Fetal Positioning
My sister is 39 weeks pregnant and at 37 weeks was told by her midwife that her baby was lying in a rare position. Only 1% of babies decide to get comfy in the transverse breech position (think an upright Buddha cross legged pose) and my sister has been desperate for the baby to turn naturally.
With only 3 months of maternity leave from full time work she is hoping for a nice quick water birth and just one night in hospital so that she can make the absolute most of her time at home without the added pressure of recovering herself from a caesarian.
She has tried everything! Bouncing around on a birthing ball, leaning over the kitchen table doing hours of jigsaw puzzles and even a number of handstands in the swimming pool!
We did some good walks over the Easter weekend too down at Southbourne and on the Saturday afternoon we tried out the principle of Spinning Babies, to try and map the babies fetal positioning.
Lie flat on the floor, take a piece of paper and draw an oval shape.
Divide the oval into quarters for the 4 areas of your tummy!
Use your hands as well as the Mummy to be's feelings, to mark on the paper the different lumps and bumps you can feel. If you feel hiccups mark them as well as a heart shape if you know where the heartbeat was last heard.
It's a great way to use your senses to get an understanding of where the baby is lying as well as giving the Daddy to be a chance to really feel the baby's movements and get their opinion.
So that was how their map turned out. Showing that the baby has indeed turned by itself! All slightly sceptical but thinking positive, we headed to the hospital at Frimley in Surrey yesterday afternoon for her scan and potential turning appointment. Sure enough, within 20 minutes they were sent away with smiles like Cheshire cats!
The baby is head down and 4/5th's engaged!
The map was right!
Now we just have to wait..... and we are quite an impatient family, this is going to be a long week!
