Joy in Birthing

How Helpful is Hypnosis?

“Hypnotherapy may help pregnant women turn their breech baby around to the normal head-first, or vertex, position. A researcher at the University of Vermont, Burlington, used hypnosis with one hundred pregnant women whose fetuses were in the breech (feet-first) position between the thirty-seventh and fortieth week of gestation.

The intervention group received hypnosis with suggestions for general relaxation and release of fear and anxiety. While under hypnosis, the women were also asked why their baby was in the breech position.

The study, which appeared in the Archives of Family Medicine, reported that 81 percent of the fetuses in the hypnosis group moved to the vertex position, compared with 48 percent of the control group. Not surprisingly, hypnosis was most effective for the women motivated to use the technique.” – Natural Health Magazine, November-December 1995

When treating a breach pregnancy in my hypnotherapy practice, the mommy-to-be often discovers she has low self-esteem, fear of pain, fear of failure, the need to please others more then herself, and interestingly enough, fear of success. Often we need to work on those issues before we can turn a breech baby around.
Do we deserve to have what we desire? Do we deserve to ask God/the Universe/ Nature to fulfill our dreams? Are we important enough for our needs to be met? Take some time, ask yourself those questions and answer them in your journal.

Of course neither fear nor self-esteem can simply one disappear and the other materialize overnight. It is important to work on both with a professional. Consider going to a hypnotherapist, or a psychotherapist to find out what, if anything, stands in the way of a natural experience. Find out your unborn child’s fears of a vaginal birth and discuss with him your misgivings. Reassure him that you are ready for it, that you trust in your innate ability to give birth, but do so only after you truly believe it yourself. We cannot fool children, especially in the womb. A professional can help turn your breech baby or not, but he/she can also help you embrace and make peace with whatever the outcome. You might try our self-hypnosis CD together with professional help to see if you can indeed encourage the baby to turn around. Remember it is not only up to you, it is also the baby’s decision to be in a certain position. (For more info on When to Start With Breech Turning Strategies click here.)

Some breech babies may be safely delivered from the vagina, but less and less doctors are either willing to do it, or even able to due to inexperience. Today the percentage of cesareans due to breech is nearly 90%. A very sad statistic. Another alternative that comes usually around 36 weeks of gestation is the external cephalic version is a way to try to turn a baby from breech position to vertex (head-down) position while it’s still in the mother’s uterus. In other words, external cephalic version means turning the baby from outside of the abdomen so that it’s in the head-down position. Doctors or midwives will use his or her hands on the outside of your abdomen to try to turn the baby. Babies are funny, though. They may turn around right away, then turn back, turn and stay or flip back and forth several times. There are even babies who turn all the way around right in labor.

Of course at times there are physical reasons for the child to be breeched. It could be a short umbilical cord, or perhaps a cord wrapped tightly around the baby’s neck. Yet if you do believe in miracles, and you have heard of all those who have cured themselves from far more disastrous situations, then you know that God’s ways are infinite.

Here are some other suggestions to turn your baby around:

1. Laying on your back on a board or using pillows so that your head is about 40 degrees lower than her feet. Try putting an ironing board on the couch and lie on it backward (head down). Be careful not to hurt yourself, make sure there are plenty of pillows around you, and someone to help you too!
2. Play music, preferably with headphones, placing them low down on your uterus.
3. Shine a very bright light low down on your uterus, or even between your legs.
4. Have someone (preferably the father) talk loudly but soothingly to the baby, low on the belly, close to the skin, telling the baby to turn around, to come towards the voice.
5. If all else fails, how about external version? This is where the mother is given drugs to relax her uterus, and then the doctor uses his hands externally to turn the baby around. This, of course, has its pros and cons, which should be weighed. It also can be painful for the mother (but not as much pain as she’ll have after a c-section!) Doctors usually don’t like to perform this too early in case you go into labor during the manipulation; they want to make sure baby is full term or close to it. Midwives usually are very good and gentle and can really do miracles with this one.
6. Chiropractors use a technique called Webster’s technique. if you go to www.icpa4kids.com and do a search for chiropractors entering your zip code, you will get a list of chiropractors some are noted as trained in the Webster technique.
7. Have you ever heard of elephant walking? It has worked well for some of my clients who carry breech near term. Elephant walking is walking on hands and feet instead of knees. As soon as you try it, you will see why it would work! It’s very difficult to do, but it definitely helps loosen the baby up and out of the pelvic ring. Some people feel the baby turn as soon as they start doing it.

Other methods that have worked:

• Have the mother walk on her hands in a swimming pool.
• Homeopathic Pulsatilla in 200C potency or higher. Have the mother take one dose every 3 days while doing tilt exercises. (Check with your Homeopathic doctor)
• Stimulation of the acupuncture point bladder 67 (located on the little toe at the outer corner of the nailbed). Be aware acupuncture can start labor, make sure you work with someone very knowledgeable with pregnancy.
• Pelvic rocking and exercises to strengthen muscle tone.
• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Stimulation of Acupuncture Point Bladder 67
  • To stimulate the acupuncture point bladder 67, place one grain of rice on the outside of the mom’s baby toe and tape it there. She should just leave it there for as long as she can or until she knows that the baby has turned.