Spinning Babies is a unique, step-by-step approach to Optimal Fetal Positioning. Certain positions of the baby make labor easier than others.

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Mother's job is to dilate --
Baby's job is to rotate!

Helping the baby to rotate, before or during labor, makes birth easier for baby and mom. The point is that we can help the baby by helping the mom - not by manipulating the baby.

Most of the time, labor contractions and vertical birthing positions help the baby rotate.

Sometimes, though, the position of the baby’s head makes fetal rotation more difficult. The reason might be that the mother’s soft tissues are not in balance. Ligaments may not be symmetrical or muscles may not be well-toned. In other words, the support to the womb may be too loose or too tight. Happily, you can do something about this! First, read about the 3 Principles.

    The 3 Principles of Spinning Babies:
        

                   1.  Balance
                   2.  Gravity
                   3.  Movement

An optimal, or ideal, fetal position is when the baby’s back is to the front or left of the mother. 

In a nut shell, the anterior fetal position has the back of the baby's head (the occiput bone) in the front, or anterior, of the mother. The left occiput anterior baby faces the mother's right hip (back of baby's head to mother's left) and then, in active labor, turns to face the mother's back during an "anterior" labor. Occiput Anterior and Left Occiput Anterior are both ideal fetal positions.

The posterior baby faces the mother's front (with the back of baby's head in back) and has to fit facing forward or turn around 180° to an anterior position. A larger part of the baby's head enters the pelvis when the baby's head is posterior, so birth may be harder.

The baby will always get in the easiest position for birth
--whenever the baby finds it possible to do so.

The problem:  Some posterior babies can't make that rotation on their own.

First time mothers or mother's who had long labors, long pushing stages, or cesareans for either "failure to progress" or breech fetal positions in the past may benefit the most from optimal fetal positioning.

The solution:  Use this web site to reduce interventions in labor. It's simple to do. Just learn one or two techniques for each of the 3 Principles. If you need more, do more.

 Women who had an easy birth in the past can usually give birth naturally to a posterior baby.  Posterior babies with tucked chins have an easier time  rotating. If a posterior baby can't rotate, the baby with a tucked chin fits the pelvis more easily.

Spinning Babies is the active part of patience.

Don't most posterior babies rotate to an anterior position on their own in labor?

Yep.

And don't babies change position in labor?

Yes, but I don't believe fetal position change is random. See Myths about Occiput Posterior (OP) and my comments about Dr. Lieberman's wonderful research on fetal position changes. So, though most posterior babies will rotate, if given time in labor, and a few can be born without rotating, there are those posterior babies that can't, even with time. Spinning Babies is for those mothers and babies who face challenges with fetal position. 

Can Spinning Babies principles help breech babies get head down?

They sure can! 

Where'd these ideas come from?

Spinning Babies Website takes the topic of Optimal Foetal Positioning and makes it easier to understand. The 3-Principles give you a step-by-step way approach to fetal positioning.

Midwife Jean Sutton and Childbirth Educator Paula Scott published Understanding and Teaching Optimal Fetal Positioning over ten-years ago. I took them seriously and have been observing and serving mothers on this topic ever since. 

Additionally, physical therapist and doula trainer, Penny Simkin brought to light many of the labor progress techniques praised in this site. 

Dr. Carol Phillips, DC, brought the Inversion to the birthing community. Dr. Phillips teaches how the soft tissues and pelvic alignment effect birth and newborn health. 

Midwife Guadalupe Trueba is the gracious Mexican midwife from whom I learned to use the Rebozo. Plus, many other midwives, doctors, nurses, childbirth educators, doulas and parents offered their stories, wisdom and experience. 

What I've done is brought the information together, sorted it and organized it, eliminating as much of the myth as I know to eliminate, and made the knowledge easier to apply. I present a traditional midwifery trust in birth, yet provide practical interventions that parents themselves can use.

The techniques described here were found around the world. But, "what to do when" is found right here. Your labor can be shorter and less painful--Easier, in other words, than a posterior labor.

But let's not be dogmatic about fetal positioning!

This family has just had a fast persistent posterior birth. This, their second daughter, was born in three hours, start to finish. Her active life style, pelvic shape and vertical birthing position helped, of course.

One set of rules would never work for all women. Nor would one or two techniques work for all women. What we need is an understanding of the general relationship of our birthing baby with our opening body.  By applying the principles explained, you can set up your own individual program of activities in pregnancy or labor.

How do you use this website?
Start by reading The 3 Principles. Whether for birth or in pregnancy you will start with the three principles as early in pregnancy as you can. Fetal position at the end of pregnancy can be influenced by what is happening in the 2nd trimester! You can check out Belly Mapping, under Baby Positions, during your last trimester of pregnancy. Don't expect to make much sense of Belly Mapping before your last month or two of pregnancy. Simply begin using the principles now, even before you know your baby's position.

As long as you don't have such high blood pressure or so much amniotic fluid that your doctor or midwife is worried and monitoring you for one of those conditions, and as long as your baby isn't changing from head down to breech to head down to breech (an unstable lie), these techniques can be used without special instructions for your situation. In other words, just about anyone can do them. Don't do them if you or your care giver doesn't feel safe using them!!

 
Each woman has unique needs during pregnancy and birth. Each baby has their own story, too.

Keep sending the emails. I’ll find a place for your story on this website, with your permission, if it seems clear that the techniques you used made a difference in finishing your birth. And if they didn’t, I want to hear that, too! I can’t tell you that all women will have an easier time if they do these techniques, but I can tell you that I have seen success over and over again. Not only in situations where the baby may have rotated anyway, but Spinning Babies succeeds in many situations where hospital staff or homebirth midwives were ready to resort to serious interventions.