6 ways to turn a breech baby to normal position

Read about some natural and effective ways to help your breech baby turn to natural position on its own.

Debjani Arora | Updated: July 19, 2017 5:39 pm

With every passing day of your pregnancy, your baby grows, develops and moves inside your womb preparing itself for labour and birthing. So as you near your expected delivery date, your baby would position and align itself along the birth canal in such a way that its head would be facing down placed in the pelvis area of the mother. Your baby takes this position a few weeks before the delivery to gear up for a natural birthing. As in the process of natural birthing, the head of the baby comes out first marking the grand entry into the world. However, in some rare cases, this natural positioning doesn’t happen as expected and the baby might be in a breech position (head facing upward) or remain in the transverse position necessitating a medical intervention during birth. Here are few things to expect after a C-section

There can be various factors that can lead to a breech or transverse positioning of the baby inside the womb. The most common ones are as follows:

A bigger head size of the baby and a narrow width of the mother’s pelvis
Less volume of amniotic fluid inside the womb for the baby to float and move
Lesser baby movements due to other physiological reasons like low birth weight
Insufficient exercise and initiation by the mother to encourage fetal movement and good health.

Remember there isn’t much you can do to control fetal movements and other activities happening inside your womb. That said however, you can still do your bit to help your baby align and position itself correctly with some easy exercises and techniques, to ensure a normal and safe delivery. Here are some tips that can help you turn your breech or transverse baby to a heads-down or normal position.

Walking: This is the most easy and convenient exercise that you can indulge in during your pregnancy. If you haven’t sweated out the way it was expected of you during the start of your pregnancy, start doing it now with a simple exercise routine like walking, more so if you have learnt that your baby is in the breech position and you are nearing your delivery date. Walking at least twice a day during the last trimester of your pregnancy for 20 to 25 minutes increases your chances of turning your breech baby into the natural position. This is because while you walk, your baby’s head that is the heaviest part of the body will gravitate downward and fix at the bottom of the pelvis of the mother. So going for a walk is the least you can do to ensure that both you and your baby enjoy a birthing that’s natural and with less medical interventions. Here are five ways to start exercising during pregnancy.

Crawling: Yes, you heard it right. You are about to birth a baby and would be excitedly counting days till your baby reaches that important milestone and starts to crawl, but before that you need to do it yourself, especially if your baby is positioned in a breech or transverse position, and doesn’t show enough signs to turn on its own naturally. So crawl like a baby for around 10 minutes every day to help your baby move inside your womb and change the position. Bend down on your knees and support your upper body with your palms resting on the floor, keeping your back straight. If you are worried that you might hurt your baby-bump, know that even your full-term belly would not be touching the ground as you crawl. This exercise will in fact help your baby move and reposition itself correctly to initiate a natural birthing process. However, here are a few exercises that you should avoid doing during pregnancy.

Yoga: Though exercise and yoga holds its own importance during pregnancy but it is usually advisable not to attempt any new kind of activity especially during your last trimester of pregnancy, without medical supervision. But if you have been practicing yoga from the start of your pregnancy, you can indulge in exercises that involve a little of crawling or makes you go down on all fours. However never try and attempt to do yoga on your own or try new exercises without gathering enough knowledge about it. As your ignorance here can turn to be fatal to your baby’s well-being.

Swimming: This is a low impact activity that can do wonders to boost both maternal and fetal health. If you had been swimming during your pregnancy practise more of the breast stroke during the days prior to your delivery date. This will help your baby take the heads-down position before you enter the labour room. Here are six signs of preterm labour that you should be aware of.

Sleeping: Though no one talks about the importance of sleep during pregnancy, but understand that eight hours of shut-eye plays a major role in your baby’s well-being. Your sleeping position also has lots to do with your baby’s movements and positioning ability. During the last few months make sure that you sleep on your left side supporting your belly with a pillow beneath it. Even when you are sitting, sit on large bean bags leaning on the left side, this position will encourage baby movements inside the womb and help your baby get into the natural position before the onset of labour pains. Also read tips to sleep well during pregnancy.

Practise floor exercises: Some floor exercises like back bridge helps in baby movements and hence positioning the baby in the correct manner. While doing a back bridge lie flat on your back with soles of feet and palms of the hand touching the floor. Lift your pelvis up until only your neck, shoulder and feet are touching the floor breathe slowly and gently come down to your start position. Practise this for a couple of minutes every day till you reach your delivery date. It is believed that back bridge is an effective floor exercise which helps in turning the baby from breech or transverse position to the natural one.

Note: Remember if your baby is not positioned in the normal way, talk to your doctor about the consequences and steps you need to take to help your baby descend down to the natural position, inside the womb. The above mentioned exercises and techniques only help one-third of breech or transverse babies to turn into the normal position. Sometimes an operative intervention becomes necessary in such cases. Never be disheartened with it as at times nature gives you your best in the most unusual of ways.

Read this in Marathi

Image source: Getty image

Reference: Garbhasanskar during pregnancy by Dr Vikram & Geetanjali Shah.

Published: August 1, 2014 7:01 pm | Updated:July 19, 2017 5:39 pm

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