech Birth

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada recently revised their practice guidelines on breech birth.
As of this week (June 2009) They no longer recommend routine cesarean for breech babies! This is a huge step forward as it was precisely the Canadian society and research from Canada that originally published and pushed material that deemed vaginal breech birth unsafe.

The announcement from the SOGC is here:

http://www.sogc.org/media/advisories-20090617a_e.asp

The guidelines:

http://www.sogc.org/media/pdf/advisories/CpgBreechJune09_e.pdf

At Luna Maya we have always supported women's right to chose the birth that she feels works best for her. This sometimes has included a breech vaginal birth. For any midwife who has attended home breech births, we know that it is safe, gentle and usually pretty straightforward.

One of the most important statements in my mind of the announcement and guidelines is the acknowledgement that there are very few providers (in hospital) who know how to attend a safe breech vaginal birth. I would like to offer the skills of myself and other homebirth midwives who how centuries have been safely attending breech births at home.

May this be the beginning of the extension of equal opportunity for birth and the extension of rights to ALL childbearing women, regardless of the position the baby is in!