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Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

turning a breech baby, what REALLY works?

57 replies

mustthinkofabetterusername · 29/09/2016 17:27

34 and a half week pregnant, baby been breech for a fortnight now. In real life, what has worked for you?
(needs to be practical - I am off and looking after 2yo dc1)

As always, thanks in advance mn!

OP posts:
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Pollyanna9 · 01/10/2016 14:18

So basically what you want to do is utilise gravity to help the baby into the right position (which is head down, turned (with their back) slightly turned towards your left hand side) - which is why, if you can sleep on your left side that's good too. This is the best position as the baby has to do less rotation to get the shoulders out when he or she is being born.

Reduce/stop any sitting back lolling on the sofa or other types of sitting of this nature as this puts you into a position which only encourages continued breech or movement towards a spine to spine positions where instead of the back of the head sliding under your public bone and the neck being easily flexed as they pass through, they're facing the totally opposite way (and you have a painful backachey lavour). Instead, sit backwards on a dining chair, sit upright on a beanbag - whatever, sit upright/upright and leaning slightly forward wherever possible.

Activities like on all fours scrubbing your floors is absolutely of benefit (although you don't have to do the floors if you don't want) and getting some cushions/blankets on the floor and watch TV for a bit with your head down/ass high as this can help the baby have opportunity to drop towards your diaphragm and out from the pelvis where there bottom half is currently sitting.

Try the yoga position Cat - www.wikihow.com/Do-the-Cat-Pose-in-Yoga - after step five, drop your elbows and go head down/ass high for a bit then repeat a couple of times.

If you get to labour and baby still hasn't turned it's not the end of any opportunities for baby to turn. Doing plenty of head down/ass high WITH the contractions can be really helpful. So there is a lot you can try.

I would also say, when you get into hospital they will of course want you to have 15 minutes continuous electronic foetal monitoring most likely, lying down. You can say great, I'll kneel on the bed for that bit I'd rather not lie down - because doing it kneeling won't affect them being able to do the monitoring. But lying down is generally the absolute worst position for you to get in (not only for breech reasons but it can contribute to babies having Type II heartrate dips as labour progresses). After that monitoring is done, walking about, kneeling, rotating on a birthing ball could all help to turn the baby with the help of those blessed contractions!

There are also some ob consultants who will turn a baby through external manipulation - read up on it to see what you think. Obviously you'd only want someone to do that for you if it was within their practice ie they were a consultant who knew how to do it, had done it a lot - different consultants, different midwives develop skills within their area of practice so will have different skillsets to each other.

Hope that's helpful (and I am a Yoga for Pregnancy and Active Birth teacher so I have done a fair bit of training in this area).

Oriunda · 01/10/2016 18:10

Spinning babies exercises worked for me at 34 weeks. Be careful what you wish for though - I was induced and DS finally born by EMCS after an exhausting 3 nights in hospital and a full cycle of intervention including waters manually broken. If I'd left him where he was I might have had a nice relaxed section.

Hillbilly71 · 01/10/2016 18:19

Squatting on all fours in a bath til the water turned cold worked for me but I screamed when it happened - I felt like a washing machine!

arrrrghhwinehelpswithteens · 01/10/2016 18:21

DD went from head engaged to transverse breach at 36 weeks - v. strange experience, I thought I was an extra in alien for a while this was late Sunday so called the midwife & had a scan on the Monday, consultant looks at scan says "nope, not going to attempt a turn, C-section for you" which turned out to be a good idea as she had managed to ram her head up under my ribs.

At this point your baby can still turn (my darling godson only moved into head engaged from breech after the waters went) so see what your midwife suggests.

And good luck

mawbroon · 01/10/2016 18:25

I tried everything. Nothing worked because it turned out I have a heart shaped uterus and ds1's head was stuck in one of the lobes.

However, moxibustion caused him to wriggle loads, more than any of the other things I tried, so perhaps it would have worked had he not been stuck.

Pollyanna9 · 01/10/2016 18:46

Yes, it is important to determine, if possible with ultrasound, why the baby is breech. There's a great many varieties and places they can get stuck and some wouldn't turn, and there's so many variants on top of that - your size, the baby's size and so on. I would say that following discussion with the relevant healthcare professionals if it looks intractable, a planned c-section may well be preferable to a birth with episiotomy and forceps etc.

Unfortunately midwive's practice in the areas of breech birth and twin vaginal births and so on is diminishing over time partly due to the current tendency to sue everyone for everything so finding a midwife that has the experience of this and can therefore offer a fairly good level of optimism in terms of their ability to safely birth such a baby vaginally, is very difficult and is another factor to consider.

PJ04JCW · 01/10/2016 22:29

ECV worked for me, fairly painful and baby dropped heart rate though so everyone was anxious for a bit but she recovered. It was junior doctors' strike day so had all the consultants in with me!
I got my home water birth and she is 8 months old and gorgeous. She was big too, 9lb 8oz.

adagio · 01/10/2016 22:40

Great advice on here.

Spinning babies, downward dog, staying upright/forward (watching telly draped over a beanbag) and lots of all fours and walking everywhere. Both of mine were transverse lie until 36/37 weeks then turned.

Good luck! Smile

revans87 · 01/10/2016 23:20

I had an ECV (version) procedure done by my OB in the hospital at 36 weeks. I had tried literally everything on spinning babies and also tried going to a chiropractor who specializes in the Webster technique starting at 32 weeks. The ECV literally took 3 minutes for my doctor to complete and to turn my breech baby. It was only a slight discomfort. The best thing of all was that my baby did not flip back. I ended up having a healthy baby girl August 12th by vaginal delivery. An ECV is worth trying if your doctor is able to do it and if you really want to have a vaginal delivery.

BradleyPooper · 01/10/2016 23:23

Moxibustion, cleaning the floor on my hands and knees and doing handstands in the pool all worked for me but the little bugger kept turning back (weekly scans proved it). Managed to turn her head down at 39+4 and she turned breech again by 40 weeks. In the end she was delivered by c section at 41 weeks, still breech.

YorkieDorkie · 01/10/2016 23:26

Moxibustion almost worked but she was too big. ECV was successful.

mustthinkofabetterusername · 03/10/2016 14:27

Thanks folks. I've checked out the spinning babies website so far, and doing lots of these. I'm off the sofa and vowed not to sit on one until after the birth! (look forward to hearing what mil makes of all this!!!!!!).

Unfortunately I do need to drive a bit daily, so that is a bit of unavoidable sitting in a reclined position - any tips for how to modify car seat/get around this?

Am also back in the pool, but focusing on breast stroke as it reportedly helps "flip" breech babies. Went to local Holland and Barret but no moxi sticks, so need to look online.

Re: temperature
A couple of people have mentioned cold e.g. frozen peas, bath until water is cold
Is getting bump cold meant to help? I've not come across this before

Thanks again for all your help. Although it doesn't feel like baby has "turned" yet, they do feel more active/moving position a bit more, so hopefully he/she is just gearing up for the big "turn"!

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GreenPetal94 · 03/10/2016 15:13

For me ECV at 38 weeks was the first thing to work. So not sure why I bothered with the rest. ds2 was also born the next day, but don't worry that is not normal. I was so pleased to avoid a section.

I thought the ECV hadn't worked because it didn't hurt at all.

RonBurgundysMoustache · 03/10/2016 17:57

I moved house at 38 weeks baby turned that day.. lots of being on my hands and knees!

YorkieDorkie · 03/10/2016 21:23

Temperature:
The theory is if you put something cold near the baby's head then they'll try and move away from it. Similarly, if you place a hot water bottle at the bottom and shine a torch or lamp they will want to move towards it.

I'm not convicted because they're so tiny, the chances are you're putting everything in the wrong place anyway!

Moxibustion all the way!

moobeana · 03/10/2016 22:49

You mentioned you swim so here's my advice!
Two good friends of mine have had success with this method. Tumble turns in the swimming pool!

The theory being that two objects suspended in water will revolve at different rates if they are free to do so. Basically if your baby isn't stuck or held by a short cord, when you spin in the water, they will spin at a slower rate, as they themselves are in a body of water which absorbs some of the 'spin energy'.
So in theory they end up in a different position.

I know lots of swimmers, but this worked for two breech pregnant ladies. It didn't for another 3. 1 was footling breech (foot stuck so the spinning happened at the same rate as mum) 2 had short cords or wrapped cords.

If nothing else it's a laugh to see people's faces when a heavily pregnant woman is spinning around in the pool, lifeguards get particularly amused!

TerrorAustralis · 04/10/2016 04:32

Acupuncture and moxibustion worked for me.

bluetea · 04/10/2016 07:49

My DS was breech and I had reflexology and it worked for me. Do your research though and find a pregnancy reflexologist. Good luck

Goingtobeawesome · 04/10/2016 10:36

A private midwife turned my baby in my lounge with no permission and all she had said was could she feel the baby? I said yes but that was to touch to see where he was facing. She got into a lot of trouble when I reported her, I was pretty poorly afterwards and with my previous pregnancy and labour experiences the only turning attempt should have been in a hospital theatre.

She's quite the celebrity midwife and it annoys me every time she's lauded. We both could have died.

TheABC · 04/10/2016 10:40

Weeding. Ended up with a lovely clear garden, a suntan and a turned baby. Basically, any activity that will have you on hands and knees for a longish period of time.

Bogeyface · 04/10/2016 10:52

I used a homeopathic remedy and it worked, my belly almost felt like it was lifiting off as she turned, it was the most bizarre sensation and I was sick. She was fine though!

mustthinkofabetterusername · 04/10/2016 14:31

thank you!

studpid question time; moobeana when you say spinning in the water, should I be going round and round in circles (feet on ground)? or forward (propelling myself forward in a spin in the water, feet not touching the ground)?

OP posts:
mustthinkofabetterusername · 06/10/2016 20:59

Q for the moxabuston girls - how many times did it take to turn baby
started it today and baby moved to more upright position. Wondering should I keep going or ask midwives to assess for fetal position before continuing?

OP posts:
TerrorAustralis · 07/10/2016 04:07

I did acupuncture and moxibustion in one session. I am pretty sure he turned that day. The acupuncturist gave me moxa sticks to use myself for another 10 days (I think).

Re: tumble turns in the pool, you do them like a professional swimmer when they get to the end of the pool and turn around. As you approach the end, do a somersault and as you're coming out of the somersault push off the pool wall with your feet and turn your body to face down. Here's a good video tutorial

TerrorAustralis · 07/10/2016 04:09

Sorry, I should have added, I think continuing to use the moxa helps baby stay head down. So even if baby is head down now, there's no harm continuing. However I expect the midwives will probably assess the position next time they see you anyway.

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