Childbirth isn’t called a miracle without good reason and sometimes it’s not just the mother performing them.
In some cases in the lead up to the delivery among the many incredible things the human body can do things don’t always go to plan. Often the baby can twist and turn inside its mother but most will move into a head-first position by the time labour begins.
If baby is bottom or feet-first they are in what is known as the breech position. Around three per cent of babies are born this way, so it’s somewhat rare.
This is the position expecting mum Vanessa Fisher found herself in after attempts to reposition the baby herself at home – on her midwife’s advice – had not been successful, the Mirror reports.
She and her husband Nick decided to go for an ECV and shared the incredible footage to YouTube which has now clocked up over 40 million views.
They wrote:
Dr. Cummings performs a successful External Cephalic Version [ECV] to turn our breech baby at 38 weeks.
Prior to the procedure, we attempted a number of other methods to turn the baby naturally. Ultimately, our goal is to avoid a cesarean section by any means possible.
As the video shows there’s a lot of movement in Vanessa’s abdomen.
After completing the procedure Dr Cummings calmly says ‘head’s down’ and gives Vanessa the thumbs up.
Vanessa, who remains silent throughout, then asks ‘it’s over?’, looking proudly at the ultrasound screen image of her baby.
She later told MirrorOnline:
I would describe it as unpleasant. There was a lot of pressure but it was only painful where I was sore. The discomfort was quickly forgotten knowing the baby was safe and the procedure was successful.
Ashton Nathaniel was born four weeks later at 5.20am on January 16.
In other unbelievable but true baby related news a nurse was shocked to discover her new colleague was a former patient who she’d nursed in intensive care nearly thirty years ago.
54-year-old Vilma Wong has been working as a neonatal nurse at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California, for the last 32 years but she had no idea she was working alongside a former patient turned doctor, Dr Brandon Seminatore.
28-year-old Brandon was treated at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s NICU for over a month because he was born so premature.
Vilma apparently recognised Brandon’s name when the two began working together earlier this month, but she couldn’t figure out how she knew him.
Eventually, she worked it out though when Brandon told Vilma he had been a patient in the unit 28 years ago.
Vilma said:
A few weeks ago Brandon joined my team and was taking care of one of my patients. I asked who he was and his name and last name sounded very familiar.
I kept asking where he was from and he told me that he was from San Jose, California, and that, as a matter of fact, he was a premature baby born at our hospital.
I then got very suspicious because I remember being the primary nurse to a baby with the same last name. I asked him if his dad was a police officer and there was a big silence and then he asked me if I was Vilma.
Truly heartwarming stuff.
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Tim Horner is a sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated with a BA Journalism from University College Falmouth before most his colleagues were born. A previous editor of adult mags, he now enjoys bringing the tone down in the viral news sector.