A letter from our Director of Doula Programs, Sarah Branion.

As a doula team, we support birthing families who have a baby in a breech presentation quite often. We love meeting our clients where they are and facilitating a discussion on their options around all kinds of births, and breech is no exception.

When considering your options for a breech baby, we invite you first to take in a big, long breath. Hold it. Then, release it slowly to the count of 8. Try that again a few times before reading on.

Please, sweet family, don’t panic. There are a lot of options to ponder and there exists a lot of wisdom with your baby and in your body. We know it can feel nerve-wracking or scary to hear that your baby is breech. We’re here to listen and support you.

Here are our favorite ideas to try to “flip your babe”. It’s important to remember that none of these at-home activities will manually move or flip your baby or babies, but they do create space, balance, alignment, and therefore optimal fetal positioning is able to occur more readily.

01

Focus on bodywork:

Prioritize a Perinatal Chiropractor. Blooma’s provider, Dr. Jillian is experienced in breech and is a wonderful resource. We also highly recommend booking a consultation with Dr. Finden’s team at Active Health, as they are famed for flipping babes.

See an Acupuncturist, moxibustion and Cranial Sacral Therapy. We love Merriam Park Acupuncture and Mamawell for their experience with acupuncture and moxibustion, which is proven to aid in babies turning head down.

02

Utilize the Spinning Babies 6-day protocol. Your doula can go over any of these techniques during your prenatal visits if there are questions.

03

See Jessica Underwood, Doula & IBCLC, for a Body Ready Method™ assessment. Working with a BRM Pro can help you find the most optimal alignment for your baby and body for the process of birth. Some babies choose breech or posterior presentations because of various places of constriction and tightness in the body. Identifying, releasing and activating those areas can benefit all birthers, specifically those with breech babies.

04

Listen to this hypnosis track: Turn Your Breech Baby

05

Spend time in “belly down” (create a hammock for your baby) positions. Go swimming/floating in a deep pool of water, belly down (avoid being on your back). You could check out your local YMCA, and some other gyms have low cost passes too! A good goal is to aim for getting in the pool a couple times a week.

Spend time in belly forward positions at home like all fours, or sitting on a birth ball leaning over the back of a couch with stacked pillows to rest your upper body.

06

Looking farther into the future, an external cephalic version (ECV) – when an OB tries to move the baby to head down manually in clinic – at 37 weeks or beyond, as well as exploring vaginal breech birth, can be options too. The Birth Doula Team can discuss more ideas and information about these options as time unfolds.

We invite you to take in another big, long breath. Hold it. Then, release it slowly to the count of 8. Remember, you are here, you are safe, and your baby is safe. We recommend checking out these additional resources at Blooma: Spinning Babies Parent Class + the Daily Essentials DVD.