Ok so let me preempt this question by saying yes I realise this breech bubs of mine may still turn on her own, but I'm a planner and like to have a plan B in place, hence the question!

So, this baby girl is still bum down with her head up by my right rib. I am getting scanned on the 26th to see what kind of breech she is...we suspect footling or similar as I am getting kicked low down, but obviously a scan will tell us this, as well as her size. So in the next 10 days or so till then I plan to use the swiss ball, swim etc etc.

BUT, my two options after that (and taking into account trying acupunture and moxibustion etc from 35 weeks) are these:

1) Book an elective c-section for a certain date, most likely around 38, poss 39 weeks. My mw reccomends this option as my labour history (of 1 baby lol) shows I labour fast and hard and she is worried if we leave labour to start naturally then we might encounter serious problems.

2) allow labour to start naturally, knowing the above and take a 'see what happens' approach, also knowing that yes sometimes babies turn at the last minute. MW wants me to know under those circumstances I would need to be able to get to hospital at the first contraction, which I'd need to do anyway if bubs was right way up! But that we'd need to be really quick and also acknowledge that once in the delivery suite there would be every chance of an emergencey section. And I think they'd only let me have this option if the baby is in the full split breech position anyway?  Does that sound right? Think the mw said no way if the bubs is footling.

So, my question is- which option do you think you'd go with? I would obviously much prefer to birth 'naturally', mainly cos of the recovery period (I know how long it took me to get back on my feet after my emergency ab op earlier in the pregnancy!).  Also I am worried that if I have a c-section then BF will be much harder to establish, or even happen (although Clodagh is still BF so I guess that might help?)

I feel like I have to choose between 2 pretty sh*tty sounding  Plan B's TBH.  But would like to hear from more experienced Mums who might've had both types of births or just people who have different views on what they might do in this situation.

TIA

I so appreciate your repsonse so far.  The answers to a few of your questions are:

• We live at least 30 minutes drive from Wellington hospital...and thats not accounting for peak hour traffic.
• DF will most likely be at work if I go into labour during the day and as a courier covering the greater Wgtn region, may well take a good while to get home. SO I will either be on my own or my Mum may be with me if she can come down and stay with us, however she's a little prone to panicking iykwim?
• Clodagh was an ambulance trip to hospital due to the sudden & hard onset of labour, although she was born in hospital (I also had bleeding when my waters broke).
• ECV is an option; I am concerned  about the pain involved (call me shallow ) and also the danger of complications ie something going wrong during the procedure which may lead to an EARLY emergancy c-section, or worse, the cord getting caught or something (Clodagh's was wrapped around her neck a few times at birth so am a bit worried about that).

edited to add- my mw is wonderful, I have full confidence in her and she seems the right amount of 'crunchy' and medical-type person for me lol. She is not confident about birthing breech babes vaginally at all though,  not just her, but anyone doing it in general I mean. Before we found out bubs was breech, we had a hypnobirthing water birth planned and she was well into it. And her first suggestions at turning babe incl acupuncture and moxibustion so she's def not just a 'cut it out' kind of peraon...which make me kind of believe her when she says birthing breech is more dangerous unless certain circumstances are met (my health, 2nd preg, babes position etc). She's not panicking or making me worried, all this is ME getting worried on my own lol).

Wow I really appreciate all your input ladies, it's good to hear different accounts and both sides of the story.

Hippymama- that book sounds awesome and I completely agree with the fear thing & labour, the only thing is that my mw is NOT comfortable birthing breech babies, nor the idea in general...and she really is not the hard ass medical type either, she's not as lefty crunchy as I could've found I guess but she's def very open to those sort of ideas iykwim (as I am hehe  ). she said there's only one obstertrician in Wgtn (not the Hutt) who will attempt a breech vaginal birth...and I'd have to meet all the criteria. I know I meet at least one, in that it's my 2nd bubba. But it'd also have to be a split breech. Soooo I guess I'm kind of stuck on my Plan B until we have the scan.  Which is hard cos I really am a planner lol.  I don't care about how the baby coems out really, it;s not like I'm the type to feel incomplete if I don't get a vaginal birth (maybe cos I've had one?)...it's totally about the recovery aspect and the BF. I would be GUTTED if something went wrong and I couldn't BF.  But then putting it in persective, I would be more gutted obviously if something went wrong with bubs cos of my indecision.

Flissty- lmao um yeah where IS your crystal ball? COme to think of it, where's mine?  I think what you suggest makes good sense and I have a feeling my mw will be quite open to that idea of not making an ultimate decision till say 37 weeks.

Weegee- nope I totally get what you're saying and yeah it could def apply in this situation. We got pg with this bubba MUCH quicker than expected (weren't trying, weren't preventing)..cos clodagh took so long to get, we just assumed it would take another year. um it only took once.  So there's been a lot of getting our heads around the smallish age gap. Also I was very unwell the first 16 weeks or so, including having a week in hospital for emergancy abdo surgery on my ovary, so there was some dettachment on my part I think about getting too close to this baby. And more recently I've been worried about how this baby will affect my relationship with Clodagh, and all the usual things a second time Mum might worry about I guess. Hmmmm def sounds like I need a shrink!  Given all that, It's amazing that this wee girl hasn't lodged herself up higher and refused to come out at all!!!

Thanks guys, it means alot to me that you've taken the time to give such thougthful answers.

I have looked at the spinning babies website and plan to spend all my sitting time on the swiss ball for the next 2 weeks lol. Bizzy it's interesting to hear of your c-section experiences and BF too, that is one of my big fears (of not being able to BF I mean).

I think at this stage I will do what I can for the next 10 days and keep calm. After the scan we'll know a little more, and if the news isn't great then I think I'll book in for an elective section but ask to leave it as late as possible. I'm still undecided about the ECV.  I'll read a bit more about it as at the moment it's not feeling like a great thing to do...don't ask me why

lol Emmi- you know you're talking to ME right?  So no, it doesn't sound hippyish at all hehe  yeah one of the reasons I'm worried about a section is what I saw you go through hun, it was hard for you guys and I so don't want that  (no offense, you did really well! Much better than I would under the same circumstances...I know my limits!).

Think I'll stick with option 1 at this stage and do everything I can to try and get this bubs to turn. DF ran into an old mate at the supermarket just now and you'll never guess....he's an acupuncturist!  And he's offered to 'do me' (with needles!!!!!) ASAP  Karma or what?!

Nutella- I"m just probably worried cos I saw a friend go through a really hard time after a section with BF and she did everything she could, was really committed and its just been a huge battle for her. She's done so well though! And I have heard of a couple of other people who struggled and I guess I naively thought the 2 might go hand in hand. But that's one of the reasons I wanted feedback so I could be told otherwise but people more experienced than me!

two_boys- yeah I have pretty much ruled out the ECV. It just doesn't feel right to do it, so will trust my intuition. At this stage bubs seems to be kind of lying diagonally across my tunny, with her head (I think) on my lower left side and her back bone where my tummt button is. Hope I'm right!

Hey Vanillabean! *waves*

Thanks for sharing that...interesting that you didn't find your recovery that bad? That gives me hope if I do need to have a section, think I will def go for a planned one, although am quietly hoping we won't need it!

Good on you for trying to BF despite all the problems you had doing so, I honestly don't know how I would cope if I couldn't though . It's so important to me, but I appreciate having a healthy bubba and Mama is more so. I'm hoping that Clodagh would help out in that arena as I'm still Bf her so maybe she'd keep my supply up? aargh who knows.

Baby has done major moving today, HB still seems to be faint below my tummy button but my whole tummy seems to be constantly hard so she'd better not have moved into a sideways position lol.

Yes I've seen what you went through Emmi and TBH it's a reason I'm worried! I don't mean that in a bad way, just it wasn't cool to see a mate go through that sort of thing so I"m worried it might happen to me.  You were ALOT braver than I would've been (not just saying that btw...I know my pain threshold etc lol).

I think bubs is still head down...well her HB is low now, not high and she's been making mega movements.....the only thing I can't tell is if she's head down or if she's sideways, cos my whole tummy is feeling tight most of the time and the kicks are everywhere!!!  

I do belong to LLL and they are awesome, really helpful in matters of BF and sections so some info I have has been gleaned from them too.