What is the breech position, what happens when a baby is breech and when do doctors perform an emergency C-section?

KNOWING your baby is in the breech position will be of understandable concern to all expectant mums due to the complications surrounding it - but there is no need to be alarmed.

Here's all the info you need and the measures taken by the experts to give birth safely.

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What is a breech birth?

Most babies before they are born move into the delivery position a few weeks before it arrives, with the head moving closer to the birth canal.

Sometimes though this doesn't happen and the baby's bum or feet will be position to be delivered first - known as a breech birth.

A breech delivery occurs in around 1 in 25 full-term births.

There are three different types of breech births:

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• Complete breech: Here, the buttocks are pointing downward with the legs folded at the knees and feet near the buttocks.
• Frank breech: In this position, the baby’s buttocks are aimed at the birth canal with its legs sticking straight up in front of his or her body and the feet near the head.
• Footling breech: In this position, one or both of the baby’s feet point downward and will deliver before the rest of the body.

What causes a breech birth?

The causes are not properly understood but evidence shows there could be various factors causing it:

• In subsequent pregnancies
• In pregnancies where the woman gives birth to more than one baby
• If there is history of premature delivery
• When the uterus has too much or too little amniotic fluid
• When there is an abnormal shaped uterus or a uterus with abnormal growths
• With women who have placenta previa - where the placenta lies low in the uterus and partially or completely covers the cervix

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Around half of breech babies can be turned around before birth by a healthcare professional using ECV - external cephalic version, where the pressure is applied on the woman's abdomen.

If that doesn't work a Caesarean may be performed.

Caesarean section

An operation to deliver your baby through a cut made in the stomach and womb, also known as a C-section.

Around one in every four or five pregnant women in the UK has a Caesarean, according to the .

The woman is given a spinal or epidural anaesthetic, meaning that although the woman is conscious the lower part of the body is numb.

The operation takes around 40-50 minutes.

A cut between ten and 20 centimetres is made across your lower tummy.