You listen to your body, trust your body, you feel every movement that baby makes. You anticipate the birth, idealize the day, plan your hopes out and put them into writing. You educate, do yoga, eat right and rest. So when you hear the word ‘breech’ all that you want to do is ‘pause’ the pregnancy until you can fix the baby’s position. You may second guess yourself and wonder how you missed such a detail. But it is NOT your fault, it’s a delicate process of nature.
‘Breech’ can be one scary word for moms that are interested in delivering their babies vaginally. But, it doesn’t have to be scary. I have recently come across two clients/friends that have had breech babies in their pregnancies. Neither of them found out that their baby was breech until around 37 weeks gestation, at which point, I was notified and began collaborating with the families to help turn baby. There are several breech positions, all mean that the baby’s head is not in the pelvis. It’s is easier in most circumstances to deliver a baby’s head before delivering its bum or feet. The head is the largest part of the body and ‘paves the way’ for the rest of the body to be born. Once the head is born, the rest of the body will follow.
Babies turn and flip around in the uterus from early on in pregnancy. Of course, early on there is lots of room. As the baby grows and the baby and your body are preparing for birth, baby will flip and be head down in the pelvis. Around 30/31 weeks some babies flip to head down position and never turn back. Sometimes, babies flip and flop until 36 weeks and then stay down. Other times, babies will flip until their delivery day and sometimes babies won’t turn at all.
You can prepare for an optimal positioning (head down) by finding out early on what your baby’s tends to do. Even if a baby might rotate to breech after 31 weeks gestation, you and your health care provider should be in conversation about the baby’s position from about 30 (some would say from 28 weeks) weeks on. Your health care provider should be interested in providing this information to you, so you can work with your baby and body in the case that the baby tends to the breech position.
There are things that you can do to encourage movement to head down position.
Pelvic rocks (get in the hands and knees position on the floor and rock your pelvis) rocks baby out of the pelvis, creating more room for baby’s movement. Baby wants to get into the right position for its birth, we need to allow this to happen by proper postures and positioning in our pregnancies.
Yoga: There are some yoga postures that encourage movement as well. But if you’re unsure of your baby’s position, do not do squats which will encourage baby to ‘lock’ down into the pelvis. When your baby is head down, squat incessantly to make sure baby won’t flip.
Chiropractor: There are certain chiropractors that will work on a pregnant ladies alignment to encourage baby to move. If there are some skeletal issues that prohibit baby’s movement, a chiropractor can loosen up joints and help create space in the body.
Massage: Get a ‘Turn baby turn’ massage. Massage therapists are educated in working with tissue and alignment to encourage proper head down positioning. Also, they have a great success rate in encouraging breech baby to turn.
Moxabustion and acupuncture: Eastern medicine has added much to our western model of care by introducing incense burning and manipulating pressure points. A great resource for this in Lexington is Artemesia.
There are other great home ‘remedies’ such as lying on an inclined ironing board with your head down, using a flashlight to lure a head down baby to the pelvis, using music to encourage turning as well as the good old pelvic rocks. If your baby is not ‘head down’ by 30 weeks, try to encourage head down positioning by pelvic rocks and other non invasive methods. If the time comes to be proactive in turning a breech baby, try one of the above mentioned methods before the more invasive external version that is down in the hospital. Some health care providers will deliver a breech baby vaginally – if this is your desire.
A great internet resource for baby position info is SpinningBabies.com