Turning a Breech Baby
There are several techniques ;
Swimming Pool : crazy stunts in the swimming pool can help rotate a breech baby. Do somersaults, handstands, float, dive, etc. This is the most successful DIY technique for turning your baby!
Ironing Board : inversions on a ironing board for 20 minutes, 2 or 3 times a day and visualising your baby flipping around the other way! Stop this immediately once your baby turns and stays vertex.
Visualisations : You can visualise your baby in a heads down position and talk to your baby about preferring to be vertex etc. See them already there in a vertex position.
Music : Play music at your vagina to lure your baby over to listen!
Cold/Warm : Place a cold compress at the top of your uterus, and a warm compress low down near your vagina. Babies instinctively turn away from cold.
Diaphragmatic Release : See here for how to do it.
Pustilla 30x : This homeopathic remedy is specific for unstable presentations and can help turn a breech baby.
Moxibustion : There is a 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found that moxibustion treatment for 1-2 weeks increases fetal activity during the treatment period and 75% of breech positions ended up cephalic after treatment and at birth.
Birthing a Breech Baby
Labour and birth instinctively.
Birth in a hands and knees position (all fours), or standing up with one foot propped up on a low stool or the side of the bathtub. Mothers left to birth as they please will instinctively choose the best position to birth her breech baby in.
This will allow for gravity to work on the baby's body as well as the downward movement of the mother's body birthing. Make sure you have your hands ready to catch your baby as he/she is birthed but do not support your baby's body.
Allow your baby's body to hang freely so their weight will help them out.
There is a wonderful video of this at Earth Birth Productions.
When the belly and umbilical cord is seen, this is the point where the cord shuts off and oxygen supply stops. This can be due to pressure of the baby's head on the cord, or due to exposure of the cord to air. The baby's nose and mouth need to be birthed within 8-10 minutes of this point.
If concerned, the cord and baby's body can be covered in a warm towel as they are birthed to minimise the chance of the cord shutting down due to air exposure.
Advice given in "Emergency Childbirth" by Gregory White, MD says that due to the danger to the mother and child due to rough manipulation and excessive force, it is best to leave well enough alone - "When in Doubt, Do Nothing".
No birth attendant should EVER attempt to do anything to assist birth of a breech baby until after the navel appears and the mother has had two more contractions accompanied by bearing down efforts.
Other Resources
Spinning Babies Belly Mapping for more information on how to map the position of your baby.
Five years to the term breech trial: The rise and fall of a randomized controlled trial. (Disputing the Term Breech Trial study that recommended that all breech presentations be scheduled for C-sections at 38 weeks)
Andrea Robertson, a midwife's comments on breech birth.
Discussion on Stuck Breech at Joyous Birth
How to do a Diaphragmatic Release
"This procedure has also been used this technique to turn breech babies. I use it for transverse but find it less effective for breech. I usually use a tilt board for breech and then do a
diaphragmatic release after the baby turns. It works marvelously well for posteriors.
I have never done one where the baby did not turn to anterior. However, on some occasions, after a few days the baby will turn back to posterior and you will need to repeat the process more than once."
Other Resources
