we are gonna spin the
big wheel of birth today and see what topic is up you guys ready to spin the wheel let's do it
okay oh glad I have my props close by because today we are talking about breach
so breach is a is the position of the baby when the baby is presenting with either their bottom
or their feet first so the um the way that the most effective and way for a baby to be born is
head down and let me let me grab my pelvis as we talk about this so uh the baby is really designed
to work um head down so you know enter the pelvis make its way through the pelvis um we have some a
great video on the pelvis and um uh when we talk about dilation and a placement and everything
uh it's really the best like ideal is for baby to present head down but that doesn't always happen
sometimes babies will present with their bottom down like this so reach with their legs up or
actually come through the pelvis with their feet that way okay so that is
breach now um when you are pregnant babies move around you know they're they're mostly
in this fetal position but they they can turn around in um in your uterus
and change positions which is totally normal but right around that third trimester the 30 weeks
or so they generally tend to do less of those big flip motions because there's less room in there
and sometimes less amniotic fluid in there for them to have the ability to make the big movements
so um and and as as the the pregnant person a lot of times it's hard to figure out what
is going on in there you might feel like they're kind of like hitting you from both sides or like
hitting you with their feet and and um and hands at the same time and sometimes it feels like that
uh but sometimes and oftentimes if we have providers that are hands on who do
more of the feeling of our belly you know trying to desi trying to figure out whether our baby
is head down position or in a breech position we might know a little bit earlier on their position
and the main thing the main takeaway really from breach uh is that the sooner that you have an idea
of whether your baby is in a breach position or not the better and the
reason for this is some of our options that we have for turning a baby who is breached
to head down vertex the sooner that we know that sooner sooner we know that we you know need to
work on turning a baby or or or if we want to try to turn our baby encourage turning the baby
the sooner the better really it's very hard at you know a 39 week appointment at 38 week appointment
to find out that baby is breach and then try some of these techniques and I'm that I'll talk about
in just a little bit so i always like to encourage my doula clients and childbirth clients to ask
when they're at their appointment is the baby head down how do you know can you show me what does it
feel like and um that really helps encourage our providers to share that information with us and
check themselves and the reason the reason we care is that in most places of north America at least
babies who present breach who are in the breach position in that last
month of pregnancy that 36 37 38 month weeks of pregnancy usually if they're presenting breach
oftentimes our care providers are scheduling a cesarean birth so baby can no longer be born
vaginally now there are some providers around the us north rest of north america that will do
a a breach delivery depending upon how the baby is presenting and in certain cases they will
be able to offer a vaginal breach which you know sometimes families feel like that's a good option
for them and sometimes it isn't but if we know that our baby is in a breech position sooner than
rather than later in the pregnancy there are a few things that can be done to encourage that rotation
I'm going to put some links below because I can't cover in depth in this wheel video some of the
ideas about turning breech and there's resources out there that are much better than what I'm going
to be providing you right here but I want to list a couple of them one of them is called moxibustion
and that is done at usually at an acupuncturist and it is a technique um where there is um
the acupuncturist can encourage the rotation of the baby I'm going to give some more links below
so you can find out some more there's also some positionings that we can do to encourage rotation
of the baby um there are spinning babies is a great website that i like to refer my clients
to for if they have a breech baby they can do some inversions which encourages turning
something that i don't need to add a link for but um it's something kind of basic is putting
some cold like a cold frozen pea bag on your belly to encourage a baby to move away from the cold and
maybe having like a warm washcloth on the other side of your belly or heating pad to encourage the
baby to move away from the cold and towards the heat kind of simple like low-tech techniques but
have been shown sometimes to move a breech baby now sometimes we have babies that are persistent
breech that no matter what um techniques and tips and things we try to encourage baby will be um
it's just there's no turning a baby that's breech so baby will be born um generally via c-section
and um what's interesting is that sometimes our breech babies
after they arrive earth's side is they will have their legs kind of up near their face
just even when they're laying in the bed it's really um they're really used to that position so
the big takeaway i i like to make sure that my students have with breech is knowing
your fetal position as soon as you can and you know and then you can check on these
techniques so if you're newly pregnant you're watching this video i wouldn't
research all the breech turning techniques right now but remember to ask your provider health care
provider at your visits if they can give you more insight into which way the baby is turned and um
check out below for links to more information on encouraging a breech baby to turn so
thanks so much for hanging out with me today and talking about the breech baby vertex breach
baby or like this breech and we will spin the wheel again tomorrow again uh check the link
above for uh all the other videos prior to this and i'll see you guys again next time