Understanding physiological breech birth
- Evans, Jane
Jane Evans RN, RM
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Jane Evans worked in the NHS as a nurse and a midwife for 20 years, and has been working as an independent midwife since 1991. She is co-director of Sharing the Skills and has taught about breech birth and midwifery skills both nationally and internationally. She has four children and three grand-daughters, one of whom was a breech presentation, born spontaneously last year.
Since the release of the Term Breech Trial () many women, midwives and obstetricians have been concerned about the increase in caesarean section operations for breech presenting babies, and the apparent lack of choice as the skills required to safely assist a breech birth are lost. The follow-up to the Term Breech Trial (, ) acknowledged that the trial ended before any conclusive evidence was found and yet, still, the original research paper is used, in many units in the UK, as a reason to advise women to have a planned lower segment caesarean section (LSCS) if their baby is in a breech presentation at 38 weeks' gestation.