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Continued call for breech birth stories!

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In an effort to demonstrate the need for midwives to be the most responsible person for vaginal breech births at the Ottawa Hospital, we would like to publish a series of breech birth stories.  The only requirement is that they have some connection to Ontario. The connection could be as simple as a consult about breech with an Obstetrician who practices in the province. We want to hear all types of stories: births that went exactly as planned, births that nothing went as planned and everything in between. When submitting your breech birth story, please include the year of birth and how you would like to be attributed (full name, first name, anonymous or something else entirely). You can submit your breech birth stories to the following email address: cbb.ncr.east.ont [at] gmail.com  
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Group wants midwives to deliver breech babies at The Ottawa Hospital

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In November 2018, in the lead up to the presentation by consumers to the hospital board, the Ottawa Citizen published an article about consumers wanting midwives to have breech privileges at TOH. One thing that jumped out at me as I reread the article is the description of the situation as "long-simmering concerns." We are now nearly five and a half years later and nothing has changed since this article was first published. People carrying breech babies are still being forced to transfer care from their midwife to an obstetrician, and are oftentimes being coerced into c-sections that they do not want or their babies are delivered vaginally without the latest evidence based techniques.
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Does breech delivery in an upright position instead of on the back improve outcomes and avoid cesareans?

Around the same time as the airing of Betty-Anne Daviss' White Coat, Black Art episode, an important article that she co-authored was published. It concluded that "upright vaginal breech delivery was associated with reductions in duration of the second stage of labor, maneuvers required, maternal/neonatal injuries, and cesarean rate when compared with vaginal delivery in the dorsal position." Midwifery clients usually prefer to be upright while giving birth to a breech baby, however, most obstetricians in Ottawa continue insist that women carrying breech babies push on their backs. This is another important reason why consumers want Ottawa hospitals to respect midwives' scope of practice and to no longer require a transfer of care from a midwife to an obstetrician when a baby is breech.  Another important finding from this article is that none of the births in this study required forceps. There's an obstetrician in Ottawa who insists on using forceps for ever...
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Listening Party in 2016

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On November 5th, 2016 a group of us gathered at Betty-Anne Daviss' house to listen to her episode of White Coat, Black Art . The group included several women for whom Betty-Anne had caught their breech babies, several women who were denied Betty-Anne's care due to TOH's refusal to grant midwives breech privileges and several people who had been babies (both breech and cephalic) that were caught by Betty-Anne.
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Into the Breech: This midwife says breech births are safe and natural. Now she just has to convince doctors.

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This article was published on November 4th, 2016 on CBC Radio's website. It accompanied an interview of Betty-Anne Davis that was originally aired on the same day on White Coat, Black Art . It includes an interview with Dr. Daniel Moreau who was the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the Montfort hospital when Betty-Anne was granted breech privileges in April 2013. You can listen to the interview here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-75-white-coat-black-art/clip/10686076-into-breech
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Montfort recognized for integrating midwives into hospital

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This article was published in the Ottawa Citizen on May 31st, 2015 and it highlights the Montfort Hospital winning the Hospital Integration Award by the Association of Ontario Midwives. In April 2013, midwives started attending vaginal breech births at the Montfort Hospital. Now more than 10 years later, women continue to ask TOH to allow midwives to practice within their full scope. We continue to make this request primarily due to the fact that many women are not allowed to attempt a vaginal breech birth with a midwife at the Montfort because they fall outside of the hospital's catchment area. Their next best option is TOH with an OBGYN which can vary from a coerced c-section to a vaginal breech delivery with an unnecessary episiotomy and the use of forceps without consent. Another issue still facing TOH is the cap on the number of midwives who can practice at the Civic. This has continued since this article was published nearly 9 years ago and is highlighted in the following quo...
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A breech birth story from Kapuskasing!

Here is our very first breech birth story! Thanks to Brigitte for sharing her positive experience! Also, we are still looking for more breech birth stories, so if you have one that you'd like to share, please email it to us at  cbb.ncr.east.ont@gmail.com Brigitte writes:  I have a special breech story that I would like to share from a small northeastern community. My name is Brigitte and I live in Kapuskasing, Ontario. I have two healthy boys, ages 5 and 2. My husband and I chose to deliver both our boys in Timmins, Ontario (about 2 hours from Kapuskasing) as we felt it was the best option. Our first son was born without a hitch at the Timmins hospital with Dr. X who was absolutely amazing throughout the entire process. Of course, when I found out I was pregnant with baby #2, I wanted to have Dr. X again. Dr. X was also expecting a baby around the same time as I, which was a little worrisome but I also knew that there was a great team of OBGYNs there.  At 33 we...
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