I had the pleasure of being able to attend the very first Spinning Babies World Conference.

Spinning Babies is an organization created by a midwife in Minnesota. It focuses on the importance of the position of the baby during pregnancy to help optimize labor and birth. Balance, Gravity and Movement in pregnancy will lead to optimal position of the baby.

Gravity is exactly what it sounds like and in pregnancy and labor and birth we should let it help our babies get into the right position. Head down is great, but there is more to it. The mother's body is designed to birth in the upright position!

Movement of the hips, legs and entire body in pregnancy, labor and birth are used to relax muscles and open the pelvis into a larger diameter as the baby moves down.

How do we obtain balance in pregnancy? And what does that mean? Balance, according to Spinning Babies means "not too tight and not too loose". It is obtained by doing multiple things such as exercising, having good posture (also avoiding bad posture), taking time for yourself to reduce stress and mentally relax, and doing certain daily stretches to soften and lengthen the muscles supporting the uterus.

It is crucial to do all we can to help our babies be in the best position throughout pregnancy. Also, there are techniques that Gail teaches to help babies move into the right position in labor. (Although, it is not a great idea to just wait til labor to try these out!) When babies are breech, posterior, high in the pelvis, etc, there are different positions and maneuvers that can be done to help baby move down and into the correct/easiest position.

There were dozens of speakers at the conference. Gail is truly a visionary. She is teaching OBs in the hospitals in Minnesota to deliver vaginal breeches-in the hospitals!! Its amazing and ground breaking work that excites me just to know about! There was an OB from Germany that is publishing a study about the diameters of the pelvis and how they change when the mother changes into the hands and knees position-directly related to breech birth in the hands and knees position.

Another speaker I loved was a midwife and craniosacral theraptist, Deb E. McLaughlin. She taught about 4 different complaints in pregnancy, how to diagnose and then how to treat them. I am so happy and excited to have the tools now to treat pubic bone pain! I don't know many women that do not suffer from pubic bone pain, especially near the end of pregnancy. Also I now am confident to help diagnose and treat sacral pain and pressure, pendulous bellies and round ligament pain.

I could go on and on.

I am so grateful I had the opportunity to attend this conference, to meet dozens of wonderfully talented, passionate and experienced doulas, midwives and other educators. Now I hope to bless the lives of my clients and friends with the knowledge and skills I've gained!

To learn more please check out SpinningBabies.com