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Breech position turning tips and Breech birth info

Breech Position Tips

Turn a breech baby

Which type of breech position is your baby in?

This could dramatically affect your decision as to the way you want to give birth.

There are many reasons why a baby may be breech:

· If your muscles are tighter on one side - best diagnosis and support is a pregnancy-trained osteopath or Webster-trained-chiropractor who can relax muscles and give baby more space to enable turning.

· A tilted pelvis - baby is comfortable breech - yoga practise (book a private session with a prenatal yoga instructor)

· A heart shaped womb - there is a wall in the middle which means babies of a certain size can't turn round. - can get a private 3d scan and they'll tell you about any shape of the pelvis.

· Emotional trauma - HypnoBirthing has been successful to relax a mum holding onto a breech presentation Genetics - if mum or dad were breech as well!

· Amount of amniotic fluid - too much (goodness, what’s too much?!) or too little.

· Do you spend a lot of your day in the upright position? Slouching back in a chair or driving? This could affect your baby’s chosen position in the womb.

Medical answers to breech position

Hospitals will offer an ECV. It’s a very uncomfortable procedure and can be frightening for mother and distressing for an unborn baby. You will have a scan to see where the cord is and to decide which way is best to turn the baby. You will have an injection to your tummy to numb some of the affects of the procedure. Two doctors will take the baby’s head and bottom in their hands and try to push the baby round. The outcomes vary but the percentages for a preterm labour; foetal distress, failure to work and emergency / elective C-Section are common.

If an ECV is not successful or not possible (cord around or too close to neck) a c-section will be offered – rather than a natural spontaneous birth.

What type of birth could you have with a breech position baby?

Of course years ago before scans and breech diagnosis if a foot or bottom presented at birth the midwife would have no choice but to support the mother to birth her baby the way in which it was coming!!

My belief is that your baby is smart and knows which position they want to be born in. I heard of a baby who was born 8 weeks early, natural breech had the cord wrapped round his neck and it was so short if he’d been born head first he may have had breathing difficulties. Clever boy came bottom first to allow maximum length of the cord.

C-section is common. Mainly due to the fact that obstetricians deem it safer – this is because they have full control over the baby’s delivery and can generally ensure the baby is safely delivered. Also, many hospitals and nhs midwives are not trained in breech birth or have not seen a breech birth before, therefore they don’t feel confident ‘allowing; a woman to birth her baby in a breech position. However, there are hospitals who do support breech births, mostly based on individual cases due to history, position etc. Wexham have been known to support breech birth but it’s 50/50 as to whether you will get a consultant who has seen breech birth. If they’re not confident in their ability to support a breech birth a c-section will be strongly pushed forward. I know of two breech births at Frimley park hospital, one to a second time mum and one a first time mum.

Have you considered a vaginal breech birth? A breech birth is more desirable than a breech delivery. A breech delivery is done in hospital, legs in stirrups (apparently to open your pelvis) and medical directed pushing. There are higher risks to mum and baby to a breech delivery than a breech birth because there’s nothing natural about it.

A breech birth is a birth in which you go into spontaneous labour, you can go into hospital or stay at home and midwives do not touch or interfere with the birth, they allow you to birth your baby in the way you instinctively feel best. The better position to birth a breech baby is on all fours, crouched down, this allows maximum space for baby uses gravity and supports the baby to tuck their chin in. Birthing in water is also a gentle birth.

Birthing a breech baby – what’s it like?

The surges (contractions) you feel will probably be the same as to if you were having a head-down birth.

Generally breech babies either are born relatively fast or they don’t come and a c-section is needed to deliver baby.

My breech labour was 7 hours from when I realised my period cramps were coming every 15minutes! Once I realised I was in labour my surges became pressure and I felt pressure during each surge. My waters broke at 8.50am, I was 10cm and couldn’t hold back the urge to push any longer at 9.10am and my baby was born 11.11am. Time was timeless and I concentrated on just tuning into my body and surrendering to my primal urges and natural instincts for positions.

The best opportunity to getting a vaginal breech birth:

DO YOUR RESEARCH! The more you know the safer / more confident you will feel about your decision to birth your baby the way you want to,

Booking an independent midwife would give you the best chance of homebirth and give baby more time to turn as you may be able to go further overdue than your local hospital policy allows. There are homebirth groups there to support you if you go down this route. I may even find some information to help you feel safer about this option. Water birth would be best for this I think. www.homebirth.org.uk

Alternatively a very qualified, experienced Doula who has seen breech will support your decisions in preparation and birth in hospital.

Mary Cronk is an experienced breech midwife and you could contact Mary and talk to her. You'd get impartial, unbiased information from Mary.

Mary Cronk is a based in Chichester. She is an independent midwife with 45 years' experience and is widely regarded as the UK's leading authority on vaginal breech birth. Mary delivers around five breech babies naturally each year. She describes breech presentation as "unusual, but not abnormal". If the conditions are right, breech babies come out "more quickly and easily" than a head-first birth, she says. "You need the knowledge and experience to know that the woman is progressing. With a breech, you don't try and be clever." She calls her technique "hands off the breech": if a breech baby is to be born safely, it must be allowed to come out however it wants to. Midwives are trained to sit on their hands to resist the urge to pull the baby out once the legs have emerged.

Mary says “Most breech-presenting babies are breech by chance, but there is a percentage where there is a good reason why this baby is breech,"

The Maternity Network has some independent midwives and doulas that have been recommended by previous clients on our online directory. To contact the Independent Midwives Association phone 01483 821104 or go to www.independentmidwives.org.uk or www.doula.org.uk

Natural ways of trying to encourage a breech baby to turn to a more desirable head-down position.

Moxibustion, a Traditional Chinese technique, involves using moxa sticks (made from the dried herb mugwort) as a heat source applied to acupuncture points on your feet. You & your partner can do the procedure at home, any time after 35 weeks of pregnancy. Research shows that it is about 65-70 % successful & may be effective even up to 38 or 39 weeks of pregnancy. I have been told by an acupuncturist that moxibustion cannot be done if you've had a previous c-section or in other cases of contra-indications such as a twin pregnancy.

Reflexology, a non-ticklish foot massage with techniques to stimulate the baby to turn. Both treatments use a point called the bladder meridian.

The Bladder meridian is an acupuncture energy line running through the body which connects with your uterus, & ends with the Bladder 67 point on the outer edge at the base of your little toe nail on each foot. It is thought to stimulate hormones to increase your baby’s heart rate & movements & to relax your uterus slightly, enabling your baby to turn to head first.

Other natural baby turning techniques:

Summersaults in the swimming pool - weightlessness, spinning over and an open pelvis gives baby space and means to turn.

Positions and yoga breathing: Lying on her left side only, All fours - relax pelvis, allow it to open and ensure knees are behind hips Polar bear - from hands and knees, leave bottom in air and relax upper body onto the floor, tucking arms back behind her, relaxing pelvis. Ensure knees are behind hips Getting the ironing board out, proping it up against the sofa and lying upside down on it for as long as she can.

Yoga position: Kneel on the sofa and put hands on the floor (so she's upside down)

Breech Tilt - begin at 32-35 weeks gestation. Do 3 times daily for 10-15 minutes each time, when you have an empty stomach, and the baby is active. Prop one end of an ironing board securely on a sofa or chair 12 to 18 inches high.

Lie down, bend knees but keep feet flat on board. Relax, breathe deeply, and avoid tensing. May also use pillows on a flat surface to raise hips 12-18" above shoulders. Gravity pushes the baby's head into the fundus, tucks it, and baby can then do a somersault to a vertex position.

Pelvic Tilt- with an ice pack on the top of your tummy on an empty stomach, 10 minutes twice a day. Do this while lying on your back on the floor with knees flexed and feet on the floor with three large pillows placed under your buttocks. Try this in conjunction with headphones and visualization.

Cat stretch - start with all fours, then lay your head and chest flat on the floor with your buttocks in the air, as you round your back and return to all fours.

Knee-chest position - by kneeling with hips flexed slightly more than 90 degree, but with thighs not pressing against your tummy and your head, shoulders and upper chest are flat on a mattress for 15 minutes every two waking hours for five days.

CD/iPod headphones - place them toward her pubic bone and play classical music for 10 minutes 6-8 times a day.

Torch - try moving slowly down from the top of the uterus toward your pubic bone while you are in a breech tilt position.

Massage - start with your left hand at the bottom of the abdomen and your right hand just above it. Move your hands clockwise around the right side of your tummy. As your right hand reaches the top of your abdomen, slide the left one over your right and move it down the left side of your tummy. Your left hand leads as you come full circle, continuing clockwise. Massage gently as you would to apply lotion. Massage for ten minutes or more up to several times each day.

CranioSacral Therapy for babies. For birth trauma