HEADS UP delves into the widely misunderstood subject of vaginal breech delivery. 

The Issue

At birth, about 4% of babies in the United States are in a breech presentation—that’s about one breech birth every 4 minutes.  Up until 2001, vaginal delivery was an option for women with babies in a breech presentation.  Then, a study was published which concluded that breech babies have a small but statistically significant better outcome with surgical delivery vs. vaginal delivery.  Based on that, the guidelines of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended cesarean delivery be scheduled for all breech babies, usually at 39 weeks gestation.  This study and subsequent guideline update had major effects, essentially obliterating the option of vaginal delivery- and thereby parent's choices.

The research and logic upon which we stopped offering breech delivery is faulty. Current ACOG guidelines, changed in 2006, support vaginal breech delivery but presume you will have a cesarean section anyway due to diminishing expertise among physicians trained in vaginal breech delivery.  As a result, nearly 175,000 women and their babies in the United State each year are given no choice but cesarean section. If we don’t seek change now, the diminishing expertise will soon be impossible to overcome. 

HEADS UP  aims to debunk the breech C-section myth.  We want women and doctors alike to know that options still remain, but those options will surely disappear if we don’t take action.  Several of the doctors who have seen our film wish they had better training.  Were it not for that one 2001 study, vaginal breech delivery would still be taught and practiced more widely.

The ultimate goal of this film is to to educate women and their partners and empower them with information that is often not widely available about birth options. Empowered with information, parents will be better prepared to make informed choices in pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting.  

We are thrilled to partner with the nonprofit organization From The Heart Productions.

This film, and the films to follow in an education series, will exist as a public resource and will live on Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy® website, available to anyone at anytime, anywhere.

Become Part of the Story

The film is nearly complete, having been produced as a labor of love with deep personal investments of time, talent, and funds, but in order to finish post-production and distribute the film, we must raise a real budget.  The budget will cover such items as:

-Post-production costs for HEADS UP (score composition, sound mix, color correction, film premiere, festival expenses)

-Distribution costs for HEADS UP - making a film is great.  Getting it seen is where it develops power to influence change and restore options

-Management costs for HEADS UP - such as film insurance and expenses for musical score and visual elements

If we raise more than our goal, we will be able to do more:

-Production costs (including pre- and post-) for the next documentary in the series 

-Designing and building the website that will house these videos and exist as a permanent, free resource for the public

Above all, we are passionate about presenting the facts—and the little known information that options do exist.  We invite you to join us as we take steps to create this series of honest documentaries on the rapidly changing world of modern childbirth. 

We simply can’t do this alone, and neither can you; by working together, we can make a difference and move towards honest, informed change and practices.