Breech

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Once baby flips head down

A common question here at Spinning Babies is, "Now that my baby is head down, should I continue the exercises?" Balance only improves with balancing. 

Give yourself a few days of brisk long walks and after that if your baby is favoring your right side, firm more on the right than left, resume the 30-second forward-leaning inversions but not the breech tilts. Continue with the pelvic stabilizing exercises and psoas release, and any myofascial releases (standing or abdominal release). 

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Flip a Breech

How can I help my breech baby turn head down?

Here are self-care exercises and explainations of how a professional might help if baby is still breech after 30 or 32 weeks gestation. Combine this list with those on the Daily Activities page for the most comprehensive approach. As you expand your options you increase the chance baby will flip head down. 

Turn your breech baby

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About breech

Head's up ~~~ A breech baby has their buttocks coming into the pelvis before the head. Usually the buttocks will be born first, less often the feet or knees emerge first.

Is breech presentation a malposition or a normal variation? What are the types of breech positions? When is vaginal birth safer than surgery and when is a cesarean better?  Read more to learn the Spinning Babies view of breech fetal position.

Spinning Babies techniques do not include manual cephalic version or any manipulation of the baby.

Click for breech

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Vaginal Breech Birth

There is a revolution coming to America in vaginal breech birth. American doctors and midwives had all but lost the skills to help a breech baby out and instead, developed a style that actually increased the risk of harm. The lack of skills, or dare I say, wrong skills, are spreading in other countries, too. Lately, international parent-to-parent and provider-to-provider sharing is also connecting midwives and doctors promoting physiological breech skills. Increasingly, parents are able to choose vaginal breech birth.

Breech birthing

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Belly Mapping breech

A childbirth educator and doula wondered why the doctor of a mom she is helping wasn't 100% sure about the signs of a breech baby. He suggested an Ultrasound (sonogram). Was he stretching to find a reason to do an ultrasound (sonogram)? Or is it really that hard to tell?

Keep reading for tips on discerning a breech position and see pictures of palpation. 

Click to detect

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3 Principles & Breech

Sometimes just doing the Breech Tilt isn't enough to flip a breech to head down. That's why we start with the 1st Principle of Spinning Babies: Balance. Balance means to help the soft tissues of the pelvis and abdomen become symmetrical. 

3 to flip

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The timeline for breech concerns

When, in Pregnancy, is breech an issue?

Many home birth midwives suggest interacting with a baby at 30-34 weeks to encourage a head down position (vertex). After 32-34 weeks, chiropractic adjustments are suggested. The later in pregnancy a baby is breech, the more difficult it is for the baby to flip head down. The baby’s size grows in relation to the uterus and there is a smaller percentage of amniotic fluid for the baby to move freely in. Read More by clicking the link here.

Breech timeline

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Breech and the bicornuate uterus

A bicornuate uterus has two sections divided by a septum, or wall of tissue. The halves are smaller than the womb with a single "room." Babies may grow too big to flip head down in the bicornuate uterus, even as early as midpregnancy. A bicornuate uterus might be called a heart-shaped uterus.  

More bicornate

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Breech conferences

Heads Up !

The 3rd International Breech Conference

A Day at the Breech with Jane Evans, Independent Midwife

at BINI Birth in Los Angeles (Thousand Oaks), CA  See the calendar

Also, see Jane Evans in the MIDIRS journal on physiologic breech birth.