What I’m Doing To Help My Baby Get into the Perfect Position for Birth!
My dream is to have an unmedicated homebirth…
This Crunchy Mama knew before she got pregnant that a home birth was what she wanted to plan! I am now 28 weeks and still planning for a home birth with my midwives, birth doula and amazing husband, Chris!
This Crunchy Mama is also all about prevention! I love to live in the world of prevention with my work and my health! Preventative medicine I think is the way to go. If there is something you can do to stop something shitty from happening, then why wouldn't we do it, right?
I take this same mentality that is so natural to me and I have used it throughout my pregnancy! I think about what I want as an end result and then back track from there to do everything I can to make that happen!
What end results would I like?
Well lots! But for the topic of this blog, it's a home birth. One thing I know that is very common is that midwives might not deliver a breech baby at home. Honestly, I never even asked my midwife if they do, but I will put it on my questions for my next appointment!
Near the middle of my second trimester, I began to look into things I could do to help our Crunchy baby move head down as they grow. When the baby is small, they moves all around, doing summer salts, spins and twirls and as they keep growing they will hopefully move head down to prepare for birth!
What am I doing to Help Encourage our Crunchy Baby’s Head to Move Down?
1. Posture
The biggest thing I found was that my posture throughout my pregnancy will make a big difference! After a long day all you want to do is grab a snack, put on your comfy clothes and go lounge on the couch, right? This is the posture you want to avoid! I was bummed when I first read this since I was exhausted and slouching was sooo comfy and relaxing! But a crunchy mama’s gotta do what a crunchy mama’s gotta do to have that beautiful home birth she is envisioning!
Slouching, think about the bingeing Netflix position. This posture is bad for getting the babies head down since it narrows the space in our pelvis. This encourages baby to go head up. You want to sit up right with the small, natural curve in your lower back. I use pillows to support me on the couch and at my desk to make me feel comfortable. I also lay down on the coach when my postural muscles get tired. I have been doing this since the middle of my second trimester (it's a bit early but I wanted to create a habit) and plan on continuing this into my third trimester! The other thing I do is use my big birthing ball as my seat at my desk. All that I’ve researched was that this was really great for mom and baby. I did it occasionally during the end of my second trimester but plan on incorporating it more now that I’m in my third trimester!
2. Movement
I like to use the word movement instead of “workouts” or “exercise” because movement is just so much more important! I feel like “workouts” and “exercise” are more linked to diet culture which I hate. To me the word movement makes me smile and think about doing the things I love and that feel really good in my body!
I have been doing tons of walking. My husband and I walk our dog twice a day and I look forward to this time so much! We get to talk and connect, get fresh air and I always feel so good after walking.
Yoga is the other type of movement that feels so good in my body! Since being pregnant it's been more gentle yoga and it feels soo wonderful!
At the end of my second trimester, I started Nikki’s The Bump Method live 8 week classes. These are amazing!! I highly recommend checking her out! These live classes are 45 minutes of Pilates classes specifically for pregnant women and the last 45 minutes are a live chat and Q&A with Nikki!
3. Talking to the baby
I talk to my Crunchy Baby all the time! I love to do this. Sometimes I say things out loud and sometimes I just say things in my head. I totally think the baby can hear since its inside of me!
I have been talking to the baby about moving its head down when the time comes. This may sound super crunchy but my baby is aware of my thoughts, feelings and actions. Many other Crunchy Mama’s have said talking to their baby helped in turning them head down!
I literally just say to my babe “I want to give birth to you in our home and being head down will make that possible!” and other variations of that!
4. Music
My husband read about this one in his dad-to-be book and it's a super cool theory! We are going to start doing this now that I'm in my third trimester. All you do is place headphones on my lower belly area and play some music. Apparently this helps encourage the baby to go head down since the baby is drawn to the music! I will let you know how it goes for us!
These are the specific things that I am doing to encourage my baby to go head down when the time is right! If it works great! If not I have found some resources to help rotate the baby such as Spinning Babies! I may even do some of these positions to help encourage babies to be head down before we find out.
The negative impact from COVID…
It's difficult with the restrictions my midwives have to abide by due to COVID. They want every second appointment to be over the phone which means I don't get as much feedback from them about how me and the baby are doing. I personally think this is unacceptable. We can't stop providing health care, especially prenatal care to people! I have my next midwife appointment next week, which is supposed to be over the phone (I always try to get them to change it lol). If we end up doing it over the phone then it's a missed opportunity for them to feel my belly and tell me the position of the baby. This is why I am thinking of doing some spinning baby moves to help make sure the baby is head down. I don't want to find out too late and not be able to do anything!
