In my years as a doula, I have seen POSITION make a HUGE difference when it comes to birth. The first position most people worry about is whether their baby is head down, as most people who have a breech baby will delivery via cesarean. The only hospital vaginal breech births that I know about happen when baby B of twins happens to come breech. We do not currently have any hospital providers trained or willing to attend vaginal breech births otherwise. Position matters. But breech or not isn’t the only position variation that can change how your birth happens. How baby’s head comes down into the pelvis can make a world of difference with how labor feels, how hard it is to push, and whether or not a vaginal birth is really even possible. Here are our top 5 ways to help get baby into a great position for delivery:
- Spinning Babies 3 Balances are essential prenatally & in labor. These moves can help your baby get in a good position in your pelvis and stay there. You can use these movements and poses to change baby’s position too.
- Make sure you are active during pregnancy! Walking is great exercise to keep your pelvis moving, and we really love to recommend the 4th Trimester Fitness Method & the awesome humans at Mamaste Fit too. Movement is lubrication for your joints, muscles, and ligaments. Staying active doesn’t have to mean that you’re doing Crossfit or training for a marathon though. Walking and doing gentle exercises like yoga can help baby find a good position too.
- Wait for labor to begin on its own if you can. We know there are lots of absolutely important reasons to induce (hello, high blood pressure is nothing to mess around with!), but if you can wait, do. Waiting for labor can help make sure baby is more developed and better able to help you out with position during labor. (Yes, they are doing work too.)
- If you do need to be induced (or even if you are in spontaneous labor), keeping that cushion of waters in tact as long as possible can give baby more room to navigate and change position to find the best way to get down too! Waiting until baby is very well engaged in your pelvis or almost emerging is a good thing for positioning if possible.
- Finally, KEEP MOVING during labor! Doing the Miles Circuit during pregnancy is a good thing, and it’s a great approach to keep moving in a fairly restful way during labor too. Even if you have an epidural, there are plenty of ways to keep moving too! (Side note, if you are a client of ours, you have access to this handout in our client resources too). Changing your position helps baby navigate the spin moves that they need to do to get through your pelvis. Play some music and keep laughing, but definitely keep moving to get baby into a good position while you’re in labor.
What’s the big deal with position?
I’ve seen position make a WORLD of difference in how a birth plays out from forceps being required for a 5lb baby to an 10+ pound baby sliding out with zero repair being required at all to a cesarean birth where when the baby was born she looked like she had been wearing a hat that was too tight on her head. Keep moving, and practicing, & making sure your support team knows that you want to change positions every 20-30 minutes during birth, no matter what pain medications you may or may not have on board. This will help your baby navigate through your pelvis, even if you can’t feel it.
