Zoolander babies can't turn left??

[katiegolightly]

I used to do a fair bit of yoga and at the end of the class we always rested on our right sides ? to take pressure off your heart, ?keeping it light? on the then higher left side of your body. So when everyone kept advising me to sleep/rest on my left (and same in pregnancy yoga now) I was a bit confused as to why.

Recently I was told in birth prep classes that it?s because of the way babies need to corkscrew their way out through the widest part of the pelvis, so resting on your left means they hammock into your left side ready to come out. So, from sideways on, then turning through 90 degrees so their head comes out to face your back and then get their shoulders out. So far this all (kind of) made sense. But my baby bump is and has always been resting with her spine curved around my front/right side. Which means to get out she?d have to turn to her left to face my back on exit. Oddly the midwife said that his was often problematic as ?babies don?t realize that the shortcut of turning left exists? meaning that they then turn 270 degrees the otherway to corkscrew out.

Has anyone else heard anything about this or any experience of baby being on the ?non-optimal? side? All sounds a bit weird to me if babies are like zoolander and can?t turn left?

Lying on your left in pregnancy takes the weight off your vena cava improving blood flow to the baby.

LOA (baby lying to left) is optimum as you say as it is a shorter distance for the smallest

Oops blinking phone

Diameter of head to descend into pelvis. ROA (right lying babies) do indeed need to turn all the way to do the same thing - so no they don't turn left as it doesn't line up.

The main thing is your baby knows your pelvis best and will find it's optimum course in labour - ROA and OP (back to back) babies can take longer to do this and you need to think about the benefits of being upright in labour to maximise room in pelvis for baby to turn easily and I would recommend considering waterbirth as that can help you deal with potentially longer labour and also aid upright positioning. (and also provide you with a model of midwifery care that ought to put less unnecessary time constraints on 'progress' and enable baby to do what it needs to)

Above all think of your baby's position as being normal for her rather than 'wrong' as I have seen that often doom a labouring woman before labour even starts.

Google optimum fetal positioning and active positions for labour.

Wishing you a great birth

HTH

Thanks Bearhugs. I'm v keen for a waterbirth so fingers crossed that works out and she finds her way around all the corners!

Didn't think so much it was 'wrong way around' but was quite perplexed by the midwife suggesting that babies typically didn't know to go the other way around!!

Starting to spend lots of time lolling over a birth ball but another midwife this week told me to 'leave her alone, she's comfy!' That told me!!

DS was ROA for quite a bit of pregnancy and I was also told this. In the end I had a 6 hour on the drip and he came out the right way round. I was incredibly active in the week pre-birth as I was trying to avoid induction but not sure if that helped or if the syntocin just sped things up, along with being upright for most of labour.

I did spend a lot of time on my ball in late pregnancy as I heard slouching on the sofa encouraged back to back labour. I have no idea if this is true but it I liked thinking that I was doing something that could help me in labour.

Anyway, my point is ROA doesn't necessarily equal long labour or baby having trouble getting in position, and spending time on the ball in late pregnancy can be useful if only to make you feel useful