5/16/2023 0 Comments Fetal positionWhen the baby is ‘Anterior’, the back feels hard and smooth and rounded on one side of your tummy, and you will normally feel kicks under your ribs. How do I know what position my baby is in? Commonly in OP labours, women experience back pain, caused by the hard surface of the baby’s skull pressing on the mother’s lower back. Labour is often longer and more painful, while the baby attempts to turn to the OA position. In the OP position, your baby is head down, facing your naval.Īn OP baby and mother must do more work in order to have a vaginal birth. In the OA position, your baby is head down with his or her face looking at your spine. The optimal position is Occipito-Anterior and this is the most effective way for a baby to journey through the maternal pelvis. Both of these terms apply to a baby who is head down. Occipito-Anterior (OA) and Occipito-Posterior (OP), often called ‘Anterior’ and ‘Posterior’ for short, are the technical terms to describe the way your baby is positioned in the uterus. While most mothers-to-be understand that head down is good, few understand the significance of a baby facing the mother’s naval or the mother’s spine. This can encourage your baby to engage, and lead to as straightforward a birth as possible for you.ĭuring your antenatal check-ups, especially in the last 12 weeks, the doctor or midwife will palpate your abdomen to detect the baby’s position. If your baby is coming head first and you have a single baby, (not multiple pregnancy) from about 34 weeks onwards follow this advice to encourage your baby to lie with its back to your left side/front. Why is Optimal Fetal Positioning good for my baby and me? Sometimes longer, more painful labours and even caesareans result from, ‘mal-position’, where the baby’s position makes it more difficult for its head to move through the pelvis. This is believed to be a lifestyle issue as a result of society becoming more sedentary than we once were, with less physical labour on a day-to-day basis. They found that the mother’s position and movement could influence the way her baby positioned itself in the final weeks of pregnancy. Optimal Fetal Positioning (OFP) is a theory developed by midwives, Jean Sutton and Pauline Scott. This information is for expectant mothers and their partners to try and encourage your baby to go into the ideal position for birth before labour begins.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |