Optimal Fetal Positioning

[HotI]

What have you done to achieve optimal fetal positioning?

I have had a look at the spinning babies website, but haven't really tried any positions yet.

i am 29 weeks pregnant today, and bub is currently lying sidewards. I know there is heaps of time to move, but i'd like to know the best type of things i can do.

My DD was also born face up, so if possible i would like to also avoid a posterior labour this time.

I know that slouching is not recomended and sitting up straight is better- but i'm not finding the 'correct' positions comfy. Is this normal, and i just have to suck it up, in order to give bub the best chance of optimal positioning?

Love to hear your thoughts or be directed to places where i can read up (preferably in layman's language).

ta

[surprised]

No help sorry hun but I'm interested too. I know what you mean about the 'good' positions not being the comfy ones!

[HotI]

I found this article here Optimal Fetal Positioning - Helping Your Baby Find A Good Position For Birth

Here are some suggestions:
•If you are watching television, do this while kneeling on the floor, over a beanbag, fitball or cushions, or sit on a dining chair. Try sitting on a dining chair backwards and if you need, prop some cushions under your bottom to ensure your pelvis is higher than your knees.
•Use yoga positions while resting, reading or watching television – for example, tailor pose (sitting with your back upright and soles of the feet together, knees out to the sides). While we are on the topic of Yoga, taking classes in general are wonderful for the pregnant woman!
•Sit on a wedge cushion in the car, so that your pelvis is tilted forwards. Keep the seat back upright
•Don’t cross your legs! This reduces the space at the front of the pelvis, and opens it up at the back. For good positioning, the baby needs to have lots of space at the front
•Don’t put your feet up unless your doctor has advised you to or you need a quick rest! Lying back with your feet up encourages posterior presentation.
•Sleep on your side, not on your back.
•Avoid deep squatting in late pregnancy, which opens up the pelvis and encourages the baby to move down, until you know he/she is the right way round. It is useful later in labour though!
•Swimming with your belly downwards is said to be very good for positioning babies – not backstroke, but lots of breaststroke. Breaststroke in particular is thought to help with good positioning, because all those leg movements help open your pelvis and settle the baby downwards.
•A fitball can encourage good positioning, both before and during labour. Opt to sit on a fitball over a chair.
•Various exercises done on all fours can help, eg wiggling your hips from side to side, or arching your back like a cat, followed by dropping the spine down.

In the article, it says if baby is anterior positioned then you get kicks under the ribs- i never had this with DD or with this one so far either. Lots of hands and feet sticking out the front though, so i think i might be sitting in more of those uncomfy positions to try to encourage bub to kick me in the ribs

[helle]

Some of those positions are actually insanely comfy. I find especially that yoga pose while reading. Seems to get bubs off all your junk XP sitting backward on a chair helps your back too.
I need to make more of an effort to do them tho!

[human bean]

I swear by draping yourself over a fitball for at least 15 minutes a day - it's actually pretty comfy. Then sit on the ball for about another 10 minutes or so and do slow circles with your hips - my doula said try to write my name with my hips itms? When she first told me I thought I'll never have the time but it can be easily done watching a 1/2 hr tv show.

[jackrose]

Hi Kate,
I think the article you have found there explains things really well, I am not sure if I could add much more. Are these the positions you are finding uncomfy?

I know that slouching is not recomended and sitting up straight is better- but i'm not finding the 'correct' positions comfy. Is this normal, and i just have to suck it up, in order to give bub the best chance of optimal positioning?

Slouching is definitely not good but there are different versions of sitting straight. The correct positions should theoretically be comfortable as they are the way the body is designed to be. Sometimes when we have had bad posture for a long time it can cause chronically shortened or lengthened muscles (therefore weak) which can make sitting or standing in the correct positions tiring or just plain straining. It might be a good idea to visit a physical health practitioner that you know such as an Osteopath, Chiropractor, Myotherapist or a Physiotherapist. They should be able to check your posture, advise you on your pelvic position in different postures and maybe correct balance and treat muscles and ligaments which are making holding the OFP postures uncomfortable.

The other reason a 'correct' position might be uncomfortable is because it is not really correct. A lot of times when people try to stand up 'straight' they over compensate and stick out their chest to elevate from a slouch position. This is not a position the body can maintain comfortably as it is not natural. In fact the correct posture is generally somewhere in the middle of a slouch and standing to attention. Again, a practitioner should be able to help, but the best clue is that the position should be comfortable. Try rocking your hips back and forth to extremes to get a sense of where it is on your body and then try to stop in the middle. This should be the natural position. Do the same with exaggerated moves with shoulders. Shoulders forward/back a number of times, stopping in the natural middle. Again with shoulders up and down. You can apply this to any part of the body as a sort of reset for posture.

When I was working on OFP I was vigilant about never sitting on the couch in my last 10 weeks of pregnancy. I used a dining chair or sat on the ground. If I had to sit on the couch I would perch on the edge of it rather than sitting right on the cushions incase I fell back into bad habits and slouched. I also invested in a kneeling chair - second hand on ebay - and used that a lot.

Try to avoid driving if possible (long distances) as car seats are appalling for posture. It is worth using a towel as a wedge or a well positioned bolster if you do need to be in a car.

FWIW I never had kicks in the ribs with either of mine and they were both born anterior. I did notice the hands and feet to the front though. I suspect that if you have a smaller torso or a longer baby you may be more likely to get the rib kicks due to the space issue.

Also, now is a good time to think about scrubbing the floor by hand

[Me+him+bub]

all the above suggestions are great! I had a transverse bub until 37 weeks! bum on the left head under my right rib, he/she flipped breech and is head down now all in just over a week and I did absolutely nothing except went on my hands and knees and flexed my hips a few times, I really believe that bubs will turn when they are ready. Don't stress just yet! I was told I had to have an ECV as there was little to no chance at that point it would move on its own but hey it did!

[luna moth]

I found it really helped to actually do something to "lift" the baby out of the pelvis a little before getting into OFP positions - so things like getting on a swing at the playground, or swimming with tumble turns - a midwife gave me that advice and it really worked. So I did things like that about once a week, and spent a bit of time on a fitball in between. I think that's why Spinning Babies has so much emphasis on the daily inversion. It feels so silly, but it's really important. My baby was transverse at 27 weeks, breech at 30, then head down at 34. I think!

[Julie Doula]

i think we are seeing more posterior babies because for many of us our lives are too sedentary - the 'couch-car-computer' lifestyle. When I lived in Asia, no car, and walked miles every week to get anywhere, I had three anterior pregnancies. After living in Australia and becoming more sedentary, I landed a posterior pregnancy - did all the OFP, but just could not budge that bub. He did finally turn during labour and was born anterior, but that was the only birth that actually really hurt, as opposed to just muscular exertion. So I do think lots of long walks and as much exercise as you reasonably can do during pregnancy is good.

Also I read that OFP must be a lifestyle, and it is better to start much earlier to get good results, so i reckon do it all the way through the pregnancy. Good to try for knees lower than the hips, so those ergo-stools that you 'kneel' on at the desk and computer are ideal, and sitting 'side-saddle' on a birth ball is good too.

The Pink Kit is another excellent resource along with Spinning Babies.

Also see a good Chiro or Osteopath. Especially if they understand the Webster Technique. Having balanced a pelvis can help remove any tightness that might be preventing the baby from moving to a better possie.

There's a great article on Plus Size Pregnancy about this that made a lot of sense to me, I'll see if I can find it.

I worked out an exercise routine which I did on a padded mat on the floor on hands and knees, involving tailor-sitting, legs apart with a straight back, hands and knees, plevic circles, pelvic tilts, frog sitting etc. I turned on some music and went through the routine a couple of times a day. It felt really good. It was nice in early labour too.