We discovered or baby was in the breech position at 36 weeks. At this point we contacted Lynn and Mary Cronk regarding truths/myths of breech vaginal births. In the meantime we continued care with our NHS hospital. The hospital said we had 2 options: try and turn the baby, or an elective caesarean section at 38 weeks. We asked about vaginal birth of breech and were told that they were only done in emergency situation when it was too late for a c-section. The hospital advised us to try ECV (external cephalic version) to try and turn the baby into a “normal” position. It really annoyed us that everyone at the hospital stated a breech was abnormal and that a c-section was the only “cure”.

At 37 weeks we attended the hospital for ECV. We had been told what was involved in an ECV, and how it would be performed. The baby would be massaged around and frequent checks made with ultrasound to check baby was OK. Most websites had stated that very few women found it painful, with most finding it uncomfortable. Imagine our shock when both my wife and myself were dressed in theatre greens, ushered into an operating theatre and then two doctors literally used my wife as the ball in the centre of a rugby scrum!! It was awful, and I was only watching! They used so much pressure on baby’s head and bum, that they pushed it up into my wife’s diaphragm so see couldn’t breathe and caused her to have a panic attack. At this point I told everyone to stop instantly. The doctor said the baby was stuck in the pelvis and they were trying to pop her out. I wish they had told us this before starting. They didn’t think another attempt would work so we stopped. My wife was traumatised by this whole episode which was further added to by the theatre staff saying “see you again soon” as we left. Also, when we got back to our room on the ward, we found an elective caesarean section form filled out and awaiting our signature!!!!! Do these people have any feelings? My wife would not talk about baby for 2 days following the ECV and was wary of anyone coming near her. This experience increased our wish for a vaginal birth.

Our community midwife was aware of our feelings and after the ECV, put us in contact with a consultant midwife at the hospital. The consultant was very understanding and we agreed on a birth plan which included a vaginal delivery by a midwife as we believed the doctors were far to eager to jump in and use lots of intervention to “get this baby out quickly”. The doctors at the hospital told us that they birthed breech babies, not the midwives, and had a lot of experience. We pushed them on how many was “a lot of experience” and were shocked to discover that the hospital as a whole (a teaching hospital) birthed around 4 breeches a YEAR! However, there were only 1 or 2 midwives (including this consultant) that had sufficient knowledge to birth a breech. The whole plan centred on contacting this consultant, when my wife was in labour, to find out if she was available, otherwise we decided we preferred a c-section rather than letting the doctors birth the baby. The doctors agreed to this plan and the labour ward was also made aware. I think it was at this point we contacted Lynn and Mary to arrange a meeting, as we still were not entirely happy with the plan. Both was amazed that the hospital even considered a vaginal birth. The meeting was arranged for 19th November.

At 39 weeks the community midwife found protein in my wife’s urine and a raised blood pressure and referred us back to the hospital with query pre-eclampsia. I’ll just add at this point that my wife had been admitted to hospital at around 8 weeks with severe dehydration caused by hyperemesis (severe morning sickness that lasted all day/night every day). Also, she was placed in a room with a women who had just lost her baby at 13 weeks. After little explanation and reassurance from the doctors she discharged herself after 5 days. This sickness continued up until week 17.

At the hospital the doctors again mentioned that in a normal pregnancy they would induce the baby at this point, but this is not recommended for breech presentations and HEAVILY pushed us to have a c-section. Again we refused, once again believing that it was not necessary at this time. They explained we would have to have daily monitoring as pre-eclampsia “can go wrong very quickly” and were astonished when we said “see you tomorrow then!”

That night at 6.45pm on 18th November, my wife started getting pains at regular 10 minute intervals lasting for 1 minute. By 8pm the contractions were 5 minutes apart. At 8.54pm I contacted the labour ward. They said they needed to read my wife’s notes and would ring back. Twenty minutes later they phoned and told us to come in and be assessed. I asked them to contact the consultant midwife as stated in our birth plan, but they refused, with no explanation. We didn’t know what to do; if we went to the hospital we would end up with a c-section, and no-one would tell us what was happening. We discussed what to, but we had little alternative but to go to the hospital. I loaded up the car and we were about to leave, then remembered about the meeting arranged with Lynn and Mary. Clearly we wouldn’t be able to make the meeting! I phoned Mary, but she was asleep so I left a message. However, I spoke to Lynn. Both were aware of our struggle with the hospital and Lynn asked how things were going. We explained. Lynn offered to contact people she knew in Southampton and phoned back 5 minutes later. Lynn had contacted the Supervisor of Midwives at the hospital who was going to contact the consultant midwife, and someone would call us.

Thirty minutes went by with no phone call. By now my wife was VERY anxious. I phoned Lynn again, feeling guilty about phoning her late at night with problems that were nothing to do with her. Lynn was still calm and cheery and asked if she could help. We immediately accepted. However, all she could offer was to come and comfort us in the hospital as she could not get a honourary contract to work in the hospital at such short notice at almost 10.30pm! We agreed. All along our dream was to have a home birth, but as we hadn’t setup a contract or even met Lynn at this point we didn’t think it was possible. However, I was just about to put the phone down when my wife asked if Lynn could come to the house. Lynn said she could and was on her way!! My wife and I were both shocked and jubilant at the same time and I saw the anxiety disappear instantly from my wife. Finally, someone she trusted (having only spoken on the phone) was coming! Twenty minutes later Mary phoned to say she was coming too!

Both Lynn and Mary arrived within an hour, kicked off their shoes and made themselves at home – it was like meeting old friends – it was amazing. We were expecting internal examinations, monitoring etc. as had been explained at the Parentcraft evenings. But Lynn and Mary just asked my wife about how she felt and how the contractions felt. Everything else was done with a mirror on the floor! By 1am Mary was hungry and raided the kitchen for food and made everyone coffee. Luckily she found some bread as we were supposed to have done the fortnightly shop that evening! We were expecting lots of anxious moments and frequent examinations, but Lynn and Mary later explained that the key to breech was “vigilant inactivity.” We knew that if anything looked like it was going wrong we would need a c-section, which we were happy about – we had said this all along to the hospital, but the hospital had decided that we were refusing a c-section “at all costs.”

By 2am Lynn said things were progressing nicely and the baby would be born today. Again, we thought within a few hours with luck. Imagine our surprise when the legs popped out about 2.30 and a whole baby at 2.54am!!! Both Mary and Lynn were required to deliver the head, but again, all was calm and under control. The only anxious moment for my wife, was when at the point of delivering the head, all the contractions stopped! We knew it was unlikely Freya would be breathing when she was born, but a bit of suction in the mouth, a couple of quick puffs with a mask and all was fine.

Both Lynn and Mary agreed it had been a textbook delivery with no problems. The only thing that caught them out was when the placenta popped out and rolled across the floor just 11 minutes after Freya was born.

My wife was fantastic and survived labour only with a TENS machine, “being vocal” and crushing my hands! I think a lot of this was down to the trust we both have in Lynn and Mary. Every time I recount this story to people I get emotional. I’m not sure why, but I think it is the fact that Lynn and Mary enabled us to have our dream birth (and with no notice) despite everyone else saying it was impossible, and that at one point we were expecting to have a c-section and 10 seconds later it was a home birth. My wife is already talking about booking Lynn for our next child, regardless of orientation, just because the whole experience was so fantastic!!