This week I had the pleasure of attending a mom having her second baby. All births are unique and special and this one was no different. My client, Q, dilated fairly quickly to 10cm and tried to push but baby wasn't moving--with about 3 inches to go down the birth canal. I could tell by feeling the bones on baby's head that he was in a posterior or "sunny-side-up" position. Some babies come out just fine in this position--in-fact both of mine did--but in many cases babies need to be in the anterior position to be born vaginally.

So if Q would have pushed for much longer than she had, about 30 min, baby would not have come down and she would have become exhausted. So this is what we (the amazing doula and I) did. We had Q do 10 lunges, 3 side-lying releases and to top it off, 3 forward leaning inversions. After the third inversion Q squatted on the couch she had inverted off of and had an immediate inner urge to push, so she did! I could see baby boy's head right away as she gave into that urge. A few pushes later we saw his head emerge in the anterior presentation and her husband caught their sweet and fat little baby boy.

What happened here is the lunges and side-lying release helped loosen any tense ligaments or muscles and created extra space in the pelvis for baby to move down. What I feel was the real game changer that brought baby into the right position was the forward leaning inversions. In a nutshell, this maneuver is like downward dog off of a couch, with bum up in the air and hands on the ground. This position hangs the baby down and allows the baby's head to lift off of the cervix only a tiny bit but that tiny bit creates just enough space for their heads to spin into the right position. It truly was amazing to witness and see this easy position change result in a positive vaginal home-birth experience! So grateful I was able to be a part of this birth and use these valuable techniques to help baby be born.

Congrats to Q and her family :)

More info about posterior babies: https://spinningbabies.com/learn-more/baby-positions/posterior/