hey guys it's Alice here we haven't met in real life I am a doula a childbirth educator and I
like to spend the wheel of birth and see what topic we're gonna talk about today let's do it
okay today we're talking about OP presentation so there's a couple things I need to talk about
OP presentation I got them right here outside the camera I need my pelvis again oops and I need my
baby so OP presentation if you've never heard of an OP Baby you might have heard of what people
sometimes call is a sunny-side up baby so let me know in the comments if you've heard either OP or
sunny-side up I want to know I'm really curious so what this refers to that is the position of
the baby as they are coming through your your pelvis and sometimes a baby is even born into
the world OP or sunny-side up it's funny because sometimes I'll hear people say yeah my mom told me
I was born sunny-side up which it's really cute it's like oh that was the terminology instead
OP now we call it OP, occiput posterior is what it stands for and if what it means is that the
baby's the back of the baby's head is coming the baby is entering usually entering the pelvis or
going traveling through the pelvis with the back of their head up against your spine so as you can
see through the pelvis right here is hoops drop my baby is the spine so baby's head is up against
that's fine and what OP you know you think like well why does it really matter where traditionally
or I shouldn't say traditionally a more effective way for baby to travel through the pelvis is
usually looking to one side and then they have a series of movements to get them through but when
they're the back of their head which is usually the hardest part of their skull is up against
your spine what it can lead to is a couple things it can lead to what we call back labor is number
one and let's talk about that labor so what that means is that in a regular non OP baby presenting
non back labor most people feel their contractions low below their belly button that menstrual type
cramp area and sometimes it can start in the back and kind of wrap around to the front but really
most of they're feeling sensation was the painful sensation that they feel is below the belly button
so in back labor when you have back labor a lot of times you're filled most of the sensation in your
back and a lot of people experience whereas you know contraction you feel the painful sensation
during that that contraction the rest is usually fairly restful not a lot of sensation with back
labor a lot of people in that rest are still feeling discomfort in their back and so they're
not necessarily getting a full rest because that back discomfort a lot of people with the
OP presenting babies will say they feel sort of a grinding in their back a lot of pressure on their
back so that can be definitely a challenge for people so an OP presenting baby can possibly cause
back labor also we have found that the traditional labor patterns that happen with early labor active
labor in transition labor sometimes don't look the same when we see an OP baby with OP presenting
babies sometimes we will see contractions that are closer together earlier in our labor and
they are shorter the actual construction is a shorter contraction so maybe the traditional
active or early labor might be five minutes apart lasting a minute for an OP baby people in early
labor they might be experiencing contractions that are say three minutes apart but only 20,
25, 30 seconds so sometimes the labor pattern can look a little funky with an OP baby also
when our when we have an OP presentation we can sometimes the baby takes it takes longer
to descend through the pelvis because the shape of the pelvis with the baby's head just isn't
the easiest one to maximize or to make use of the way the pelvis is designed for the baby to
fit so sometimes we see a slower progress with an OP baby both the babies station as the baby
descends through the pelvis or with dilation and effacement of the cervix with an OP baby
sometimes that can be slower as well so having a baby in that presentation the last thing as we
are working on pushing the the baby the babies of fontanel's or soft spots are designed so that as
the baby comes down through the pelvis the baby's head molds and molding meaning it changes shape
a little bit just so that it can move through the pelvis and the birth canal and out into the
world so it's designed to to mold and shape that way if the baby it soaks imagine babies coming
down molding shaping if the baby is presenting OP the the molding is not necessarily the same or as
effective and so generally the pushing phase can be it more difficult and slower and harder for a
baby that's okey so there are some challenges for sure if you have if your baby is presenting OP or
sunny-side up though it does not mean that it is a an automatic reason for a caesarean there have
there are definitely people that have delivered pushed a baby out OP we just might find that
the norms of labour and the traditional sort of message through labour is the same when we have
an OP baby and certainly with the challenges of back labor might also make labour a little bit
different and a little bit challenging so there is there has been an increase in research and
emphasis on OP babies how to try to convince them to turn when we're in labor how to successfully
manage the painful sensations of back labor and I will put some of the links down below
information on OP presentation if you want to dive further into this topic hit the like button if you
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for the next time we load a big wheel of birth video thanks for joining me today guys