Monday, September 20, 2010

OFP, part 4 - Putting Optimal Fetal Positioning into Practice

WHAT IS “OPTIMAL”?

What is Optimal Fetal Positioning? Optimal fetal positioning is the act of manipulating a mother’s body through movement in order to alter the fetus’s position into one that is favorable to moving through the mother’s pelvis.
In the previous blog post, I explained why the left occipital anterior (LOA) position is the most favorable for a baby to start in during labor. While this is true for the majority of labors, I’d like to refer back to the first blog post on the various pelvis shapes among women, and explore how this may not be true in all cases.
Because the gynecoid pelvis is the most common shape – one that 50% of women possess – this is the pelvis that is mainly referred to in OFP discussions. But, what if you have one of the other three types of pelvises? Optimal fetal positioning may then look different for you. While the general thought is that OFP is trying to get the baby into the LOA position, variations in the pelvic shape will change what is the optimal position for the baby.
I will reiterate here: the optimal position for the baby is whichever position the baby most easily fits through the pelvis. So, in the case of the anthropoid or android pelvis, the shape of these pelvises makes it much more likely for a baby to be in the posterior position. While a labor where the occipital bone of the baby is pressing against the mother’s sacrum may not sound ideal to the mother, if it’s the place that baby best fits through, it’s the best position in which the baby should be.

OPTIMAL FETAL POSITIONING DURING PREGNANCY


*POSTURE In the last blog post, I brought up one of the best things a pregnant woman can do to encourage OFP, and that deals with her posture.
I would say that the majority of “failure to progress” babies are due to malpositioning, and that the majority of the malpositioning is due to our modern lifestyles. Instead of walking for travel, we slouch in our cars. We do not sit cross-legged on the floor, nor do we squat, we lounge on sofas and in easy chairs. The majority of our work is done while seated, and the majority of us sit poorly.
So, watch your posture! Get a birth ball to sit on during the day. Tailor sit at home. Take breaks from sitting and do pelvic rocks. Spend a good 10 minutes when you get home from work just leaning over your kitchen countertop and moving your hipsThese positions will move the uterus forward, and help the baby to rotate into an anterior position. These postures will encourage flexibility in the pelvic joints which will enable them to open up to make more room for the baby.

*BODY WORK Some of us may need more help than just normal posturing to get our babies to move into more favorable positions.
Perhaps you had a bad fall when you were a kid. Maybe you were in a car accident. Or you played soccer and made the same one-sided twisting motion over and over again. All of these things can affect the pelvis alignment and uterine ligaments.
When the pelvis is bumped out of alignment, or the uterine ligaments are tighter on one side of the uterus, there’s going to be a twist in the uterus. While a slight twist or misalignment may seem like a minimal problem from the outside, everything is magnified on the inside. A slight twist outside turns into a large twist on the inside, making rotation more difficult for the baby.
Chiropractic care is wonderful for dealing with these bone and ligament issues. Mayan Abdominal Massage is another form of body work that helps get the uterus into better alignment.

*MOVEMENT What happens when you sit the same way, walk the same way, move the same way over and over again? Your body becomes rigid and tight, only allowing certain movements to take place. In pregnancy and birth, we want the body to be able to open up, the pelvis to open and move, the ligaments stretch. So, to help a baby be able to move, you need to move! Certain movements are more helpful during pregnancy and for optimal fetal positioning than others.

- squatting – opens up the pelvis, stretches your leg muscles, gets baby into alignment.

- tailor sitting – this stretches out the legs, opens the pelvis, moves the uterus forward and aligns your body.


























- pelvic rocking – this helps get the baby out of the pelvis to allow it to move into a more optimal position, loosens the joints and ligaments of the pelvis and uterus and tones the abdominal and back muscles..









- forward lean – this helps to counter all the leaning back we do during the day. Lean against a table, a counter and while you lean move your bottom around to loosen up the hips!
















- hip shimmy – this is where, as mom leans forward (over a birth ball or a table or a bed) her partner comes up behind her, grabs each side of her hips and shimmies them back and forth. This helps to loosen up the pelvis and the uterus, gets baby moving around and feels good to mom








- dancing – dancing is one of the most fun ways of helping to get a baby positioned correctly! Last year when I attended a Zumba class with a friend, one of the dance instructors leading the class was 8 months pregnant. While her movements may have not been as mobile or precise as the other instructors, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her! The whole time I watched her I was thinking how great these movements were for her pelvis and uterus, and what a wonderful gift she was giving her baby through movement and flexibility!

* SIFTING Sifting is a technique that has been used by Mexican midwives for centuries. It involves wrapping a rebozo (“shawl”) under the bottom or belly of a pregnant mother, and shifting the shawl back and forth while raising the mother’s body slightly off the floor. This takes some arm strength, so have someone strong apply this technique! If you do not have a traditional shawl, a towel or sheet, or any longer piece of material, will work. This technique is similar to the hip shimmy in that it helps to loosen up the pelvis and uterus. It loosens ligaments and muscles, gets the baby moving, and can really help to rotate a baby. Whether or not sifting should be done on the woman’s belly or bottom depends on the position of her baby.




It is a wonderful technique to use on most pregnant women, as it often helps to ease any lower back discomfort that is common in pregnancy.



















* DUMPING Dumping is a technique that was brought to my attention by my friend and chiropractic care provider, Dr. Joella Pettigrew. When a pregnant mama comes into her practice and she determines that baby is lodged into a bad position, before she performs an adjustment on the mother, she will have her get up on her table, and bend down – feet on the raised platform, bottom in the air, and hands on the floor. This is something that should not be done by oneself, but with supporters on both sides. What happens with this position is that it allows gravity to work on getting the baby out of the mom’s pelvis, in order to then get the baby to rotate into a better position through the chiropractic adjustments. Dumping prior to the other movement techniques helps to increase the likelihood of getting a posterior baby into a more optimal position.

GETTING BABY TO FLEX ITS HEAD

Referring back to the second part of the OFP posts, whether or not a baby’s head is flexed can make a huge difference on the ease with which the baby will fit through the mother’s pelvis. How to get a baby to flex its head may be a question that arose while reading through that post. While it’s not as simple as the rotational techniques, there are still some things that can help get a baby to have a well flexed head.
First off, before a baby has engaged deep into the mother’s pelvis, a skilled midwife can feel, through palpation, whether or not the baby’s head is flexed. And, if the baby’s head seems to be extended, she can help the baby to flex its head all from the outside of the mother.
Another way to encourage a baby to have good flexion, is to have toned abdominal muscles. Women with multiple pregnancies, which tend to stretch out both the uterus and the abdominal muscles, seem to present more babies with extended, or asynclitic heads. Keeping the abdominal muscles toned in between pregnancies, and through pregnancy with pelvic rocks, will greatly help with getting the baby to flex his head.
Along with well-toned abdominal muscles, sifting can be very helpful in getting a baby to flex his head. The shifting movement of the mother’s body can help to shimmy the baby down in the most accommodating place of the pelvis and encourage the baby to tuck his chin.

OPTIMAL FETAL POSITIONING DURING LABOR

Many of the techniques for optimal fetal positioning during pregnancy can also be applied during labor. While it’s best to have baby in an optimal position prior to labor starting, sometimes it cannot be helped!

*MOVEMENT Key to any labor, but especially one in which the mother is trying to get a baby to change position, movement allows gravity and momentum to work together to get a baby to rotate. Walking is simple to do and a wonderful way to encourage rotation! The back and forth shifting of the pelvis as the mother takes her steps helps to get baby moving too.
Rotating the hips while sitting on a birth ball is another movement which encourages baby to move and find the best fit through mom’s pelvis. Dancing with a partner, or just moving side to side, swaying your hips, these primal, unconscious movements that many mothers make during labor are all ways that the body works to get a baby to move around and down.

*UPRIGHT Unless you are trying to get the baby out of the pelvis, or to move more specifically, upright positions will allow the most opportunity for babies to rotate and find their good fit. It also tends to be most comfortable for moms, allowing them to freely move.

*TURNING A BABY FROM RIGHT TO LEFT If the baby is starting with its occipital bone facing the mother’s right side, it is important to remember that babies tend to move dextrorotationally. Meaning that they move clockwise and will therefore have to move into a posterior position before swinging around to the left. How will you know if the baby is in a right position? One way is belly mapping, which can be discovered at the spinning babies website. Another way you can see a baby’s position is by looking at the mother’s hips from behind her. If a baby’s occipital bone is pressing down into the pelvis, you will most likely see that side of the mother’s pelvis bulge out. This is only visible if the baby is in a more posterior position. If the baby is starting in an ROA position, you will probably not see any difference in the hips.
If baby is starting out in an RO position, the best way to get it moving in the right direction is to purposely rotate the baby first into a posterior position. That may not sound pleasant, but if a baby is turning clockwise, it will need to move around the back before coming back over to the left! Depending on which position baby starts in – ROA , ROT or ROP, you may need to start with right side-lying to get baby to move farther back.
If the baby is engaged into the pelvis, and especially if the bag of waters has broken already, it might be necessary to first get the baby out of the pelvis. Dumping was one option already mentioned, though it might be scary to do during labor. Another technique for lifting babies out of the pelvis is called the belly lift and tuck (described below). I discovered this technique on the spinning babies website and have used it very successfully! Once baby is brought back up out of the pelvis, sifting while mom is on her back is what I’ve found to be best.
This shimmies the baby to rotate into a posterior position. Sift only between contractions. Babies rotate between contractions, move down during.
Once baby is established in the posterior position, moving mom onto her left side will help get the baby rotated into an LO position. Just side-lying can do the trick. A little hip shaking while mom is side lying isn’t bad, either.
When you feel certain that baby has moved to the left side (again, look for the hip bulge), have mom get up and walk around to get baby to engage in this position. Hopefully, once this is done, progress will be seen soon after!


*SIFTING This was brought up as part of the rotational process above, but it can be helpful no matter what position you either think, or know, the baby is in. Sifting is also the best technique to use if a mother has one of the “other” types of pelvises in which the baby best descends in a posterior position, or with an asynclitic attitude. Sifting is like jiggling a key in a lock to make it fit. It will help to get the baby into the pelvis because it is moving the baby around until it finds the best fit!

*BELLY LIFT AND TUCK This is a technique I learned from the spinning babies website and have used successfully in getting stalled labors going again. What I discovered with labors that progress with contractions but not with dilation, is that it often has to do with either the attitude of the baby’s head, or the position of the baby. If a baby cannot fit down into a pelvis, it will not be putting pressure on the cervix to dilate it. In Bradley® classes, we talk about the NAP – the Natural Alignment Plateau – that occurs in over one-third of all births. While there are many reasons for an NAP (emotions, hormone production, head molding), one of the most common is what the name infers. Alignment.
When you help the baby get into a better alignment, the labor will progress with dilation and descent.


What the belly lift and tuck does is lift the baby out of the pelvis where it is assumed he has tried to descend, either with a wonky head, or in a suboptimal position. Once he got there, he couldn’t go any further. So, when the mother lifts her belly up during a contraction, it helps to lift the baby out of the pelvis. While mom lifts her belly, she also tucks her pelvis under as she would do during a pelvic rock. This helps the baby find a better entry point into the mother’s pelvis. If the stall in the labor is due to the baby’s need to flex or straighten his head, this may be all that is needed to finish labor rapidly. If baby still needs to rotate, this technique in combination with some of the others will be best in getting labor to progress further.


*HIP SHAKING Like dancing, moving, and sifting, the hip shake technique described in the pregnancy portion can help to rotate a baby into a better position. This is a useful technique if a mother does not want to lie down to be sifted, or does not want her belly touched with sifting. The partner can stand behind her, ask her to lean over the bed, counter, chair, etc., grab her hips firmly and move them in the same fashion as the sifting would.

Optimal fetal positioning is a wonderful skill to know, whether you are the pregnant mother, a doula, a nurse, midwife or doctor! Knowing how to utilize these techniques may mean the difference in a vaginal or a cesarean birth. It may mean the difference in a 12 hour labor and a 48 hour labor. It may mean the difference in an extremely intense back labor, or a labor that is more manageable. Knowing how to make the difference is an invaluable skill to have!

While all of these techniques can help get a baby rotated and into an optimal fetal position, it is important to remember that pelvises and babies’ heads are still amazing at adapting. Babies can still be born in posterior positions, with brow and face presentations, and in other “non-optimal” positions. It may take a little more time, and a lot more effort, but the human body is amazing at making birth work.

WHERE I LEARNED THIS STUFF (a.k.a References and Resources)
* Childbirth International Physiology in Birth Course Manual
* Childbirth International Birth Doula Skills Course Manual
* Understanding and Teaching Optimal Foetal Positioning by Jean Sutton and Pauline Scott
* The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association
* Joella Pettigrew, D.C.
* Spinning Babies

* The Belly Mapping Workbook
* Personal Experience

Friday, September 10, 2010

Optimal Fetal Positioning, Part 3 - Putting the Pieces Together

In my first blog post on Optimal Fetal Positioning I focused on the dimensions of the human pelvis. With my second post, I explored the shape and angles of the fetal head. This next post on OFP will be bringing these two parts together, showing how well they can fit when things are done right.

CARDINAL MOVEMENTS

The way a baby moves through the mother’s pelvis on its exit from the womb is described as the “cardinal movements.” The cardinal movements always begin with the fetal head in the LOA position, though sometimes babies do not go that route. The reason why LOA is the most described starting position is as follows.
As the baby enters the inlet of the pelvis, the widest diameter is transverse – from side to side. The baby’s head, when flexed well (or even when not), will be wider front to back. So, the best way for the baby’s head to enter the pelvis is in a sideways, or OT position.

INTERNAL ROTATION

As the baby is pushed further into the pelvis by the power of the contractions, and enters the pelvic cavity, the dimensions change. The cavity is more equally rounded, and since body movements tend to move in a clockwise direction (I’ll explain this more below), the baby is rotated from LOT to LOA.



EXTENSION

The pelvic cavity is where head flexion really has a big impact. With an equal diameter of 12 cm, a well-flexed head will have a much more successful journey past the ischial spines than an extended head with an 11-13.5 cm diameter. As the baby moves through the cavity, it will continue its rotation from LOA to OA.



EMERGING

Once the baby has moved through the pelvic cavity, the front part of the pelvis basically disappears with the pubic arch. But the sacrum and coccyx at the back are still creating a posterior resistance. The pelvic outlet is absolutely wider from front to back than to side to side. But, if mom is in a position that allows free movement of the sacrum and coccyx (side-lying, hands and knees, upright/squat), the front to back opening will be even greater as the baby pushes the sacrum and coccyx back. This anteroposterior opening creates a space that favors an OA position for the baby’s head.




CROWNING

As the baby’s head moves through the pelvic cavity, and under the pubic arch, on the outside of mom’s body we see the baby start to crown. Through the pelvis the baby has rotated from LOT to OA, and when the baby’s head is born, the baby is usually looking toward mom’s back

EXTERNAL ROTATION/RESTITUTION

The baby’s head has already gone on its internal rotational journey. As the head emerges, the shoulders follow with their own rotations. The shoulders enter the pelvis side to side, because they are widest that way, which puts the baby’s head in the OA position. As the shoulders move through the tight pelvic cavity, the body spins clockwise, and on the outside you’ll see the baby’s head turn toward its mother’s right leg.

As the shoulders move through the pelvic cavity, the rotation continues until the shoulders are front to back, this being the widest diameter of the pelvic outlet. Because of the pubic arch, the anterior shoulder will emerge first, followed by the posterior shoulder. The baby usually continues rotating until its facing up as the rest of the body is born.













BACKING UP

What I’ve just described is the best way that a baby fits through the twists and turns of the maternal pelvis. The two were designed to work together in this manner and allow the baby and the mother to remain intact. Getting a baby to this starting point is what optimal fetal positioning is all about.

DEXTROROTATION

Why does it matter if the baby starts in a left position or a right position? Inside the body, there’s a certain phenomenon that takes place called dextrorotation. This describes the body’s tendency to have its processes move in a clockwise direction. Our uteri move the same way. As the uterus contracts and releases, babies are turned in a clockwise manner. If a baby were to start out in an ROA position, this would mean that the baby would need to rotate all the way from ROA to ROT to ROP to OP to LOP to LOT to LOA. That’s quite a long journey and includes a nice length of time moving through the posterior position, which can be extra painful for many mothers. Starting out in the LOA position means that the uterus can focus on pulling open the cervix and moving the baby down, instead of also working on getting a baby into a good position.












GETTING A GREAT START

One of the best ways you can help start labor off right is by paying attention to your body movements in pregnancy.
Consider the way your spine curves. Most of us are lazy when we sit, especially if we like to sit in comfy seats such as couches and overstuffed chairs. In these places, we tend to tilt our pelvis back and curve out our lower spine, rolling our shoulders forward. Because the back of the baby’s head is heavier than the front of its head, sitting in slouched or reclined positions allows gravity to turn your baby to a posterior position, and the baby’s back is curved nicely along your curved back. If you were to sit with the pelvis tilted forward instead, your lower spine would have a nice curve inward, and your body would be more upright. This would allow the uterus to move forward, the baby to fit itself along the curvature of your spine, and the heaviest part of the baby’s head would then be toward your front.