Breech at 34 weeks

[xzaviers_mama]

This is my fourth baby (not including one I lost @ 17 weeks), and today was my 34 week appointment with my midwife.  Both she and her assistant thought the baby felt like he might be breech.  Neither of them felt a head down in/by my pelvis, and they both think that they feel his head, up where I thought his butt was.  However... when they listened with the fetoscope, they both heard his heartbeat the loudest down lower, where it would be if he were head down...

*sigh*

Should I start doing things to encourage him to flip?  And if so, what would those things be?  lol...  She said that they'll feel him again in 2 weeks, and if there is still question, they'll send me for an u/s.  She mentioned trying to manually turn him... and I'd really like to avoid that.  

Help!  None of my other boys have done this to me!

[kltroy]

Hi -

You asked whether you should start to encourage your baby to flip.  The answer is YES.  And given that it's your fourth, there's an excellent chance that it will.  There is also an excellent chance that if baby decides to be stubborn and is breech at term that you might be able to find someone to deliver it vaginally that way.  The concern w/ vaginal breech is "head entrapment" but since you've had several vag. births before, you have a "proven pelvis" ie they know baby will fit, so this is less of a concern.

Anyway, there are multiple threads on this board that discuss how to turn a breech baby, for example this one.  www.spinningbabies.com is also helpful.  My first baby was breech from week 32-term and second was briefly breech around week 31 but flipped.  I will mention that what worked for me with baby 2 was moxibustion/accupunture.  Although it's entirely possible that her flipping around was a random event that had nothing to do with that.  The good news is that even around 35 weeks, something like 50% of babies who are in a breech position will flip on their own with no encouragement at all.  Still, it never hurts to encourage :)

Best of luck!

[xzaviers_mama]

Originally Posted by kltroy 

Hi -

You asked whether you should start to encourage your baby to flip.  The answer is YES.  And given that it's your fourth, there's an excellent chance that it will.  There is also an excellent chance that if baby decides to be stubborn and is breech at term that you might be able to find someone to deliver it vaginally that way.  The concern w/ vaginal breech is "head entrapment" but since you've had several vag. births before, you have a "proven pelvis" ie they know baby will fit, so this is less of a concern.

Anyway, there are multiple threads on this board that discuss how to turn a breech baby, for example this one.  www.spinningbabies.com is also helpful.  My first baby was breech from week 32-term and second was briefly breech around week 31 but flipped.  I will mention that what worked for me with baby 2 was moxibustion/accupunture.  Although it's entirely possible that her flipping around was a random event that had nothing to do with that.  The good news is that even around 35 weeks, something like 50% of babies who are in a breech position will flip on their own with no encouragement at all.  Still, it never hurts to encourage :)

Best of luck!

I've had lots of people recommend the spinningbabies site to me!  In all honesty, I'm not too concerned just yet.  I would feel perfectly safe delivering him breech, for the same reasons you stated... however, my midwives aren't "allowed" to attend.  

So far I've just been laying around with several pillows under my hips.  I found a chiro near me who specializes in the webster technique, so I may give them a call as well.  Hopefully he'll just cooperate, and flip over without a fight... :)