This is a two-day add-on workshop available throughout the month of October.
Session 1: Rixa Freeze
Evidence on Term Breech Since the 2000 Term Breech Trial
Session 2: Rixa Freeze
Outcomes of community breech birth
Session 3: Rixa Freeze
Breech maneuvers from 1609 to the present
Session 4: David Hayes
Clinical aspects of physiological vaginal breech birth
Session 5: Rixa Freeze
Classification, nomenclature, and the risks of different types of breech presentations
Session 6: Rixa Freeze & David Hayes
Breech simulations: Recognizing and correcting abnormal breech labor
Rixa Freeze, PhD
Dr. Rixa Freeze has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral studies focused on the history of healthcare and medicine with specialization in pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care. Her dissertation examined why women in North America choose unassisted home births. She worked as a visiting assistant professor for 9 years at Wabash college. She has published two articles about home birth: “Staying Home to Give Birth: Why Women in the United States Choose Home Birth” (JMWH 2009) and “Attitudes Towards Home Birth in the USA” (Expert Review of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2010). She recently published the article “Breech birth at home: Outcomes of 60 breech and 109 cephalic planned home and birth center births” with BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth. In 2019 she published an article about outcomes of breech at home, birth centers, and hospitals (Midwifery Today) and a book chapter “Freebirth in the United States” in the 2020 book Canary in the Coal Mine. She is the founder and president of Breech Without Borders, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to breech training, education, and advocacy.
Dr David Hayes, MD
Dr. Hayes is an OBGYN with an academic background and a passion for science and its proper application to clinical medicine. He has worked for Médecins Sans Frontières and has attended births in high- and low-resource settings and in both home and hospital. Physiologic breech birth and supporting the training of breech birth attendants are particular interests of his. Before joining Breech Without Borders in 2019, he had a home birth practice in Asheville, NC at Harvest Moon Women's Health. Dr. Hayes pursued training in vaginal breech birth during both medical school and his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology, at a time when instruction in vaginal breech birth was no longer routinely included in the training of obstetricians in the United States. He has performed an estimated 140 vaginal breech births using traditional obstetric maneuvers in dorsal lithotomy positions. In 2016 he hosted a training session on physiologic vaginal breech birth taught by Dr. Shawn Walker, PhD. Since that time he has been fortunate to attend many more vaginal breech births with a 100% vaginal breech birth rate and no significant complications or instrument interventions.