Where is your baby inside of you and how you can influence it: favorable birth positioning
Nurses, doctors, doulas, and everyone in the birth world talk about getting your baby into a favorable birth position. Let’s dive into the many nuances of the meaning behind this and find out how you can support your babies positioning in your womb starting in your second and third trimester.
Whether you are in the third trimester, have had multiple children, or have never been pregnant, word has spread that babies move a lot within the womb.
why does your baby’s movement matter?
So, why does the movement of your baby matter so much. Well, first of all, comfort is important. The way your baby is sitting or laying inside of you can determine a lot more than just how frequently you go to the bathroom. Your baby’s position can dictate the amount of pressure or sensations you feel, along with where you feel that. Secondly, the movement and final positions your baby takes during labor can influence the time, energy you put in, and sensations you feel throughout the birthing process.
favorable birth positioning
When babies are in a favorable position, the glide easily through the birth pathway. Babies who are fitting just right, can reduce pain in a mother’s back, that must feel nice. And babies who are in a better position for birth tend to perform better.
Perform better? What does that mean? Nurses and healthcare providers monitor babies throughout labor. Labor and the tightening of the uterus around the baby can cause fluctuations in their heart rates. When a baby is in a favorable position, labor and the baby work together. Babies in more optimal positions don’t have scary dips in their heart rate and give nurses a pleasant rest and appease the minds of worried parents.
What positions can your baby be in?
A favorable birth position refers to the positioning of your baby in your uterus in regards to your body. There are many different medical terms including Occipital Anterior, Occipital Posterior, and Occipital Transverse. Now, those are not the only terms you may hear, but these are the most important and most common outside of a baby being breech, we will touch on that later.
A baby that is OA, Occipital Anterior, has the back of their body and head facing the front of your body. It can help to think of OA as “AWAY”. Your baby is turned away from you, or the front of your body.
A baby that is OP, Occipital Posterior, in non-medical terms means that the back of your babies head is towards your back. This is also referred to as sunny-side up or face up.
And finally, OT, Occipital Transverse, which is when your baby is in between OA and OP. The side of their body is facing the front of yours.
How do you know what position your baby is in?
baby’s position in pregnancy
Ultrasounds or sonograms use sound wave frequencies similar to that of bats and dolphins that can detect where your baby is in your uterus. Some midwives or non-traditional medical providers can tell using their hands on the outside of your belly. They feel around to notice structures that give your baby’s position away; Think the buttocks and head. Other providers can use internal touch to tell if your baby is head down. This often occurs if you are getting a membrane sweep or a cervical check.
baby’s position in labor
Throughout labor, nurses and providers can check your cervix as you are thinning and dilating. The pressure of your baby’s head and the waves of contractions are what cause the cervix to thin, therefore, your nurse and provider will get a better understanding of baby’s positioning as labor progresses and your cervix is dilated further.
Baby’s position upon birth
As your baby crowns, they are performing a dance within your womb! They rotate internally to fit the smallest portion of their head through your vaginal opening. Sometimes this late into labor is when you see babies change from OP to OA or OT to OA. It is very magical and special to see this happen, but as the one putting in the effort by breathing and pushing your baby out, it is not something you always get to see. If you are comfortable with it, try and reach down in between contractions and feel your baby’s head as they leave your body. It is a wonderful way to greet your baby.
How do you get your baby into a favorable birth position?
I’m glad you asked! You can influence your baby’s position throughout your pregnancy using different moves and techniques. Using gravity as a tool to shift the open space in your uterus is so underutilized!
Gravity is a pregnant persons best and worst friend! Gravity can increase pressure on your pelvic floor and bladder. But when we use gravity as our best friend, it can help relieve pain and pressure, all while, moving your baby into a great position for labor and birth.
Methods for encouraging a favorable birth position
The Mile’s Circuit is a popular technique that has several different positions that work together with gravity to open up your pelvis and alter your baby’s position.
Spinning babies is also a famous tool that again works with movements and positions that can rotate babies and flip them from a breech position. Check out the spinning babies website to find other moves that can help relieve specific pain or symptoms.
Visiting the chiropractor, a pelvic floor therapist, and even acupuncture can help you flip a breech baby and/ or help relieve common pregnancy aches and pains.
When can you start influencing your baby’s position in the womb?
Somewhere in your third trimester, your baby “drops” into the pelvis. For some pregnancies this happens earlier and in others, you may never notice a drop, but will feel changes in pressure as your labor progresses.
You can start encouraging your baby to get into a good position from the beginning of your second trimester onward. As a birth doula, I recommend forward leaning positions and movements to all of my clients. These use the force of gravity and body mechanics to allow your baby’s body to move in alignment with yours.
Forward leaning positions: easing comfort and better positions for birth
The back of your babies head is the heaviest part of their body. Throughout time, our bodies have evolved to let our babies grow as big as possible during pregnancy while still fitting through the birth passageway. Thankfully, evolution has also allowed are babies to mold with our bodies, causing many of the cone-head shapes you may have seen.
Think about yourself sitting on the couch or look down if you are reading this on the couch now! Your back and body form a C-shape as you are snuggled in and cozy. The more time you spend in this position the more your baby with shift and move so that their back aligns with yours. This results in many sunny-side up or Occipital Posterior babies. Gravity is pulling the heaviest portion of their body, the back of the head into the lowest side of your uterus.
Now, think about how your body feels and looks leaning over the back of the couch or if you are on all-fours in a yoga tabletop position. Gravity is pulling your belly and uterus forward and down. Gravity is doing the same for your baby too. Being in this position uses the forces of gravity and space in your uterus to encourage the back of your babies head to be at the lowest point of the uterus pointing towards the ground.
Forward leaning positions to try:
Don’t get me wrong, finding comfort especially at the end of pregnancy is tough. You are fatigued, uncomfortable, and constantly have to pee. There is no expectation that you will only be in forward leaning positions, but relaxing in these positions for a majority over other positions will help you labor with ease.
Here are some fun forward leaning positions to try.
Sitting or kneeling over a birth ball
Side lying on the couch
Leaning over the front of the couch
Pillows, pillows, pillows behind you so you are not in a total C-shape
These positions are great to try at first! You will find your favorites and you should, play around with movement; your body will guide you, lean into it and you will be able to find comfort.
What about breech?
A baby is considered breech when their head is not down towards the cervix. Delivering a breech baby can be standard practice for many midwives, but many OB’s or hospital staff strongly encourage either an ECV (external cephalic version) or delivering via a planned cesarean. An ECV is a procedure in which doctors manually turn babies head down by pushing on the outside of the abdomen and rotating the baby into proper position. Using other techniques such as visiting the chiropractor, moxibustion and acupuncture, and spinning babies all have very high success rates in flipping a breech baby.
Having a baby in a breech position can be frustrating for a number of ways: many families think it is the beginning of a stubborn child, some mom’s worry that it is something wrong with them, or that their child is in danger. Know that there is nothing wrong with you or your baby. The breech positions is a variation in pregnancy that modern medicine does not always know how to work with.
There are some cases where a shorter umbilical cord is present or an anatomical variation in mom can result in a breech baby. These cases may be harder to treat with chiropractor or spinning babies techniques.
Look out for more blog posts to come that cover Breech positioning in more detail!
your baby’s position
Learning how your baby moves, plays, and positions themselves in your body is truly fascinating. Every baby and every pregnancy is unique. As you move throughout pregnancy you will notice your baby’s preferences and positioning changes too. Taking care of your body and thinking how your baby aligns within you is a great way to bond and connect before their birth. It will also make the road to birthing and the remainder of your pregnancy smoother, more comfortable, and relaxing.
Even if you baby is in a “favorable position” try the forward leaning moves above to take pressure off your lower back, find different forms of comfort, and dive into your pregnant body. Remember to advocate for yourself and ask about your baby’s position! It can be fun to learn how they are hanging out inside of your womb.
Your birth will be beautiful and magical no matter how it unfolds. If you go for a planned cesarean due to a breech baby, there are ways to include many of the wishes you had for a vaginal delivery. Know that you have the power to make the most out of your birth and the way you bring your child into this world, even if it does not look like how you initially imagined it.
final thoughts
Trust your intuition and listen to your body. As with any exercise, movement, and positioning talk with your health care provider. Pause or stop practicing movements if they are causing pain.
Enjoy your pregnancy and remember your baby will be born, no matter what position they are in!