Today in class one of my students told me she just found out her baby has turned into a breech presentation…at 38 weeks!!
Breech births make up about 3 to 4 percent of all births. Breech means that the baby looks like they will present feet first, butt first, or knees first. There are a couple of different names for the positions.
Footling breech- feet first
Complete breech - baby sitting on heels (Buddha style)
Frank breech- bottom first, with feet up by head
Breech babies used to be delivered vaginally by many midwives and doctors, but this is not the case today. Most doctors are not trained in vaginal breech deliveries, and have never seen a breech baby born vaginally. Today, standard practice in our country is a c-section. Total bummer.
There are however many things that you can do to try to encourage the baby to turn into a head down position. Though, as one of my students said, sometimes the baby just does not want to move for some reason or another and is safer in this breech position. Fair enough. And it also helps to be able to surrender, which my breech mom seems able to do with grace and humility. Hopefully we can still turn her babe around!
Here are some tricks:
Frozen peas or a bag of ice on the top of the belly-baby may move away from the cold.
Shine a Flashlight and Play Music-At the vaginal opening, baby may move toward the light and sound.
Elevate your hips- On several pillows or a bolster to push baby’s head to the top of the fundus that may help her to push off to sumersault head down.
Moxibustion, a traditional medicine technique that employs a cone of slow burning herbs close to the toe, without burning or causing pain, of course. This is designed to be a counterirritant to stimulate blood flow and turn the baby around.
Chiropractic adjustment, and acupuncture points are also other ways that have been used to turn breech babies.
For more ideas check out this web page on Turning a Breech Baby. It has 17 ideas, and many are very good, and combines some of the ones I mention above.
I have also heard lots about this site and recently checked it out myself. Spinning Babies.
Post a Comment