Palipating - lay down on your back, the attendant feels the sides of your baby, and grabbing gently the top of the fundus, the attendant moves the top side to side alittle bit. If the whole baby's body moves, it is cephalic, head down; you are moving its butt and the whole body moves. If only the top moves, that is the head and neck moving, and your baby is presenting sacrum-or-feet first.
This is the way your attendant knows aside from an ultrasound.
I learned this is a midwifery class twenty years ago.