facing up

[lindsayjean]

I went to the midwife today and my baby is face up. She gave me different positions I can try to get her to move to face down. Anyone else experiencing this or experienced it (since many of you are no longer preggo)? I'm trying to do lots of leaning forward and getting on my hands and knees to let gravity do it's job. The m/w said that delivering face up can be a lot longer and harder... and my sil just delivered that way and she had a very long painful labor.

Correct me if I'm wrong- don't babies change position (face up to face down and vise versa) all the way to birth and even during birth?

[reducereuserecycle]

I think I wouldn't worry too much. I have heard it is more painful to labor with faceup, but what are they comparing it to. They never birthed the exact same baby facedown.
I have also heard that they can change position even during labor.
I hope that the tips your midwife gave you will help it to turn.

[umami_mommy]

most babies rotate anterior with the first strong contractions... however, first babies can become fully engaged in the pelvis early and then cannot turn. my dd was posterior for something like 18 weeks and then was born anterior. but she was my second baby. the best position for a first baby *is* OA... that is, the back in the very front of the womb.

i would check out spinningbabies.com as it is easiest to birth an anterior baby!

[pinksprklybarefoot]

My homebirth midwife is very big on position and has given me a lot of suggestions to move and KEEP the baby in a good position. I found that walking around on my hands and knees works the best to move him there, along with laying on my left side. Reclining positions seem to encourage my baby to move to the posterior position.

I may be worrying about it too much, but since I now have to have a hospital birth (high bp), I want it to go as smoothly as possible. I figure walking around on my hands and knees isn't going to do any harm, so I might as well do what I can.

[Gray's Mommy]

Birthing an OP baby is different than an OA baby. I have had the pleasure of both types of birthing. The OA was much easier since my contrax were in the front & not in the back, but I guess that is relative to the momma

Not all babies rotate well once labor is underway. My mw had to rotate our OP baby a few times in labor & he kept going back to OP. I just pushed him out that way~

[mamabear&babybear]

I just experienced this with dd2. Honestly, I didn't have back labor and contractions were similiar to dd1's birth. After 40 minutes of pushing in many different positions, she turned around. GL!

[WinterBaby]

Yes, babies can change position at anytime, definately! And it really is worth trying to get the baby well positioned. I had an anterior placenta and my baby kept wanting to be posterior through the last half of my pregnancy, facing it. I used a lot of the positions your midwife to successfully get him positioned to where I wanted him - would put my head down, butt up, wiggle him out a bit and between a bit of being on all 4s, shaking, gentle prodding from the outside and lying on my left side and he'd wiggle around. Until labor started - the first night of prodromal labor my baby was in that posterior position and wouldn't budge for anything for the next 4 days, lol. Everything that had worked right up until then didn't. But I have *gorgeous* pictures of the very top this baby's head turning right around to just about anterior right as he's just crowning, ha. So even right there in the birth canal, they *can* turn. And I'm sure your baby will

[kathan12904]

Babies definately do move around all the time so nothing is set in stone. I second the advice about www.spinningbabies.com It is a great resource for baby positioning and has options of helpful positions for pregnancy, labor, and birth that will help your baby be born more easily. Good luck. I am 4 days overdue and my baby is acting like hes turned OP on me just like my first, but I still have faith.