Birthlight Forums

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice. My waters broke this afternoon, I was examined by a midwife and the head isn't engaged. As a birthlight teacher, I have tried standing upright and "hula hooping", squatting and shaking my pelvis. Is there anything else that anyone can suggest, I really don't want a c-section or to be induced if the contractions haven't started.... Many thanks, Rebecca

 Hi rebecca!

Firstly congratulations on your imminent arrival! Is this your first baby? You may find that if the head is not engaged, it could help to tip your bottom higher than your head and (elbow cat) and practise all your ,micromovements to open up your pelvis a bit- will help your baby to flex the head too so it can come down more easily.

More than antyhing remember that when adrenaline levels are high, Oxytocin cant kick in and this is the hormone responsible for getting the contractions going. Lots of Ujai and vocing any fears you have will help. Your baby is coming and its only a matter of time before the contractions start. Whatever you can do to relaxa yourself will be highly beneficial- a bath or massage- just no bubblebaths! You can use laveneder essential oil if you like- its antiviral and antiseptic so can put a few drops on a tissue to sniff or in the bath water.

Try not to exhaust yourself with too much yoga or moving around to get things going- ive your hormones a chance to kick in first. There is no need to even think of induction for at least 36 hrs so you have time! This is time to draw inwards and connect with your little one- let them know that they are soon to come out and into your arms and focus on what you want things to be like rather than how your fear they may turn out. Your mind is a superpower tool! More than anything trust your body and your breath- they will lead the way.

Thinking of you and wishing you well 

rozy x

 

 

 Hi Rebecca,

If this is your first baby it is unusual for the baby's head not to be engaged at term.  Are you term? There are really only two explanations for this:

1. Your baby's head is not in a good position for engagement eg direct OP.  Optimal fetal positioning exercises should help - such as you have been doing.

2.  Your baby's head does not fit in your pelvis.

Sorry to be blunt, but these unfortunately are the most common reasons in a first baby not engaging their head at 36-37 weeks of pregnancy.

If your baby's head is not in in the pelvis at all and your waters have broken, you should be in hospital, not at home.  If you have been told that the baby's head is 'free' and not in the pelvis at all, and your waters have broken, you should be in hospital as this is a high risk of a cord prolapse.  So I assume, by the fact you are still at home, that your baby's head is in the pelvis, just not deeply engaged.  )Your midwife would not have let you go home if the baby's head was not in the pelvis.)   If this is the case, carry on with leaning forward,feet behind hips, rotating hips, ride your birthing ball like a jockey - leaning onto a chair in front of you.  If you are certain that your baby's head is approaching the pelvis in a transverse position (will only know by scan, vaginal examination, abdominal palpation for alignment of baby's back), you can practice deep squats. If you are not sure of baby's position, do not practice deep squats as you may force the baby's head into the pelvis in a poor position.  This is something I have had success with, but I am a midwife and can be certain of the baby's position before giving this instruction.

Feel free to email me at vjkhodge@yahoo.co.uk if you would like to ask any further questions.

Good luck Rebecca.

Vanessa - Midwife and Birthlight Perinatal Yoga

Hello Rebecca,

It's now 6 days since you wrote your post and I hope everything went well for you and your little one on the way.  Love and best wishes

Francoise.

HI Francoise I did reply back, but I think the email bounced back. I gave birth naturally on Friday 17th to a beautiful baby girl. I have to thank you Francoise for posting the 'birthing breath' techniques, I read them just in time. I have been teaching my classes the 'coffee plunger' technique, which I used the first time around, and tore quite badly. But these light breathing and sound techniques were invaluable, especially having had such a quick birth (2 and a half hours). Can't wait to teach my future classes and let them know first hand how effective they really are best wishes Rebecca

Hi Rozy Thank so much for your reply. With lots of yoga breathing, moving and positive visualisation, my little girl was born on the 17th, naturally. many thanks Rebecca

Hi Rebecca, just wishing to post my congrats to you and beautiful girl. Super well done! Do you know that you can post pictures on this forum (I've got instructions from Jeff on how to do it). I am so glad everything happened uneventfully after all.  A quick birth can be intense and it's good that you did not tear this time round.  Now you need to make a gentle start with the 'reverse breathing', I will try and post a new description... it's important to do this well precisely because of the tear in your first birth.  Thank you for your feedback about the birthing breath, there is more to say, it's really effective when taught correctly, and perfect yoga too. I was concerned that I might have pushed my weight around with the posting and cut a potential discussion short just because of how passionate I feel about this topic and wanting everyone to get the point, but if this helped you then it's good enough and I hope there will be people interested to stir a development of the thread.

Enjoy your baby moon fully,  love and best wishes to you and your family

Francoise.

Firstly Congratulations Rebecca, I hope you are enjoying the new little life you have welcomed into the world. Francoise, I am very keen to read your post, but for some reason I cannot find it. Would it be possible for you to repost it, or e mail me a copy? I am passionate too and would love to read this post and take from it for the ladies I teach aqua yoga to. many thanks Michelle

Congratulations Rebecca - that's wonderful news! Great to hear that the birthing breath technique worked so well for you - esp. given your first birthing experience with the tear. I too tore the first time -  I wasn't fully aquainted with the birthing breath technique and there was some anxiety on the part of the midwives with getting the baby out and that had lots of consquences for us all so it is really positive to hear your experience second time around and I am really pleased that Francoise posted the info in such detail - thanks Francoise!

Hi Michelle -  Can you access the Perinatal Yoga section? Francoise's info on the birthing breath was actually in a different thread called 'Teaching the Birthing Breath' in Perinatal Yoga which was posted on Monday 13th June which is why you can't see it here... I had to hunt around my emails to access it again as I find sometimes I can't find things through the search option on the forum. It is very detailed and useful - so hopefully you may be able to see it there and if not, it would be great if Francoise can repost it again here. 

Love Wendy x

Hello everyone on this thread,

posts are always something I do at the end of the day usually reactively to another post so I don't keep texts. Sometimes words flow better when I feel I am communicating with a person rather than just writing on a topic. So I will ask Jeff to help with moving the post on the Birthing Breath here, and I will try to develop it fully for all teachers in a doc that will be downloadable from the Perinatal Members' area as a teaching resource (give me a little time for this...but I will do it, promised!)

Thanks to all contributors, this forum feels alive and of course I am happy thinking of Rebecca and her new baby.

Francoise.

 Dear all,

In a moment I will paste in the link to Francoise's post on "Birthing Breath" but first I'd like to take this teachable moment to do just that and teach a little about this forum's search facility.  When I saw this post and the mention of Francoise's "Birthing Breath" I thought I'd like to take a look at it so I went to the search box at the top of every forum page and typed in "birthing breath" without the quotes.  In a moment I had the post as it was listed first in the search results.  That is the power of the "rich search" we have on this site.  Think of it as Google Search but just especially for our site!!  So if ever you want to find information on any topic (maybe one that comes up in your class and you want to research it) you can always just type it into the search box on the top righthand corner of every page here to find if there are any posts on it.  Our archives go back to  2002 (about 10 years worth!) on this site so there is a wealth of information on tons of different topics.

 Now for the link:

http://birthlightforum.com/forums/p/859/2685.aspx#2685

 Really glad to hear about your new baby Rebecca. 

Hope that helps,
Jeff

It is great to know about this search facility, thank you so much Jeff! particularly valuable as there are more and more different threads on this forum, that new teachers can benefit from.

Rebecca's little one is contributing to enrich our teaching in an uncanny way...

Thank you Jeff again

Francoise.

Hi Jeff - thanks so much for that info. I am not sure why the search engine didn't work for me a while back when I was looking for a particular entry on pelvic pain which I knew existed and it didn't work again on another search I tried, not long after that.  I just tried the same pelvic search again and it worked which is fab so thanks for encouraging me to try the normal route again as it is far more efficient and very useful!  Best wishes, Wendy

 Hi Wendy,

I'm not 100% sure but it could have been because you were not signed-in when you did the search.  If you are not signed-in then there is only a very limited number of forums that are accessible to you and hence the search is limited to only those forums too.

Jeff

Thanks so much for clarifying that Jeff - that's highly likely - I was fairly new to the forums then so I probably didn't realise that I wasn't signed in as the forum page looks quite similar either way, save for the added content and the sign in bit at the top!  Regards, Wendy