How to Naturally Turn a Posterior Baby

Many pregnant women know that the victual should be throne lanugo to have a unscratched and successful vaginal delivery. I remember panicking during my pregnancy considering my little one was breech at 28 weeks, and I hoped to avoid a C-section. I did tons of research and interventions on how to flip a breech baby naturally, from chiropractic superintendency and headstands to essential oils. While there was plenty of time for her to flip surpassing delivery, I knew her breech position could compromise my goals for a natural birth.

I did not know that plane if a baby’s throne is down, other aspects of fetal positioning can moreover stupefy wordage outcomes. One of these is the posterior position. While it is possible to have a vaginal lineage with a posterior baby—and many women do—it is not optimal. So, what does it midpoint if your victual is posterior, why does it matter, and how can you turn them naturally?

What is a Posterior Baby?

Fetus in Uterus during pregnancy. Pregnancy women anatomy. Fetus with umbilical string and placenta. Colored medical vector illustration.

The full medical term for a posterior victual is “fetal occiput posterior,” which ways the when of the baby’s throne (occiput) is toward the mother’s when (posterior). In other words, the baby’s spine is to mother’s spine.¹

You may have heard a posterior victual referred to as “sunny-side up.” This is considering if a mother births on her back, the victual will be face-up when they come out of the lineage canal. The baby’s face, its “sunny side,” is facing up.

How Worldwide is the Posterior Position for a Baby?

Between 15% and 32% of babies are posterior when labor begins. When your cervix fully dilates, and it is time for delivery, the likelihood that your victual is still posterior is between 1.8% and 12.9%. Since many babies rotate independently during labor, posterior babies are increasingly worldwide in the older stages.^2,3

Why Does the Posterior Position Matter?

The weightier fetal position for lineage is tabbed occiput anterior, meaning the victual is facing the mother’s back. It’s when the crown of the baby’s throne emerges first through the dilated cervix, and the chin is likely flexing toward the chest. This position minimizes the diameter of the baby’s head, permitting it to fit optimally through the mother’s pelvis and lineage canal.³

Diagram showing victual in woman womb illustration

When a victual is posterior or faces forward, the presenting part of the throne is larger. This can make labor and wordage longer and increasingly complex.

Risks of Having a Posterior Baby

There are risks to the mother and the victual when laboring with and delivering a posterior baby.³

Risks to the mother include the following:

Longer labor
Increased likelihood of labor augmentation
C-section
Worsened tearing
Hemorrhage

Risks to the victual include:

Lower APGAR scores
Increased rates of NICU admissions
Longer hospitalization

Many of the risks to a posterior victual are related to the fact that the baby’s positioning often causes increasingly prolonged labor.⁴

Who is Likely to Have a Posterior Baby?

The pursuit groups are increasingly likely to have a posterior victual whose position persists through delivery:³

First-time mothers
Black mothers
Moms older than 35
Moms of shorter height
Moms whose labor was induced or augmented with Pitocin
Moms with an proemial placenta
Babies past their due date
Large babies

How Do I Know If My Victual is Posterior?

Back Labor

Back labor refers to pain in your lower when during labor contractions. It may persist between contractions, whereas uterine pain is relieved between contractions. When labor is worse when a victual is posterior considering the when of the baby’s throne pushes on your spine and tailbone. If you wits when labor, you can be suspicious that your victual is in the posterior position.^2,5

Leopold’s Maneuvers

Your provider may perform hand movements on your stomach to identify which part of your baby’s soul is presenting at each part of your uterus. Your provider’s experience, your baby’s gestational age, and soul mass can all stupefy the verism of these maneuvers for identifying fetal position and orientation.⁶

Digital Vaginal Examination

During a vaginal exam, your provider may be worldly-wise to finger the soft spots or fontanelles on your baby’s head. This can help identify the orientation of the baby’s throne and tell whether your victual is posterior. This method of determining the baby’s position is often inaccurate but increasingly likely well-judged with increasingly experienced providers, if the cervix is increasingly dilated, and if the victual is increasingly descended.^3,5

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is the superior method of confirming a baby’s position during labor. Depending on your baby’s height, a doctor can perform an ultrasound on your abdomen, through your vagina, or on your perineum. If you are giving lineage in a hospital, most labor and wordage units have a portable ultrasound machine to observe a baby’s position quickly.^5,3

How to Naturally Turn Your Posterior Baby

Gravity

A baby’s throne and when are the densest parts of their bodies. Any maternal position that makes her vitals into a hammock allows the heavy when of the victual to rotate toward the mother’s front. Forward-leaning positions moreover make the uterus larger and rounder, leaving increasingly room for the victual to rotate.⁴

Examples of forward-leaning labor positions that work with gravity to rotate your victual include:^2,4

All fours or hands and knees
Standing while leaning forward and resting hands on a bed, wall, or ball
Straddling an armless chair wrong-side-up and resting stovepipe and throne on the when of the chair

Pelvic Rocking

Pelvic rocking, or pelvic tilts, moreover uses gravity and can powerfully encourage your victual to rotate its when toward your front.⁴

For pelvic tilts, get on the floor or bed on all fours and unorganized arching your when to the sky and the ground. Crawling on your hands and knees wideness the floor can mimic this pelvic movement and indulge your victual to rotate.²

Rebozo

While there are no formal studies on its efficacy, a rebozo, or a Mexican woven shawl, has a rich history and tradition of repositioning a fetus. It can moreover provide physical relief and repletion to a mother during labor. There have been segmented reports and specimen studies of rebozo work helping to get a victual into the weightier position for delivery.

A large scarf or a folded bedsheet will moreover work without a rebozo. To use the rebozo technique, a laboring mother can be on her hands and knees, in a child’s pose position, or lay on her back. Depending on which position is well-appointed and practical, the rebozo serves as a hammock or grip for the mom’s buttocks, hips, or vitals to aid in rocking, sifting, or shimmying the victual to encourage them to rotate.⁷

Relaxation

Different methods of encouraging uterine and pelvic floor relaxation can indulge the space and uterine positioning for your victual to rotate into the weightier position for birth. Some of these relaxation and repositioning methods include Webster chiropractic superintendency and acupuncture. These can both be constructive if a qualified professional performs them.⁸

If these natural methods of rotating your posterior victual fail, rest unpreventable that your victual may turn spontaneously at delivery. If not, your provider may moreover struggle transmission rotation of your baby’s throne to help your vaginal wordage go increasingly smoothly.^3,5

You might learn your victual is sunny-side-up during a routine prenatal visit toward the end of your pregnancy, or you might not know until labor begins or you get admitted to the hospital. Posterior positioning is common, and while it comes with risks, your victual still has time to turn up until delivery. There are many ways you can try to rotate your victual and still unzip your lineage goals, so try not to get discouraged by this news. Indulge yourself as much physical and mental relaxation as possible to requite your victual the weightier endangerment of turning.