It is really difficult isn't it pinky, esp when it is someone you know well! A friend of mine is trying to fight the hospital the other way round to me (to get a planned c-section after a previous - they have just changed there policy of offering routine c-sections to second time mums), although I'm sure she is aware that I don't agree with her decision. She is so very scared of attempting a vaginal delivery and having another emergency c-section, rather than a booked one. She does know that I'm all for choice and if that is what she wants then she has the right to fight for it. Most of the time I do have to keep my thought about her choice, just on the basis of her health, in check, but she can’t see herself as not having something going wrong - understandable given her previous experience.. ;-)
But this is different, you SIL was planning a home birth, so at the risk of sounding generalist, she prob is more open to different options, and perhaps she would want to explore them more easily, than say another women who has not even considered any other options than hospital and doing what they are told, when they are told to do it. So I think there is hope in presenting her with the different choices she has.
I would say the options she has are:
1 - See what happen to baby in the next 2-3 weeks. after all it is a bit premature (excuse the BAD pun) for her to be considering a c-section as a first option. Baby has time to turn. It is only significant at any stage in her "term-time" where baby is at the start and during labour.
2 - Point her to look a the spinning babies website for great tips on OFP (Optimal Fetal Positioning)
3 - If she goes in labour naturally before the booked c-section, position of baby can be checked. (she can either call MWs out to home, or go in for this). If baby isn't breech she should feel more than happy to continue with her home birth. Or if it is still breech, she then has 3 further options - a) deliver a breach baby naturally (there are some great sites and videos on this) b) go into hospital and Obst try to turn baby (I say hospital, as there is merit in her having a scan to check cord hasn't become tangled in the process, and also for pain relief, as by all accounts it is reported not be very uncomfortable) c) opt for the c-section. (possibly after trying b)
4 - if she does not go into labour naturally before the planned c-section date. She can again have babies position checked, then either a)refuse the c-section, whether baby is breech or not and wait for spontaneous labour to start, or b) again opt for the repositioning or c) go with the booked c-section.
That is all as above really, but what she might not want to do is have her labour induced in the breech position.. baby will only get deeper into the pelvis in the breech position and she certainly doesn't want her membranes ruptured
You are going to have to be very diplomatic. I hope that I haven’t missed anything, (prob have), but these are just options.. and not opinions, so I hope she can look through those, without you or her getting into the various benefits of each. Just let her explore that herself.. (perhaps with her MW, or her own research) for her to make an informed choice.
Xxx
Congratulations!
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