breech

I got to catch 8 breech babies today. :O Well, to be more accurate, I got to catch one breech baby eight times today. :?

Alright, I spent the day attending a [breech workshop](http://ohiomidwives.org/news.htm#breech) which featured a very lifelike articulated baby model (Sophie) and a pelvic model 'mum'. It was a great way to learn the varied skills of different kinds of breech births, since vaginal breech births are considered pretty taboo by the medical community around here, esp. for a first-time moms with an 'unproven pelvis'. And I am doubly fortunate, since the instructor was one of my partners at CHOICE, Abby Kinne, our Executive Director. Abby is many things, but among her foremost qualites is her great teaching ability and inclination. She instills confidence in her students, mainly because she has confidence in us.

So, here am I, much more confident about attending a breech birth than I was this AM. Does this mean that I'm ready to run out and do one? Heck, no. My previous experience with breech births was observing two during my apprenticeship, one a primip (first-time) breech that included a full resuscitation of the baby, who responded well, due to the skill of the midwives. So, it would be customary (and more comfortable) for me to assist another, more skilled midwife first. However, defining 'skilled' is tricky. We don't do planned breech homebirths at CHOICE. And, since we palpate baby's position as part of our prenatal care, we don't have a lot of surprises, esp. since most of our practice comes from moms of less than 5 kids (as opposed to some of the practices that serve the Amish/Mennonite communities) whose abdominal muscles have been stretched less that moms who have birthed more children---*(thus giving the babies more room to get into less optimal birthing positions.)* Besides the two previously mentioned (one of which was a planned breech), I can only think of two more surprise breeches that have occurred since I have been involved with CHOICE. Figuring that we do ~ 60 births a year, and I've been there 13+ years, that comes out to... .006%, I think. So, I may be the more skilled midwife. That doesn't sit comfortably, since it places me in "The Buck Stops Here" position of responsibility, and saying *(or even thinking)* that I want that sounds like hubris waiting to happen.

So why did I go in the first place? Was it a burning thirst for the theoretical and practical skills? Maybe 10%. But at least 85% was due to superstition. I got up this AM, still exhausted from facilitating a workshop given for midwifery apprentices in honor of International Midwives' Day (yesterday) and dragged my ass around the motions of getting ready because (as I told Dee as she dropped me off), "If I don't go, the next birth I go to will be a breech." I'm scared of the Birth Fairy, so I did a little time at her altar, in hopes of butter births. (you know..."like butta") Think it'll work?

Now I have to go to help the girl (my mostly pagan child) find a gift for her friend's First Communion tomorrow...something that says, "Congratulations on this rite of passage" and "We respect your beliefs" without surrendering to the misogeny of the faith. Any ideas?