Urgent: Prevent Undiagnosed Breech Babies in Low Risk Mothers by offering NHS 36+Week Scan
Urgent: Prevent Undiagnosed Breech Babies in Low Risk Mothers by offering NHS 36+Week Scan
The Issue
Lincolnshire midwives confuse baby’s head with bottom during routine appointments and mums don’t know their baby is breech until during labour.
“Approximately 20-30% of breech presentations are diagnosed for the first time in labour, or 5% where universal third trimester scanning has been implemented (Salim et al 2021).”*
After being told by three midwives my baby was ‘head down and textbook’ and after a private scan picking up an abnormality in my uterus at 28 weeks, the NHS refused to rescan me and told me the private scan was incorrect.
On the day I gave birth, at 9cm dilated, I found out my baby was breech and almost had to deliver my first baby breech naturally. I know of three other women who were told, this year, that their baby was head down, only to find out almost too late that the baby was breech. Two found out their babies were breech by the midwife seeing the baby’s bottom during labour, one lady was in labour for 3 days prior to this. Because of the undiagnosed breech, all three of our babies had to be pushed back up into our uterus by a balloon so they could be delivered by c section after we had started pushing.
After a category 2 c section I was told I had a bicornuate uterus (heart shaped) which is why my baby couldn’t turn around and was born early. If the NHS had listened to me and rescanned me, this would have been picked up before my baby was born and I would have correctly been categorised as high risk and consultant led, rather than being left as low risk.
It seems far too common and easy for midwives to confuse babies heads with their bottoms in low risk mothers who are not offered a presentation scan on the NHS. A third trimester scan is offered on the NHS in other counties but not in Lincolnshire.
I am petitioning for this to change and for low risk mothers to be offered an NHS scan at 36+ weeks to ensure no one else experiences an undiagnosed breech baby during labour. If I had been later to the hospital or chosen to have a home birth things could have been disastrous.
“If a vaginal birth is attempted without specialist midwives trained in breech births, the baby is at risk of injury from dislocation to arms or legs during the birth.
It could also get stuck in the birth canal and, though rare, suffer brain injury due to a lack of oxygen. In 0.5 per cent of breech deliveries, the baby can die (compared with 0.1 per cent of normal vaginal deliveries).
In 40 per cent of cases, the mother needs an emergency caesarean section, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.” …
“A planned caesarean is usually the safest option and is offered if it's known the baby is breech.
Yet between 15 and 33 per cent of women whose babies are breech find this out only when they go into labour as routine ultrasound scans are only carried out at 12 and 20 weeks' gestation - too early to detect the problem.
This leaves many of these women needing an emergency caesarean, which can be risky, as a recent case at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London highlighted.
The trust was ordered to pay £37m - one of the largest payouts in NHS history - to the parents of a baby boy left severely brain damaged after staff failed to spot he was in the breech position before his mother went into labour.
She was rushed to surgery for an emergency caesarean, but delays meant his brain was starved of oxygen and he will need 24-hour care for the rest of his life.”
The fact that I personally know of three other mums who have experienced the same issue this year, makes me extremely worried how many other mums are discovering their baby is breech during labour and not before. This is dangerous for both mums and babies and must change.
Please help other Mums-to-be ensure this doesn’t happen to them.
Thank you
Read more in the Lincolnite here including comments from two other mums:
Read more about the risks of an undiagnosed breech birth here: **
*https://optibreech.uk/2021/03/01/undiagnosed-breech-births/
309
The Issue
Lincolnshire midwives confuse baby’s head with bottom during routine appointments and mums don’t know their baby is breech until during labour.
“Approximately 20-30% of breech presentations are diagnosed for the first time in labour, or 5% where universal third trimester scanning has been implemented (Salim et al 2021).”*
After being told by three midwives my baby was ‘head down and textbook’ and after a private scan picking up an abnormality in my uterus at 28 weeks, the NHS refused to rescan me and told me the private scan was incorrect.
On the day I gave birth, at 9cm dilated, I found out my baby was breech and almost had to deliver my first baby breech naturally. I know of three other women who were told, this year, that their baby was head down, only to find out almost too late that the baby was breech. Two found out their babies were breech by the midwife seeing the baby’s bottom during labour, one lady was in labour for 3 days prior to this. Because of the undiagnosed breech, all three of our babies had to be pushed back up into our uterus by a balloon so they could be delivered by c section after we had started pushing.
After a category 2 c section I was told I had a bicornuate uterus (heart shaped) which is why my baby couldn’t turn around and was born early. If the NHS had listened to me and rescanned me, this would have been picked up before my baby was born and I would have correctly been categorised as high risk and consultant led, rather than being left as low risk.
It seems far too common and easy for midwives to confuse babies heads with their bottoms in low risk mothers who are not offered a presentation scan on the NHS. A third trimester scan is offered on the NHS in other counties but not in Lincolnshire.
I am petitioning for this to change and for low risk mothers to be offered an NHS scan at 36+ weeks to ensure no one else experiences an undiagnosed breech baby during labour. If I had been later to the hospital or chosen to have a home birth things could have been disastrous.
“If a vaginal birth is attempted without specialist midwives trained in breech births, the baby is at risk of injury from dislocation to arms or legs during the birth.
It could also get stuck in the birth canal and, though rare, suffer brain injury due to a lack of oxygen. In 0.5 per cent of breech deliveries, the baby can die (compared with 0.1 per cent of normal vaginal deliveries).
In 40 per cent of cases, the mother needs an emergency caesarean section, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.” …
“A planned caesarean is usually the safest option and is offered if it's known the baby is breech.
Yet between 15 and 33 per cent of women whose babies are breech find this out only when they go into labour as routine ultrasound scans are only carried out at 12 and 20 weeks' gestation - too early to detect the problem.
This leaves many of these women needing an emergency caesarean, which can be risky, as a recent case at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London highlighted.
The trust was ordered to pay £37m - one of the largest payouts in NHS history - to the parents of a baby boy left severely brain damaged after staff failed to spot he was in the breech position before his mother went into labour.
She was rushed to surgery for an emergency caesarean, but delays meant his brain was starved of oxygen and he will need 24-hour care for the rest of his life.”
The fact that I personally know of three other mums who have experienced the same issue this year, makes me extremely worried how many other mums are discovering their baby is breech during labour and not before. This is dangerous for both mums and babies and must change.
Please help other Mums-to-be ensure this doesn’t happen to them.
Thank you
Read more in the Lincolnite here including comments from two other mums:
Read more about the risks of an undiagnosed breech birth here: **
*https://optibreech.uk/2021/03/01/undiagnosed-breech-births/
309
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Petition created on 1 August 2023