Optimal Fetal Positioning - Part 3

I've decided for part three not to discuss turning a baby; I'll leave that up to spinningbabies.com . There is loads and loads of information on that website of ensuring a good positioned baby throughout your pregnancy, and then a lot of techniques on turning babies during labor. So its a good website to familiarize yourself with.

What I do want to discuss is some materials I have found in my home study course for what you can do every day to encourage a baby to be in good birthing position. Most are posture related.

Getting baby in a good position
In previous OFP posts, I talked about how babies just want to be comfortable and gravity generally governs how they are positioned in the womb. The shape of the uterus, pelvis, and gravity are the things that will affect a babies position the most. We can't do a darn thing about the shape of our bodies, but we can do something about gravity.

A baby generally ends up head down because it fits snugly in the uterus and because it is the heaviest part of the baby, thus turning down with gravity. The same goes with a baby's back. They end up anterior (back towards your stomach) because of the same factors. However, it is much easier to affect whether a baby sits anterior or posterior by the way you sit and by your posture. The heaviest part of a baby is the head, but the second heaviest part is the back. Their back is going to want to turn whichever way gravity points. Think about this for a second. If you spend a lot of time reclining back, where will the baby's back want to lie? Down. It will want to turn down, which would be turning posterior. Remembering gravity, the best way to get a baby anterior or keep a baby anterior is to get gravity to turn the baby towards yours stomach. This basically means being uncomfortable at all times!

These are the suggestions in my study course:
-Sit tilted forward. - imagine your uterus as a hammock for the baby.
-Keep your knees below your pelivs. This definitely means not lying back with your feet up in the air. Many doctors and midwives have prescribed lying just like this to help with swelling, but I disagree. It would encourage the baby to turn posterior. Laying on your side with your feet up is a much better option.
-Don't cross your legs! This closes the pelvis in the front and opens it in the back, which is not at all what you want.
-Lie on your left side mostly to keep baby on left side. I find it interesting that every pregnant woman in the world has been told to lie on their left side because of the artery that runs to the lower body. I think baby positioning is just as, or even more important for why we should lie on the left side and NOT on our backs!
-Plenty of pelvic tilts. - This is basically cat/cow, getting on hands and knees and tilting your pelvis forward, only not worrying so much about the cow part, and making sure to tip the pelvis in, not necessarily arch the back up. Pelvic tilts are an excellent pregnancy exercise. It is pretty much the only way to strengthen the abs, it relieves back discomfort, and the tilting action gets the baby to tuck their chin.
-Tailor pose. This is sitting on the floor with knees open and the soles of your feet together. This opens the pelvis and encourages space for the baby.
-Sitting on a yoga ball - This also opens the pelvis and helps the baby engage.
-Sitting on a dinning room chair, backwards - opens the pelvis and tilts the uterus forward.

Basically, we can't sit lady-like or recline. When I relax at home, I just lie on my left side on the couch. At work, I either sit on a ball at my desk, or I set my desk chair to not lean back at all. My book says to be concerned with your posture 6 weeks from due date. It also says that you can't just have good posture whenever you think of it, it has to be a conscious continuous effort.

I believe this concludes my Optimal Fetal Positioning series. I know that there are no guarantees. You could have perfect posture and end up with a malpositioned baby, or you could lie on your back with your feet up all day and have a perfectly positioned baby. There are a lot of factors that go into it. But like most things I have learned, I'd rather prepare and do all I can for a smooth delivery.