“Whether celebrating or healing,
telling your story is your star-history,
the history of your becoming.”
— Gail Tully
This family had a fast posterior birth with their second child. Ease in labor includes other factors beyond baby position.
We want to host your birth story. Did you use something specific from our website in your birth? Please share your experience with other parents.
From Cesarean to Homebirth
Lisa tells how she avoided a cesarean that the midwives assumed was going to be necessary.
At 36 weeks the midwives were adamant there was a less than 3% chance of my baby turning from the frank breech position and had never heard of any exercises to do. I was recommended to have ECV [an external cephalic version is when a doctor or midwife tries to turn the baby by pushing on the abdomen in a very specific way] or a C-section and told my homebirth was out of the question.
I did the exercises you outlined and at my 37-week scan, little Pearl was head down. The Sonographer [ultrasound specialist] said she had never seen it before and said she had thought it was anatomically impossible for a baby to have turned that late?!
She was born in the pool in our sitting room while her 2-year-old big sister slept upstairs.
At 36 weeks the midwives were adamant there was a less than 3% chance of my baby turning from the frank breech position and had never heard of any exercises to do. I was recommended to have ECV [an external cephalic version is when a doctor or midwife tries to turn the baby by pushing on the abdomen in a very specific way] or a C-section, and told my homebirth was out of the question.
I did the exercises you outlined and at my 37-week scan, little Pearl was head down. The Sonographer [ultrasound specialist] said she had never seen it before and said she had thought it was anatomically impossible for a baby to have turned that late?!
She was born in the pool in our sitting room while her 2-year-old big sister slept upstairs.
A VBAC is a vaginal birth after a previous Cesarean. Here’s what Grandma said after studying Spinning Babies® website for VBAC info:
“I was able to use your techniques to spin two little troublemakers into the right position so they could be born naturally. It was more precious because these two troublemakers happened to be my own granddaughters (they are both so cute, who can remember all the trouble they caused?) Both my daughters have had C-sections, and they so did NOT want to go through that again. And with the information, I got from Spinning Babies and a lot of help from the One Above, I was able to get them into the right position so that labor started on its own! Which it wasn’t when they were both posterior. They were both overdue and their doctors were acting very unhappy, and they finally told my daughters that the babies were posterior.”
“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 eventually have become exhausted. So this is what we (the amazing doula and I) did. We had Q do 10 lunges, 3 Sidelying Releases for 3 contractions on each side, and to top it off, 3 Forward-leaning Inversions.
After the third inversion, Q squatted on the couch she had just 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 in to that urge.
I’m Ruth Bailey, a birth and postpartum doula in Austin, Texas. I recently started working with Gail as her Executive Assistant and am enjoying every minute of being part of the Spinning Babies® magic behind the scenes.
This past holiday I had the pleasure of attending 3 different births in a span of 4 days around Christmas Day. What a joy! In each birth, I used one of Spinning Babies® recommended Open the Outlet techniques that showed wonderful results.
At one of these births, a magnificent moment happened during pushing. “Mom” was a first time mom whose cervix was 9cm dilated for several hours until coming complete at 10 cm. The baby was nearly halfway through the pelvis at +1 but not coming further down after pushing for over an hour. Gratefully, the nurse was open to a variety of pushing positions and we worked together to bounce ideas off each other to help the mother progress. Mom was starting to feel a bit discouraged herself.
Many practitioners believe knees far apart and pulled waaaaay back is the best method. ‘Knees Together’ pushing isn’t widely used here locally. I had suggested knees together a couple times very gently and the nurse seemed to have some apprehension.
In this birth, after the turn of the hour, with little descent from baby, I saw the nurse squint her face and gave me a concerned look off to the side that I interpreted as her feeling at a loss and discouraged. During an exam of baby’s location, I suggested to the mother to move her knees together and ankles pointing out as the nurse was checking descent.
The nurse then exclaimed, “WOW! there’s A LOT more room that way!”
Splendid! The nurse lowered the foot of the bed with a push of a button. For the rest of the 2nd stage, Mom sat on the lowered portion with an anterior pelvic tilt. She rested her back on the higher portion of the bed. We used a squat bar for her feed and a cloth to pull on during each push. After just about 45 minutes of more pushing we welcomed a sweet baby girl.
While mom and baby were settled into nursing, about 90 minutes after the birth, the nurse and I shared why this worked. I showed the nurse how to feel her own sitz bones moving in relation to her knee movement as she opened and shut her knees.
She then raved, “I’ll be using this in ALL my other births now!”. The midwife, joining in the revelation, said, “Yeah, I’m starting to be a believer in knees together pushing….”
Ruth Bailey
Executive Assistant to Gail Tully
Spinning Babies®
Submit Your Birth Story Below
Want to share your Spinning Babies® birth story? Tell us how you used Spinning Babies® in your pregnancy and birth.
Activities for pregnancy comfort and easier birth.