Tips for flipping a breech baby

[DiploCat1]

Currently 32 weeks pregnant, and baby is breech. Midwife is not too worried as plenty of time for her to flip over, but what can I do to help her along? Have had a look at spinning babies but currently full of cold so being upside down is not very comfortable! Midwife did suggest seeing a chiropractor in case my pelvis is out of alignment, I have suffered from PGP in this pregnancy; anyone have any success with this?

I had acupuncture to flip DS2 as he was breech and I couldn't have my planned homebirth if he didn't shift. That was at 36 weeks though. He turned the evening after the acupuncture session and I had my my lovely home birth. At 32 weeks I would give it a bit longer. Good luck.

Thank you - yes my plan is to wait until 34 weeks before I try and other interventions, chiropractor or acupuncture; though I am needle phobic so really nervous about acupuncture. I want a home birth too though, so willing to try anything!

I lay on the floor with my hips raised by some pillows and put a pack of frozen peas on my bump. It was an old wife's tale as far as I was concerned so I wasn't expecting anything but after about 5 minutes, I felt a huge flop in my tummy and the next time I saw the midwife, she said the head was engaged .

A lovely consultant did it for me at 37weeks. It was like magic.

I’m quite needle phobic too op, Have to be sat on for blood tests. But I find acupuncture really different. They go less than 1mm under the skin and it just doesn’t feel invasive but n the same way.
I didn’t get a breech turned, but was being threatened with induction at 10 days overdue, and went for acupuncture which started my labour immediately and I got my home birth.

Great of luck with it all

Acupuncture, rebozo, yoga, get on a birth ball and do gentle circles, also if you can do it, spend time kneeling and leaning over the ball so you're working with gravity to encourage baby to turn. But you've got loads of time so try not to stress! Good luck

You need this spinningbabies.com/learn-more/baby-positions/breech/flip-a-breech/

Thanks all! Will be trying these out.

@peamad no link?

The spinning babies hand and knees position on the floor (and lifting yourself up quickly) worked for me at 36 weeks.

My acupuncturist used moxibustion (not sure that’s spelled right?!). Same principle as acupuncture, but no needles so ideal for you. It’s like a hot stick over your baby toes. Worked for me and the midwife said it was too late for my baby to turn at that point. Good luck!

I heard you should hold an ice pack on the top of your bump and a hot water bottle on the bottom of your bump to encourage baby to go towards the warm not the cold, and hopefully flip themselves x

Has your baby been breech for a while op?

Just coming from another point of view, my baby was breech with her head up under my ribs from around 24 weeks and never flipped. I tried everything listed above but never got to try the moxibustion or consultant turning as she arrived early at 34 weeks (other issues).

I would definitely try all the things suggested and I’m sure one of them will work for you - however I would also just try and have it in the back of your mind that if baby doesn’t turn in the end you will likely have a csection and try to come to terms with it. I was gutted that we were going down that road as I really wanted a natural water birth, and was getting panicky and stressed.

As soon as I resigned myself to the fact that it was a possibility and read about it I felt much better. I was especially glad I’d done my research as I ended up with a EMCS anyway when my waters went!

Good luck!

I agree with @MindatWork - my baby was breech for my whole pregnancy and didn't ever turn. I wasn't prepared to risk an ECV. I ended up having a planned csection which was a very positive experience and my recovery wasn't too bad. There is research to suggest that some babies are breech for a reason and can't / shouldn't be turned and for these babies a csection is the safest mode of delivery. There are some hospitals that have specialist vaginal breech delivery teams (St Thomas in London is one). Good luck xx

Another breechie here. He was breech at the 20 week scan and I'm convinced he stayed that way as my bump was small as I have strong abdominals - I definitely felt a hard lump undery ribs as early as 28 weeks despite being told multiple times until placenta scan at 35 weeks that he was definitely head down 🙄

Although others are right that theoretically you don't need to worry until 36 weeks, I would do something now - I had PPROM at 34+ a few days so then they wanted him out at 37 weeks. Once breech was formally diagnosed, ELCS was the only option as they won't induce breech and can't do ECV with leaking waters (though ELCS for me was my 2nd preference after MLU water birth so I wasn't too upset, but others will have different preferences).

Up to the PPROM I was starting to look at Spinning Babies - our doula is trained in it and has had success with other clients 👍

Thanks for more replies... she wasnt breech at my 28 week check up (though position was checked by a student midwife, so perhaps a bigger margin for error), so has flipped once in the last 3 weeks, which is why I and midwife are hopefully she'll go back round again. But yes, I am looking at all the options and have already started to think about a new breech birth plan etc. I am not unused to changes of plan, I had pprom at 35 weeks with my first, and she came at 35+6 (I was also in another country and had to be emergency medi-evacuated back to the UK by my insurance company, but that's a whole other story!). I had her in St Thomas' so good to know they have a specialist breech team, though I am currently really happy with my hospital (royal surrey) in comparison. SCBU in St Thomas's was amazing, postnatal ward, not so much...

Good luck @DiploCat1

It's possible the midwife got it wrong at the check and baby hasn't moved at all. Like pp I was told mine was head down and engaged when definitely still breech as determined by a later scan!