Online breech courses

Below are our online course offerings. If you are looking for hands-on breech training, please visit our workshop schedule. Our breech workshops include access to Breech Pro plus in-person hands-on training. 

Breech Pro: Breech Proficiency for Birth Professionals is a fully online vaginal breech training course. The workshop is co-taught by an obstetrician with experience in home and hospital births and in both low- and high-resource settings (David Hayes, MD) and a breech researcher (Rixa Freeze, PhD).

Topics include: 

  • Evidence on term breech outcomes
  • Outcomes of community breech birth (home/birth center)
  • History of beech maneuvers
  • Physiological breech birth
  • Upright & supine breech maneuvers
  • Normal breech birth
  • Abnormal breech birth
  • Selection criteria and clinical practice guidelines
  • Essential maneuvers to resolve obstructed breech birth 
  • Risks and outcomes of various breech presentations (frank, complete, footling, etc.).
  • Simulation sessions using Sophie and Her Mum obstetric simulators. 

This course also includes twice-monthly optional live sessions with Dr. Hayes and Dr. Freeze. 

Breech Pro includes up to 16 continuing education hours with ACNM (reciprocity with MEAC), Midwifery Council (NZ), and ACM (Australia). 

Breech 101 is a course designed for parents, doulas, and childbirth educators. It presents about half of the material from our Breech Pro course, giving students a thorough understanding of the "how, what, and why" of breech birth.
The courses is divided into 2 parts.

Just the Basics

  • Evidence on term breech outcomes
  • Outcomes of community breech birth (home/birth center)
  • History of beech maneuvers
  • Physiological breech birth
  • Upright & supine breech maneuvers

Beyond the Basics:

  • Normal breech birth, illustrated with birth videos
  • Abnormal breech birth, illustrated with birth videos
  • Breech nomenclature and the risks/outcomes of various types of breech presentations

This course also includes twice-monthly live sessions with Dr. Hayes and Dr. Freeze.

7.5 hours of CEUs included (ACNM, MEAC, ICEA, DONA).

Other courses and add-ons

The 2020 Breech Research Update provides a comprehensive review of breech literature published in 2020. The course includes a 93-minute video that summarizes each publication, a reference list organized by topic, and Powerpoint slides. ACNM CEs pending.

This course gives you one year of twice-monthly live sessions with Dr. David Hayes and Dr. Rixa Freeze. On even months we watch and discuss breech birth videos. Odd months are general Q&A. You will also receive access to the recordings (one per month).

Conferences & special events

The Madison Breech Conference includes recordings of the 2019 Madison Breech Conference in Madison, WI, USA on November 9-11. Bringing together MFMs, OBs, family practice physicians (GPs), midwives, journalists, researchers, and human rights attorneys, this conference examined how to make vaginal breech birth sustainable across a range of settings.

Speaker & topic list:

  • Hermine Hayes-Klein, JD: The human right to skilled attendance in physiological vaginal breech birth
  • Cynthia Caillagh, CPM, LM: Agency, beliefs about risk, and effects on outcome
  • Jennifer Block, BA BS: Physiological Distance: Reframing the conversation about birth mode, place, and risk
  • Betty-Anne Daviss, RM: Breech without forceps; Breech birth in Canada; Fundal pressure
  • Rixa Freeze, PhD: Evidence on Term Breech Since the 2000 Term Breech Trial; Breech maneuvers & physiological breech birth

  • David Hayes, MD: Methods and mechanics of physiologic vaginal breech birth

  • Dennis Hartung, MD: Breech birth in a rural setting

  • Lawrence Leeman, MD, MPH: Outcomes of community vaginal breech births and expanding hospital access

  • Emiliano Chavira, MD, MPH, FACOG: Instituting Ethical Breech Birth

  • Panel discussions #1: Understanding the problem: Obstacles to providing vaginal breech birth

  • Panel discussion #2: Finding solutions: Guidelines for hospital providers, hospital administrators, and midwives

  • Recognizing and correcting abnormal breech labor: hands-on simulation training

19.25 hours of CEUs included (ACNM, MEAC, ICEA, DONA).

The Kansas Breech Workshop is a 17.5 hour vaginal breech training course for midwives and physicians. Taught by David Hayes, MD; Stuart Fischbein, MD FACOG; and Rixa Freeze, PhD.

The Taos workshop includes the same course lectures as Breech Pro, plus twice-monthly live sessions and an additional lecture by Dr. Fischbein:

  • Attending twin labor at home: Rediscovering common sense

Includes up to 18 hours of CEUs (currently approved for 15; application pending with ACNM for 18). 

This course can be combined with hands-on simulation training at any of our hybrid workshops. 

Keep me updated on breech! 

The contents of Breech Without Borders' website, in-person workshops, online trainings and coursework, including all handouts, course materials, text, graphics, images, and other materials created by Breech Without Borders (the "Content") are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be taken as medical or healthcare advice, or to substitute for professional medical diagnosis or treatment. Nothing in the Content should be used to diagnose or treat individual health issues. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified, licensed health provider with any questions you may have regarding your personal medical needs. Never delay contact with a qualified healthcare professional, or disregard medical advice, because of something you have read or learned about in Breech Without Borders' website and coursework Content. Reliance on any information provided by Breech Without Borders and/or through the Content is solely at your own risk. If you think you may be having a medical emergency, call 911 immediately.