The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS, a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA

Posterior Birth Story

I am also short, an inch or two over five feet on a good day! My first baby was posterior, that and failure to progress, although I got to 9.5 cm, were the official reasons for my c/sec. I had an epidural and was on my back, which of course made it incredibly difficult for that baby to turn, or for me to push her out. My sister's first baby was also posterior, she's as tall as me. After an incredibly long and difficult labour, full of interventions, she finally had forceps and pushed her 10lb baby out...on her back. We both experienced incredible back labour.

But let me tell you about her second baby. Noah was just as big and just as posterior (a family trait I have now learned), but this time she was on her feet without interventions. She went to the bathroom and was squatting, because she felt the most comfortable there, and all of the sudden she needed to push. She never had any back labour, her worst fear for this second labour. The doctor insisted she get on the table, semi-sitting, even though she didn't want to....but by this time the baby had turned, while she was squatting (and it was only a short time) and the baby almost flew out....all 9.5 lbs of him.

I am also due any day now with a posterior baby, my midwives believe the placenta to be quite anterior, and am constantly reminded to get on all fours and to visualize the baby turning anterior. This didn't work very well, the baby is low for a second baby and quite determined to stay where it is. But I mentioned that I couldn't at all sleep on my right side, and have now been encouraged to try and lie on my right, because maybe the baby doesn't want to swing up from my left (maybe because of the cord). And the baby has moved over to that side! She is not anterior, but she shows signs of being able to move that way.

My midwives really emphasize that I have the power to do these things, that are simple, that could help me and my baby. But the other thing they always reinforce to me, is that the baby will turn, there is not going to be a problem, and that it is not really a concern regardless. The power of positive suggestion I suppose. Maybe the baby won't turn, but that's not going to stop me from trying and from pushing this baby out. This is just my experience, and of course yours will be different.