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Breech Birth- Causes and Options

A breech birth is when your baby is presenting with his/her legs flexed at the hips and extended at the knees, or when one or both knees are flexed and not extended.

What can cause your baby to be breech?

You have had more than one pregnancy
You are carrying multiples (Twins or Triplets)
To much or too little amniotic fluid
Abnormal uterus shape
Suffering from placenta previa
Your baby has hydrocephalus (an abnormally large amount of fluid in the skull)

Delivering a breech baby

Most doctors nowadays believe that the safest way to deliver a breech baby is by means of a cesarean section in early labor or even before labor begins. There are some doctors who believe that a woman can give birth vaginally if the situation is right, but in most cases this requires the baby to be in a frank breech, with his/her legs are flexed at the hips and extended at the knees and in a women who has had normal deliveries in the past.

Turning your breech baby

Attempts may be made to turn your breech baby from a breech position into a normal head down position. This would need to be done before your waters break, or at least in early labor.

This requires the doctor to manually turn the baby into a head down position with his hands. There are however risks involved in trying to do this:

Rupture of membranes
Placental abruption
Affect the baby's heart rate
Could speed up the onset of labor