Monday, February 09, 2009

Anterior and Posterior and Transverse - Oh My!


More and more women are talking to me about the positions of their babies...being other than anterior and head down. Many are saying their babies are transverse or posterior.
Because being posterior (see image at left) puts the baby's bones near the mother's sacrum, sometimes causing an increase in pain for the mother and difficulty in movement for the baby in completing the cardinal movements of the birthing process.
The cardinal movements are the 7-8 instinctual movements babies complete to move through the pelvic bones and the birth canal to the opening of the vagina.
While studies say there is no increase in transverse or posterior positioning than in the 1970's, perhaps women are just more in tune with their bodies, asking their caregivers for more information and just wiser about the baby's position than in the 70's.
Babies can be born breech, posterior, and anterior. The effort is just a little bit different on everyone's part, including the caregiver. Transverse babies can also be turned with heat/cold, music, pelvic rocking/tilting, moxibustion or external version. I hope more caregivers are exposed to some of the "tried and true" methods of turning babies and encourage their clients to use some of the techniques.

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