Turning a Baby in a Breech Position   ***Caution***

Here are some suggestions to turn your baby around
taken from "Spiritual Midwifery":

1. Laying on your back on a board or using pillows so that your head is about 40 degrees lower than her feet. Try putting an ironing board on the couch and lie on it backward (head down). Be careful not to hurt yourself, make sure there are plenty of pillows around you, and someone to help you too!
2. Play music, preferably with headphones, placing them low down on your uterus.
3. Shine a very bright light low down on your uterus, or even between your legs.
4. Have someone (preferably the father) talk loudly but soothingly to the baby, low on the belly, close to the skin, telling the baby to turn around, to come towards the voice (have also heard that commanding works).
5. If all else fails, how about external version? This is where the mother is given drugs to relax her uterus, and then the doctor uses his hands externally to turn the baby around. This, of course, has its pros and cons, which should be weighed. It also can be very painful for the mother (but not as much pain as she'll have after a c-section!)  Doctors usually don’t like to perform this too early in case you go into labor during the manipulation; they want to make sure baby is full term or close to it. Midwives usually are very good and gentle and can really do miracle with this one.

Have you ever heard of elephant walking? It has worked well for some of my clients who carry breech near term. Elephant walking is walking on hands and feet instead of knees. As soon as you try it, you will see why it would work! It's very difficult to do, but it definitely helps loosen the baby up and out of the pelvic ring. Some people feel the baby turn as soon as they start doing it.

• Have the mother walk on her hands in a swimming pool.
• Homeopathic Pulsatilla in 200C potency or higher. Have the mother take one dose every 3 days while doing tilt exercises. (Check with your Homeopathic doctor)
• Stimulation of the acupuncture point bladder 67 (located on the little toe at the outer corner of the nail bed). Be aware acupuncture can start labor, make sure you work with someone very knowledgeable with pregnancy.
• Pelvic rocking and exercises to strengthen muscle tone.
• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Discuss the pros and cons of waiting to have a version performed by a doctor using ultrasound and uterine relaxing drugs.

Stimulation of Acupuncture Point Bladder 67-
To stimulate the acupuncture point bladder 67, place one grain of rice on the
outside of the mom's baby toe and tape it there. She should just leave it there
for as long as she can or until she knows that the baby has turned.

There is also acupuncture itself which has been known to be successful.

Keep in mind that some baby's don't turn for a good reason. I had one client
who tried everything to turn a breech baby and they did not find out until the
c-section that the cord had not one, but two knots. Had the baby turned, it
could have tightened one or both knots to the point of severe cord compression.
The only thing she did not try was external version and perhaps that was for the
best.

Thanks to all the lovely doulas and midwives who have helped write this article!