Breech But Beautiful, Part 2: My Second Breech Birth & How It Changed Me

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DISCLAIMER: This blog post is in no way medical advice. I am not a medical professional. I’m sharing my personal story in the hope that it will inspire you to advocate for yourself and your baby if a natural delivery without surgery is what YOU want. No shame here either. Please know that if you’ve had a c-section because of a breech presentation, there’s no shame in that. I’m NOT saying one way to birth a baby fits all. A healthy baby and healthy mama is the outcome we all want.

If you read Part 1, you know the whirlwind of emotions I experienced leading up to the birth of our breech baby—from the unexpected ultrasound, to the hours of prayer and research, to the decision to trust my body and birth plan.

Now let me tell you about my second breech birth and how wildly different it was from my first breech. It’s something I wasn’t expecting at all as pregnancy was smooth sailing for both. The labor and delivery however was much different.

How Different Each Breech Birth Was

My first breech birth was honestly a dream. The labor was short, the pain was minimal, and delivery wasn’t a walk in the park- but it was quick! 4-5 pushes and he was born.

My second breech birth was so different. It felt like my first baby’s birth. (and he was a head-down vertex!)

My guess is somehow they were sitting in my pelvis in a similar way even though one was breech and the other not.

Labor was forever, and delivery was hard. My water partially broke around 2:30am and he wasn’t born until 10pm. I’ll tell the full story later in this post.

Preparing Emotionally After My First Breech Birth

Oh my word, it was SO much easier to prepare myself mentally for my second breech birth. The fear of breech went away, and I actually grew to be excited he was breech (if you can believe that).

The reason is my first birth was much harder than my second birth. In my mind, my body preferred a breech delivery. Now I know it’s about the baby and my body.

I truly believe my third pregnancy would have turned out very differently if I had gone to the chiropractor like I did during my second.

While I can’t prove it, the contrast was clear: with my second pregnancy, I exercised regularly and saw the chiropractor weekly—and my recovery was much smoother. With my third, I didn’t do either, and healing was much more difficult.

Or perhaps it was because I was chasing after a 5 and 3 year old at the time I was pregnant. It’s not for the faint of heart let me tell you.

Side note: Mama’s of littles – it really is that hard and you’re doing a great job just loving them and keeping them fed and clean. Ha!

If you haven’t read Part 1 of my breech birth stories yet, you can find it here. It’ll give you the full picture of how different these two experiences really were!

My Second Breech Birth Story

At Home: When Labor Started

I woke up at 2:30am and realized my water had broken. I felt that familiar sharp pain and honestly, I panicked.

With my first baby, my water broke after hard laboring for about 8 hours and it was more than 12 additional HOURS before he was born. The pain was so intense and it felt like he would never come.

Now my water had broken early again with no sign that birth was coming fast. My contractions were wildly spaced and not very strong. Looking back now, I realized I was so stressed out and that made my pain and mental state worse.

Because baby was breech we didn’t want to risk having him at home (there are so many that have a home birth and that’s wonderful, but for my situation and limited options for care, we didn’t want that).

I called my doula and we were all at the hospital around 7:00am.

At The Hospital

Once we got into my room it was a waiting game. The hardest part was going so many hours without food. I could drink water, but I needed energy!

This is something that needs to change about being in a hospital. Between you and me, I definitely snuck in some snacks and even a full meal between 7am and late that night, but it wasn’t enough.

The biggest difference between this labor and my first breech birth was the mental difference. I was fighting to keep my thoughts in a good place more than I was fighting to keep the pain manageable.

Because my water had broken so early in the morning, I was feeling every contraction very sharply, especially as the day went on. It’s difficult to put into words, but because of this I was very nervous about the length of this labor.

The mental and physical pain reached a threshold that I could no longer cope with. If it was one or the other, I would have muscled through it.

I remember telling my doctor “I can’t handle this anymore!” Her response was, “I know you don’t want an epidural and I respect that. But have you considered a partial epidural?”

Guys, WHAT?

Pain Management: Partial Epidural

You don’t know what you don’t know. And I didn’t know that a partial epidural was a thing! If you remember, the first breech delivery my doctor did NOT want me to have an epidural. She wanted me to be able to feel the contractions and push effectively.

But now she knew my history and how I handled the pushing stage. Because of this she was okay with “allowing” a partial epidural just to take the edge off of the pain and get my head straight again.

SO that’s what we did and let me tell you my friend, it’s okay to just get the epidural. Did I absolutely want a non-medicated birth? Yes. Was I a little disappointed at getting this partial epidural? Definitely.

However, I felt like this was the right thing to do for this birth. Try not to set yourself up for disappointment like I did and just go into your labor and delivery with a plan, but also flexibility.

Delivery: Baby is here!

When my pain was manageable and my head was mostly straight, it was go time.

I think my body finally relaxed and I was fully dilated. I was still in such an odd mental state at this point and then my chest felt very heavy, like someone was standing on it. I was given oxygen, and I remember taking the mask off (again, just agitated and not feeling “right”) and my doula said, “you need to keep this on!”. I listened!

If you read in my first breech birth story, you’ll remember that there was a nurse that pressured me to consider a c-section to the point that she (not even a doctor!) essentially threatened and intended to intimidate me into it by saying I was choosing harm to myself and my child by refusing a c-section. 

Well, she was back. I’m SURE she remembered me, and this time she was excited! Can you believe that?

The hospital just happened to have a L&D staff full of new-to-the-field nurses that day. She asked if they could attend the birth and watch – this potentially being the only chance they’d ever have to see a natural breech birth. Of course, I said yes.

Several nurses gathered to watch, while my OB and midwife got ready to catch my son. I don’t remember much about pushing, but I remembered feeling SO tired and out of breath.

I pushed several times and then he was born! He was absolutely perfect and had a fantastic head of dark hair – I immediately started laughing from the joy of seeing him and knowing that pregnancy and delivery was over. What a relief!

There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. All of the nurses were ecstatic and my midwife, who caught him, was just held in the moment. It was such a gift to see these women so happy for me and excited about the birth of my little guy.

Breech Versus Vertex (head first): What Felt Different?

For some women, birth is very much the same with each baby.

My experience could not be more different. I’ve been asked, “What felt different between vertex (head down) and breech birth?”

This is difficult to answer. I’ve had three births, two of them breech. They all felt different from each other!

But I will say that pushing out a breech presenting baby felt like pushing against a wall. Like I couldn’t get him to move. That was unnerving. I just had to push harder. Be more determined and within 3-4 pushes he was here.

For a vertex birth, once the head is born the more challenging part is over (many women feel). Not so with breech. My baby was Frank breech (bum first, feet at the shoulders) and my job was challenging from start to complete birth.

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Final Thoughts On Breech Birth

Every birth tells a story, and each one teaches us something new about our bodies, our babies, and the God who designed both so perfectly.

My breech births were nothing like I imagined—and nothing like each other!—but they both stretched me in ways I never expected.

If you’re facing a breech pregnancy yourself, know this: you can do hard things. Trust how God designed your body, lean on your support team, and hold your plans loosely—because sometimes the unexpected turns out to be the very thing that shapes us most deeply.

And at the end of it all, no matter how your birth unfolds, the sweetest gift is the moment you finally hold your baby in your arms. That’s the part that matters most.

Do you know someone with a breech presenting baby? Send them this post to encourage them!