Positioning for Labor Success: A Beginner’s Guide to Fetal Alignment

Photo Credit: Erin Heuser Photography

One of the most empowering things you can do as an expecting mom is to understand your baby’s position and how it affects your labor. The position of your baby can significantly impact how smoothly labor progresses. Thankfully, there are practical, step-by-step methods to help you both determine your baby’s current position and encourage an optimal one for birth.

Let’s walk through how to assess your baby’s position and what you can do to create space for them to get into the best spot for labor.

Step 1: Determine Your Baby’s Position

Before you can optimize your baby’s position, it’s helpful to know where they are! Here are some ways to assess your baby’s position:

1. Feel Your Belly: This can give you clues about how your baby is positioned.

• Head down: You’ll likely feel a firm, round bulge near your pelvis (the baby’s head) and softer, broader movements higher up (their bottom and back).

• Occiput Anterior (OA) (ideal position): You might feel kicks or little feet around your rib cage and a smooth, hard surface (their back) against your belly.

• Occiput Posterior (OP) (baby facing your abdomen): You might feel kicks toward the front of your belly, and your baby’s back may feel like little lumps or knobs as it presses into your spine.

2. Listen for Heartbeat: Your provider can help you locate the baby’s heartbeat. If it’s loud and clear near the front of your abdomen, the baby might be in OA position. If it’s fainter or to the side, they could be in an OP or transverse position.

3. Talk to Your Provider: At prenatal appointments, ask your midwife or doctor to help you understand your baby’s position through palpation or ultrasound.

Step 2: Create Space in Your Body

Now that you have a sense of where your baby is, you can begin creating space to encourage them into the optimal position. One key principle is balance in your body, particularly in the pelvis and surrounding muscles. Here are some daily movements to help:

1. Daily Inversions (Spinning Babies Forward-Leaning Inversion):

• How to do it: Kneel on the edge of a couch or bed and place your hands on the floor. Let your head hang down while your hips are high. Stay here for 30 seconds, then slowly come up.

• Why it works: This helps lengthen and balance the uterine ligaments, giving baby more room to move.

• For more details: The Spinning Babies website has in-depth guides and demonstrations on how to perform this and other moves correctly.

2. Side-lying Release:

• How to do it: Lie on your side with your bottom leg straight and your top leg bent, allowing it to hang off the side of the bed or couch. Have someone hold your hips to keep you stable. Relax for 1-2 minutes on each side.

• Why it works: This technique helps open up the pelvis by relaxing tight ligaments, making it easier for baby to rotate or engage properly.

3. Walking and Squats:

• How to do it: Take a 20-30 minute walk daily, focusing on upright posture. You can also add a few deep squats during your walk.

• Why it works: Walking and squatting help the pelvis open and encourage the baby’s head to engage properly in the pelvis.

4. Pelvic Tilts (Body Ready Method)

• How to do it: Get on your hands and knees and gently tilt your pelvis by rounding your back, then arching it slightly (cat-cow stretch).

• Why it works: This movement encourages baby to shift into an anterior position and helps keep your pelvis balanced and aligned.

• For more guidance: The Body Ready Method® offers an online program that goes deeper into how to prepare your body for birth through alignment, strength, and mobility. See our resources page for a link to their course options.

Step 3: Stay Active and Aligned

Small, positive changes in your daily movements can make a big difference in encouraging optimal fetal positioning. Here are some practical tips to integrate into your day:

1. Opt for Sitting on a Birth Ball: Instead of sitting on the couch or a regular chair, try sitting on a birth ball whenever possible. This naturally encourages an upright position, helps you maintain good posture, and gently opens your pelvis, giving baby more space to find an optimal position.

2. Sit Forward: When you do sit on a chair, lean slightly forward instead of reclining. Sitting with your knees below your hips and keeping your back straight helps create more room in your pelvis for baby’s head to engage.

3. Avoid Reclining: Spending too much time in a reclined position (like lounging on the couch) can encourage baby into a posterior position. If you need to rest, try lying on your side rather than leaning back.

4. Do Daily Pelvic Balancing Exercises: Stretching your hip flexors, engaging your core, and strengthening your glutes all help maintain alignment in your body, giving baby the best chance to settle into an ideal position for labor.

Step 4: Use Gravity and Movement in Labor

If labor starts and baby isn’t in the best position, there are still things you can do! Labor is dynamic, and with the right movement, babies can rotate into better positions as labor progresses.

1. Use Upright Positions: Stand, walk, and sway to allow gravity to help move baby down.

2. Try the Inversion Again: During early labor, you can do the forward-leaning inversion to give baby room to adjust.

3. Rebozo Sifting: If you have a doula or a trained partner, they can use a rebozo to gently shake your belly, relaxing tight ligaments and helping baby find space to turn.

Final Thoughts

To dive deeper into these techniques, visit the Spinning Babies website, and for a comprehensive online program, check out the Body Ready Method®. You can find links to these resources on our resources page.

Optimizing your baby’s position is about creating balance and space in your body through simple, daily movements. Remember, every pregnancy is unique, and even if your baby is not in the “ideal” position, labor is a journey. Your body and your baby are working together beautifully.