Management of breech births is the subject of much controversy. Thomas Kuhn's theory of paradigm shifts shows how professional knowledge is never fixed. A selection of professional practice texts ranging the last 30 years was analysed using a discourse analysis approach. Breech as an obstetric emergency discourse is prevalent across a range of professional text sources, predominately in the instructive genre following formal and authoritative discourse styles. Physiological breech birth first appears in the discursive fringes of the breech debate, finding space in social action group publications and lower impact journals. As the discourse of physiological breech gains authority its advocates should be mindful that an authoritative discourse, no matter how new, provides convenient mechanisms through which they can disregard discursive resistance
