HOW TO TURN A BREECH BABY – SAFELY
Most babies present in a head down position when ready for birth, but there is a small percentage that stay breech. Unfortunately this inevitably involves lots of medical intervention during labour and birth. There are ‘some’ skilled obstetricians experienced and educated in supporting a Mum in a vaginal breech birth, but not many.
Women worry, a lot, if baby is breech, although it is quite common for a baby to be in this position from about 28-32 weeks pregnancy. Remember baby is moving around and changes position frequently, so his ‘position’ is not relevant until about 36-37 weeks. Problems occur when a midwife/doctor makes a ‘big’ announcement that baby is breech, before it is relevant, and this causes so much anxiety, stress and worry – unnecessarily.
THE MIND CONNECTION
When a pregnant woman is presented with the ‘possibility’ of baby remaining breech until birth, the panic sets in as her focus turns to trying every ‘natural’ method of turning baby. This increased tension can cause increased tightness in all muscles, including the uterine muscle.
HYPNOSIS – in 1994 a study at the University of Vermont College of Medicine in the USA involved 100 women whose babies were in breech position and were given regular hypnotherapy sessions to reduce anxiety and tension, promote deep relaxation in the womb, and directly encourage their baby to move into an optimal position for birth. When these women were compared to a matched group of women with breech babies who received the same degree of medical care but did not receive hypnosis, there was a significant difference. Of the hypnosis group, 82% of the babies turned before birth, compared to only 48% in the non-hypnosis group. (1)
Hypnosis has been used for many years to induce positive physical changes in the body and there is solid evidence that hypnosis can be used to enhance the immune system, reduce pain and inflammation, and speed up healing, so it makes sense that hypnosis can improve your chances of baby turning.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THIS SESSION
The hypnotherapy session involves helping you to deeply relax the muscles around the womb to give your baby more space to turn, help you feel much calmer and more relaxed generally, and it will guide you through a powerful mental imagery process that will gently encourage your baby to turn by itself, naturally and spontaneously.
(1) Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8000559/
All my hypnotherapy appointments are on Zoom or in person.