Optimal Baby Positioning for a shorter, easier birth
Babies use the space they have available, to get into the best position they can, to be born. Let's help them do that.
We want you to have a GREAT birth!
Most pregnant couples dream of having a natural, unmedicated birth. If that's you, you're in the right place at the right time.
Some parents are happy with the prospect of having a c-section, and we should all be very thankful that we have this life-saving procedure available to us! That being said, statistics show that the vast majority of C-sections are not something the couple was planning or hoping for.
This makes sense, when you think about all the benefits of a natural birth for both the mom and baby:
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A shorter hospital stay
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Shorter recovery time
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The option of giving birth at home or at a birth centre
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An easier bonding experience for mother, father and baby
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An easier transition for older siblings
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Less health risks for mom and baby
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C-section is a major abdominal surgery. Multiple layers of tissue are cut through to get to the baby and it can take years to fully recover.
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The risks to both mother and baby are GREATLY increased when there is no medical emergency happening
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Breastfeeding (and parenting) are much more challenging after a C-section
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After a C-section, it becomes more difficult to have a safe natural birth (VBAC or Vaginal Birth After Caesarean)
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After more than one C-section, most care providers won't even consider natural birth as an option.
Episiotomies and instrumental deliveries such as forceps and vacuum, also increase the risk of injury, infections and trauma to both mom and baby.
Considering all these factors, a gentle, natural birth is ideal
But ...
...this is not always as simple to achieve as it sounds.
You may have a vision of an empowered natural birth in hospital, or of bringing your baby into the world in your own home, surrounded by peace and love.
Sadly, these dreams can be shattered when labour doesn’t go as planned. This can happen for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons are serious, and when this is the case, we can only thank God for medical technology, and do whatever we need to do, to give birth safely.
However, right now we are addressing the less serious, but equally disruptive phenomenon of
FETAL MALPOSITION.
What on earth is that?
This basically means that your baby simply can not get into the right position to be born easily.
Ok but… what is the right position??
And what, for that matter, is the wrong position?
There are a few baby positions which are not ideal for natural birth.
The most obvious one that springs to mind is the BREECH position.
This means the baby is not head down, but has some other body part pointing down, either the feet, the bottom or the knees. While some breech positions make for relatively easy births, it can be a challenge finding a care-provider willing to help you have a natural breech birth. (In some countries it is completely impossible due to rigid regulations.)
Even if you do find a care provider willing to help you try to have a natural breech birth, not all breech positions are equally safe.
Which means you will probably need to get your baby head down if at all possible, preferably before labour begins… (A head-down baby is NOT a guarantee of a good birth, as we'll discuss in a moment!)
But how?
In the case of your baby staying in the breach position, your doctor may suggest a somewhat unpleasant procedure called External Cephalic Version, or ECV for short.
The mother is given a mild sedative to help her relax (good luck with that) and the doctor applies a lubricating gel to her belly and tries to get the baby to turn head down, by forcing them with their hands, from the outside.
This is often exactly as enjoyable as it sounds. Many times, the baby will turn back to the breech position almost immediately, or within a few days.
This is not because the baby is stubborn or bad!
Babies do the best they can with the space they have available. Very often, the space in the lower part of mom’s uterus is just too small or tight for their head.
The back of the baby’s head is the bulkiest part of their body, and if their mother’s uterus is tight in that spot, they may be left with no option but to stay bottom down, head up.
Pregnant couples will often be told to try various tricks such as putting ice on the belly up where the baby's face is, talking to the belly low down where you want the face to go, shining a light on the belly, and so on. The fact is that there is a good reason why some babies simply stay in the breach position. They have no choice. Their bottom is small compared to their head, and in many cases, body work is needed to increase the space available for the head.
Thankfully, there are tried-and-true techniques to balance and relax the uterus to allow babies to turn head down ALL BY THEMSELVES. These techniques are easy to do in the comfort of your own home, and even in the hospital when you are already in labour. When done correctly, they are very safe, and they NEVER involve any prodding, pushing or pulling on the baby.
We teach these techniques with great success in our Baby Positioning Consultation Series.
To learn these effective techniques from a registered private midwife and a certified birth doula with many years of experience, book your series of video based consultations as soon as possible.
Is a head-down baby all you need for an easy birth?
Not always.
There are head-down positions that are ALSO not ideal for natural birth.
The most well-known one is the posterior presentation, also called Occiput Posterior or “sunny-side-up.” In this notorious mal-position, the baby lies with their face toward mom’s front, rather than her back.
Why is this a problem?
Well for some women, it isn’t.
If you have been blessed with a gynecoid pelvis (childbearing hips, as they are sometimes called) then your baby might have plenty of room from side to side to fit through your pelvis, even if they are facing the wrong way.
Some women have posterior babies and their care-provider is quite surprised to see the baby looking straight at them as they are born!
But for most women, this position makes the size of the baby’s head seem much bigger than it should.
Wait…SEEM bigger? How can a head SEEM bigger or smaller, depending on position??
A newborn baby’s scull is not a rigid structure, it’s designed with plates which are not yet fused, and these plates can move and shift, helping the baby’s head to fit through your pelvis easily during birth. But the plates at the back of the head (the occiput) can do this much more easily than the ones at the top or front of the head.
What this means is that when your baby aims the back of their head down and forward into your pelvis, they come out shaped somewhat like a bullet. But when they are facing the front, or if their chin is “deflexed,” meaning they are looking straight ahead, rather than tucking their little chin onto their chest, they come out shaped more like a lollipop. Can you picture the difference? Ouch!
Thankfully, there is a wonderful pregnancy hormone called relaxin.
It gets released during pregnancy, which helps your soft tissues (ligaments, tendons, muscles and skin) to become way more stretchy than normal, and comfortably give way to let your baby through, and then go back to pretty much normal shape!
What a brilliant design feature!
But unfortunately, your pelvis is made of bones, and although it has ligaments that can allow the bones to stretch apart, they can only stretch a certain amount.
If your baby’s head is not presenting in the right way, it is very possible that you will need help giving birth, either with forceps or more commonly, by caesarean surgery.
What causes these mal-presentations?
- Tough scar tissue from accidents, falls or previous surgeries
- Tight or twisted ligaments
- Too much sitting (in the car, at the office, in front of the TV, in bed on the internet…as modern women we sit WAY more than women of the past once did.)
- A lot of bumps to the coccyx area, such as driving long distances. Babies sometimes protect their faces from vibrations and jolts by turning their face away from mom’s tailbone.
- Twisting or torquing the upper body, such as with bedside work
- Carrying a toddler on one hip
- The transverse position (head on one side of the belly, bottom at the other, with NOTHING pointing up or down) is a particularly difficult position as the baby can absolutely not be born safely this way, and it is often caused by a big emotional shock. This is nature’s way of trying to prevent babies from coming out into the world in unsafe circumstances.
Who are we?
We are a midwife and doula team practicing in the North West Province of sunny South Africa. We have spent almost ten years helping pregnant women get their babies into better positions. This has been shown over and over again to result in shorter labours and easier births.
What do our students say?
“Vanessa, my midwife, helped me to get my baby positioned properly and my labour was so short that he was born before she arrived to deliver him! These techniques are amazing.” - Madelein, Potchefstroom.
“My third pregnancy was so painful. I had a fibroid which made my uterus almost constantly tight, and my baby just couldn’t rotate. Camille and Vanessa did the baby positioning techniques with me and she finally rotated around. My labour was so fast that my husband almost had to catch her! Vanessa arrived only 7 minutes before she was born and I didn’t tear at all.” – Kamilla, Klerksdorp.
Learn safe, highly effective techniques to improve your birth
- Gentle and non-invasive
- You can easily learn to do the techniques with your partner
- You can do them in the hospital with very little equipment, and at home it’s even easier
- We teach these moves to both partners so dad can help you during labour
- Relieve pregnancy discomfort from tight or twisted ligaments
- These techniques have saved many moms and babies from needless C-sections for simple mal-presentations!
Camille's journey with baby-positioning
“As a brand-new doula, I was highly motivated to help women have GREAT birth experiences. I learned as much as possible about what I could do to help the outcome of each birth to be as positive as possible.
I will never forget Tarryn's birth. Her labour was not progressing well and her midwife informed me that the baby had his chin up, not tucked down onto his chest, and that she would likely need a C-section. Nevertheless, she asked if there were any tricks I could use to help her manage pain and anxiety while the clinic was preparing the operating room.
I helped Tarryn onto hands and knees and we started to work through her contractions with baby positioning techniques. I followed the sequence and recommendations I had gleaned from other midwives online. Soon Tarryn was experiencing some pain, and because I was new at this role, I didn’t realise it was a sign that her baby was almost ready to be born! Her midwife was about to tell the couple the unwelcome news that she would need a C-section, but decided to check her just to be sure.
She was 9cm dilated and starting to push a little bit! The midwife’s eyes widened and she urged me to fill the birth bath as quickly as possible. Tarryn climbed in with her husband’s help while the water was still running. The bath was almost half-full when the baby was born into the shallow water with a few easy pushes!
The midwife was amazed. I was thrilled. Tarryn was laughing with joy.
I didn’t fully realise the impact of what we had achieved until the midwife contacted me years later to say that her client whom I had “saved from a C-section” was pregnant with baby number 3 and wanted my number.
Since then, I’ve used these positioning techniques many times to improve outcomes and experiences, and I thank God for this knowledge. It's life-changing.”
What is included in your consultations?
This series of 3 ninety minute video based consultations will focus on assessing your body and your baby's position. You will then receive customized recommendations for your unique situation.
- Help figuring out your baby's position
- Easy-to-remember techniques for helping baby into a better position
- Learn how to release tight and twisted ligaments
- Memorize the "Repositioning Sequence" to help your baby reverse out of your pelvis and try again, rotating to the preferred direction and tucking their chin for the easiest way out
- These moves can be done in pregnancy AND during labour, at home or in hospital
- Includes a summary email to help you recall everything you've learned
- Space is limited, it is essential to reserve your spot in time to make a meaningful change and learn the techniques which you can use when you go into labor.
“Very informative! Recommended for anyone looking to gain more knowledge on effective and non-invasive methods for giving birth.” –Richard Rex, BHSc Biokinetics (Wits), Potchefstroom
