When the public hospital Rhonda Tombros was booked into was unable to offer her a vaginal birth she took out a loan for $10,000 to pay for a private obstetrician to avoid what she believed, was an unnecessary caesarean.
Rhonda is one of a growing number of desperate women forced to pay thousands for a private obstetrician or travelling, sometimes interstate, to find obstetricians willing to allow them to birth their breech babies vaginally.
“In my mind there was no doubt that I could birth my baby,” Rhonda said.
Although she said the consultant at the Melbourne hospital supported her decision to have a vaginal delivery she advised her that there were only three doctors comfortable in birthing breech babies vaginally at the hospital and she may not get one of them on the day.
“We had to borrow the money, but what price do you put on the integrity of your reproductive organs?” she said.
Rhonda’s daughter, Matilda, ended up being born vaginally at almost 42 weeks.
Rhonda said the whole experience was very traumatic, but she is thankful to have been able to birth her baby vaginally; the way she wanted.
Canberra mum, Claire Campton, had previously given birth vaginally to three boys, so when she found out her twin girls were breech she was confident she could birth them vaginally too.
“The obstetrician at the (public hospital) wanted to schedule a caesarean. There was absolutely no way I was going to consent to an elective caesarean. He was certainly surprised when I told him that I wouldn’t be scheduling one,” she said.
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I was at Women’s Hospital at Randwick and my second twin was breech, they brought in the specialist who was a breech expert - no idea if he was rostered on or not. So wonder if dissuading women due to unavailability of a breech doctor is actually policy or just to push them to agree to a Caesar?
BTW the 2000 study was flawed (Zepgirl?) and considering 10% of babies are breech it is a huge failure of our medical system to neglect to skill our medical care providers.
Yep, 100% correct in your second paragraph. That study has been widely debunked.
She talks about it like it's some kind of personal preference, like a water birth or something.
I was breech. The cord prolapsed and I had no heartbeat. My mother was cut open before the anaesthetic could take full effect. My father was stranded in the labour ward with no idea what was going on.
I'm lucky to be alive, and with no permanent damage. There's a damn good reason doctors aren't comfortable delivering breech babies and it's nothing to do with "taking the power off women".