Incredible photos of a vaginal breech birth

First published on Monday 31 October 2016 Last modified on Friday 17 November 2017

A photographer has captured a stunning series of photographs detailing a vaginal breech birth. Please note that due to their nature, the photos are graphic.

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These amazing photos were taken by Karyn Loftesness Photography. Karyn, from Vancouver, was the birth photographer for Raychel, who was giving birth to her fourth baby. Raychel had planned a home birth and only found out her baby was breech four days before her due date.

Her midwives were very skilled and experienced in delivering breech births and so Raychel felt comfortable to go ahead with her home birth as planned.

The stunning photos capture the moments as her baby boy Silas was born.

In this first photo the baby is crowning. You can see the bottom and testes. There is meconium present, which is more normal with a breech birth and caused by the legs being pressed into the abdomen, and not because the baby is in any distress.

As the bottom emerges a little more, the midwife places her hand to stop any urine spraying in her face!

The legs start to emerge.

The baby starts to move his legs down one at a time. Here, the first leg is out.

Here, both legs are out and you can see a bit of one arm. At this point in the delivery, no one has touched baby Silas yet.

He pulls his shoulders out and then one arm at a time. Here, just one little hand is still not yet free.

As the left arm comes out, the cord is pulled down and you can see the way it loops round his shoulders. His nose and mouth are both now visible. Almost there!