Frank Breech Birth Story in Seoul (First Time Mom)

My name is Juliet and I live in Seoul, South Korea. I wanted to share my birth story with Breech Without Borders, as it was a fantastic experience.

Quick details: At the time I gave birth, I was a newly 26 year old, and a first time mom.

I gave birth to my baby girl at Houm Gynecology Clinic in Seoul. I had been going there for years for my general checkups, so I decided to give birth there since it is a very lovely physiological birth center. I actually had seen that Houm was listed in the breech-friendly hospital directory, which made me feel even better about my choice to give birth there.

Around 25 weeks pregnant, I was told that my baby was in a breech position. Although they told me that the baby usually turns head down by the third trimester, I had a gut feeling that I'd be having a breech birth. Instead of being afraid, I dove into research about breech vaginal births, and I was set on having one if it came down to it.

I did the yoga that was suggested, but once I entered the third trimester weeks my baby was still breech. I encouraged to try to do yoga to help my baby turn, but at every third trimester checkup, my baby was still firmly breech, in the Frank Breech position to be exact.

I was encouraged to try an ECV at some point, but I rejected that offer immediately. I had done research on ECV's and their effectiveness, but I was completely dissatisfied by what I had found and firmly set on not even bothering with it.

My fantastic, amazing doctor, Dr. Chung, fully believed in me and was on board to support me in my journey to having an unmedicated breech vaginal birth. I also had a wonderful doula and midwife on my team, Ana and KJ. We all made the plans for my birth, and as the time approached it was just a matter of waiting.

On January 6th, 2025, I woke up around 4:45am with what felt like menstrual cramps. I figured it must be Braxton hicks, but I could not for the life of me fall back asleep. I felt a sort of restlessness. I ended up going to the bathroom at some point, and felt that my water had broken a bit. At the time, I was in denial and thought that it must have just been pee. After some pacing, I went back to bed and as soon as I laid down, I felt a "pop" sensation and some more water trickled out as I was struck by a painful cramping feeling. I jumped out of bed and said "Oh!"

My husband asked "Do we need to go to the hospital?" Still in denial, I replied "I'm not sure…" but at that exact moment, my water broke even further and made a nice puddle on the floor. I then knew that it was absolutely time. I said "Nevermind…yes we need to go. My water broke!" It was about 6:15am by that point that my water definitely was coming out steadily. (It wouldn't be until mid labor that it well and truly broke though). We were instructed to go to the clinic immediately if my water broke, to avoid cord prolapse.

I went into a sort of state of shock while my amazing husband went into leader mode and packed everything up, called the midwife and doula, and ordered a taxi to take us.

Unfortunately for me, my contractions were quite intense and around 2~3 minutes apart from that point on. It was so uncomfortable that I vomited on the way to the hospital. I was fully thinking that I'd be at least 6cm dilated when I got to the hospital since I was having such painful contractions!

Although I had initially refused to have cervical checks, it was insisted that I get them due to the baby being breech. This is something that I will be firmly refusing for my next birth, as I found them to be nothing but an extreme pain and anxiety inducing.

Regardless of that, I was given a cervical check at some point after 7am, and informed that I was only about 1cm dilated!!!

This sent me into an absolute spiral of panic and stress, as I was already in so much pain.

Thankfully, my husband (my hero!!) was there by my side throughout my labor, fanning me, stroking my hair, showering my back with warm water and giving me words of encouragement. My sweet doula, Ana, was there rolling soothing essential oils on me, and providing massage and counter pressure as well. They both helped me cope with the pain immensely, I'd have never gotten through without them!

Unfortunately labor was very, very intense for me, which caused me to refuse food and drink for the duration of my labor, along with vomiting.

I was really vocalizing and having some discouraging thoughts about not being able to do it! Oddly enough, during my painful contractions, perhaps around 3~4cm dilated, I requested to listen to "Go the Distance" from the Disney movie "Hercules". When I listened and heard the lyrics, I was suddenly overcome with emotion and strength. With tears in my eyes, I suddenly felt that I could do it!

Labor was such a blur, I was in a sort of alternate dimension or time warp. Everything felt slow and fast at the same time. Nothing was happening within the same time rules as normal. I mostly remember my husband showering my back while I was on all fours in the bathroom, and sitting on the toilet backwards trying to push. Everything was so excruciating that I was in a sort of out of body experience at times.

Eventually I came back to the birthing bed, and stayed in the child's pose position. It was clear that it was time to push. On my hands and knees (and at times the running start position) I pushed and howled my baby into this world. It was the most painful part of birth. I felt like I was being torn in half from the crotch upwards! No joke. I bucked and howled and pushed with all my might! Once I felt my baby's legs pop free, it was immediately less painful, and then, just a few minutes later, at 4:31pm, my baby girl was born!

My angel midwife, KJ, and the head doctor, Dr. Chung were assisting.

It was an ecstasy I've never felt before. The pain went from one million to zero in the second she came out! Admittedly, I was in complete shock. The first words I said were "I did it!" My husband, crying, said "You did a great job!"

I grabbed my baby, laid down, and we did skin to skin. My baby was given over an hour of uninterrupted skin to skin while still attached to the placenta. Once the cord was white and limp, it was cut by my husband.

Fortunately (and miraculously) I had no tearing at all. I was so flabbergasted when Dr. Chung, already preparing a needle to numb the area to do stitches, looked down and said "Oh! No tearing!" During the crowning, I had felt that I would surely have fourth degree tearing due to how badly it hurt!

I was in perfect health! My baby did have some bruising on her buttocks, genitals, and feet due to the pressure of coming out, but otherwise she was perfect.

I was able to have the unmedicated natural birth that I wanted! I had done it! I was so thankful, and especially so thankful to have had the access to the amazing information provided on the Breech without Borders website.

I had read much of the research , and watched all of their breech birth videos catalogue during my last trimester of pregnancy. It helped me prepare mentally and also to get all of the facts and truth about breech birth.

Special thanks again to my hero of a husband, my birth team (Ana, KJ), Dr. Chung, the staff of Houm, and of course, last but not least, Breech without Borders!!!!