The healthy development of the baby can depend much on pregnancy itself, labor and delivery. Despite incredibly high level of new technologies and facilities it is always difficult to preview all possible childbirth defects and complications. One of the most important factors influencing the success of delivery is child's position. Traditionally the children are born in the position of head leading. But there are about 3-4% of babies that starts the life from not so usual breech presentation.
In general breech presentation cannot be considered to be so uncommon and dangerous if to talk about the pregnancy till the term of 37 weeks. As till this point the baby turns spontaneously and without any difficulties. After the age of 37 the moving is not so easy and active because of gaining size. The most common breech presentation reasons are smaller than average baby's size, abnormal uterus shape, relaxed uterus (not first pregnancy), in the case of twins or more than one baby. If the diagnosis says about breech preposition most doctors recommend not natural but cesarean way of delivery.
The recent researches determined three types of the breech presentation: frank breech, complete breech and incomplete one. Frank breeches position presents feet location at the side of head); completes breech can be characterized by the leading bottom and completely crossed legs - the position is called Indian); incomplete breech (one of the legs is coming first).
Before the delivery the obstetrician can easily determine the position by the means of external exam (or ultrasound). The doctors strongly recommend including to the childbirth plan the constant visiting of the doctor that can discover the wrong baby's dislocation in time and change the situation. The practice showed that external cephalic version procedure can be rather useful and effective in the case of breech presentation. The main purpose is to turn the baby and provide in this way safe vaginal delivery. The method is successful in 58% of all cases. A doctor uses pressure for moving the baby in manual way but sometimes it is impossible to change the position in wished way or after successful attempt the baby turns back some time later. There are also some prohibitions of the ECV procedure, for instance complications:
Bleeding;
Twins;
Te problem of lack of amniotic fluid;
Placenta previa problem, etc.
The procedure cannot be judged as absolutely safe. It can be available only in the circumstances of hospital facilities where the doctor can control exactly baby's rotations by the means of ultrasound. It happens that women try by their own to turn the baby. The scientific research did not find any proofs of any risk in these attempts. Some works proves that hypnosis can be very effective in the case of breech presentation. It is recommended to get advice from child birth consultant, midwives or professional doulas. The earlier you get information about some disorganizations during the pregnancy the more chances you have to solve them and gain successful delivery.