External cephalic version

So Holly, what options were presented to you then when you got to 36, 37 weeks and your daughter was still breech?

So they said that we could try an ECV, but my fluid was really low, and she was frank breech, and so they did not think that it would be successful.

And so they recommended it but really were not on board with it.

So we kind of didn't have that as an option.

Jungle Cruise has that crazy boat with the thing that turns out towards the dock and you drive in and then it rotates and it drops it into place.

Most stuff you have to train... does the ECV go on tomorrow? Do you have to get in a regular wheelchair? And then

I know they have a wheelchair accessible boat, but I don't know if

they're talking about an ECV.

If this is about an ECV, the ECV cannot be driven onto most ride vehicles.

I think jungle cruise takes it.

Um, Otherwise, you do have to transfer into a standard wheelchair, and then you can be rolled onto many attractions.

That opens up a lot of rides.

an aversion.

Uh, ECV, so external catholic version.

Yeah.

Where they like tried to turn her.

But that doesn't automatically make them this high-risk person.

They need to understand what the risk factors are for breech and having, having an ECV and, and, you know, manually turning the baby or having a C-section or having a vaginal birth, what the risks are for all of those things.

Mm-hmm.

Every pregnant woman is at risk for something.

At a later appointment, my OB and I talked more about the possibility of the baby turning on her own.

And we also discussed an ECV, the procedure where they manually tried to turn the baby into a head down position.

But I ultimately decided against it.

I think over time I started to come to terms with the idea of a scheduled C-section and eventually found some comfort in it.

Even though I was contracting and it was hard, came straight to me to talk.

So it just felt quite like... bullying and aggressive and not what I would want in a birth and I'm a doula now so what I avoid my clients from having to go through so it's a lot of hours of that but then it finally got escalated up to a wonderful OB who was brilliant walked in the room he was English and he was like I don't think you need the antibiotics don't worry about it what do you want to do and it was like a breath of fresh air because that's the first time I was listened to and And we took time, spoke about our options and he was like, I could try and do an ECV.

So try and turn the baby to see if you could get your vaginal birth.

He does vaginal breech births and he actually didn't recommend it because baby was so small.

You would have done it if you could.

Yes.

Made a decision that he would come back at nine in the morning when his cesarean team was ready to go to do the ECV because he hadn't done an ECV where there were no waters left previously.

So he wanted to go home, read about it, see that it was safe.

So I didn't want to go that route.

And we did an ECV and it was successful.

And a week later, 42 weeks, I'm still not in labor.

And so I decided to induce at home and with the midwives brew and it worked, it worked.

So generally what I do is take them through their options or ask them what options they have been told they have.

And usually it's ECV or C-section.

And then they say they found my Instagram page or something, and they see that I attend breaches, and they've seen breach births on my page and other places.

And so then they ask about that, and I let them know what that entails.

And this is why we even have someone at our birth is because we want to know that they're going to be able to help in the best way possible.

And so...

When we go through those particular factors, we talk about the risks of cesarean section and all that goes with that, the risks of ECV, which there are quite a number.

You know, we have this baby who's decided for whatever reason that it wants to be in this position.

And so I'm just so stoked for you all to hear.

We get stories about E- or questions about ECVs often, and an ECV is an external cephalic version, where a obstetrician attempts to f- manually flip the baby, hands on your belly, rotating baby from breech to head down.

And Stephanie's was successful, though she did decline an ECV with her baby before that, who was breech.

And so she talks a little bit about weighing the pros and cons of decision-making, and ultimately what led her to, to decide for an ECV, and it was successful, and she had an unmedicated VBAC.

And yeah, it's so great.

So before we do that, Paige has a really fun review.

So Stephanie is a pre- and postnatal fitness specialist, birth doula, and founder of Mission Rise, a 20-minute at home strength training program for women, as well as Mission Motherhood, a week-by-week fitness program designed to support women through each week of pregnancy and postpartum.

She also leads State College Stroller Fitness, where she helps local moms build strength while creating community alongside their little ones.