Birthful podcast with Gail and Adriana

What is the key to an easier birth?
How do we get there?
Adriana Lozada interviewed Gail on her wonderful Mirthful Podcast.


Birthful.com/podcastspinningbabies/


Hear the inside scoop on the beliefs I share through the message of Spinning Babies. You'll hear about birth anatomy in a totally new way. More than the basics are given, so get your cup of tea. If you have a doll grab it for late in

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Preventing The Epidural Labor Stall

Here's a picture from an Austin, Texas Spinning Babies Workshop of a labor progress technique shared by Dr. Diane Peterson, OB.

Purpose: Engage the Baby into the pelvis when mother is on an epidural and can't stand up for the Abdominal Lift and Pelvic Tilt.

Gail was a doula in Minneapolis, long ago before she had the knowledge of Sidelying Release. At one birth, Dr. Diane suggested we help

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Timeline for Fetal Position

Babies follow a natural progression to settle into the final birth position. Well, not exactly final. So I call it, the starting position for labor. It almost always changes for baby to rotate through the pelvis.
Oxorn
and Foote, Obstetric text book authors, state that most babies are in
position at 34 weeks gestation. This means that fewer babies will change
position after 34 weeks.
We

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You can tell if your baby is engaged

Engaged or not?
Sometimes the posterior baby's
head seems low in the pelvis when checked by vaginal exam. The nurse,
doctor, or midwife feels the dome of the head and it doesn't wiggle. So,
they think, the head is not ballottable, and that equals engaged.
Therefore, the head is engaged.

But that estimation is wrong
when baby's facing the front with her or his forehead on the pelvic

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Engaging Baby in Labor

Engagement of the baby into the pelvic inlet (brim) is important because to fit through the pelvis, baby has to get into the pelvis first. Engagement is when the widest part of baby's head enters the true brim of the pelvis.




Figure 1. Diagram depicting the fetal head
immediately prior to engagement. The straight black arrow depicts the
scanning plane at the level of the pelvic inlet,

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Unraveling the mystery of non-engagement

Dear Gail, "I loved your new video on exercises for optimal fetal positioning!

I finally got my second baby into the right position but alas, he did not
engage and I did not go into labour which resulted in an elective
section at 42 weeks.

I had a previous cesarean when my waters broke without contractions. My first baby didn't
engage despite being induced.  I'm now wondering if there is

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Summer yum, good eating in pregnancy

Supporting your body to support your pregnancy involves nutrition, movement, and love. You can mix the order up how ever you like! (In this order, sooth your hunger, add balance and flexibility for your pregnancy comfort or ease of birth, and enjoy a cuddle.)

SpinningBabies.com has lots of movement and balance ideas. I'm hoping your friends and family are giving you the love reflecting the

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Asynclitism resolved in Brazil!

Asynclitism is when baby's head is tipped as if listening. This is an issue in the midpelvis, after engagement. Often, the baby's head is angled so that more of the head is trying to get through at one time. Also baby's neck is not aligned with the uterine contraction. It seems that baby's head is too big to fit lower. That is, baby may be at the wrong angle to fit through a narrow midpelvis.

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Why Cesarean Awareness Month? Giving Birth With Confidence says,
My Birth Matters. And while a cesarean may be the best choice for a particular birth, the cut mother may have mixed feelings and need understanding of both her gratitude for a life saving procedure and  the grief of not finishing the birth on her own powers.

For these women, the short cut cuts short the hormonal completion some

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Nurses, Key to Reducing the Cesarean Rate

In April we Celebrate Cesarean Awareness Month
I want to give a shout out to Shakopee, Minnesota nurses for helping bring down the cesarean rate in their hospital! 

Melissa Rezny is a Labor and Delivery Nurse at  St. Francis Medical Center in Shakopee, Minnesota, just 20 minutes away from my home.

 When St. Francis' statistics came out showing a marked reduction in their cesareans, I asked

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Springing Into Perspective

Springing into perspective

The late season snow, so necessary in our midwest drought, is gently melting into our soil.  Thoughts of renewal frame the season change.

Renewal comes in cycles in our lives as much as for the earth in the annual Spring. Renewal is by definition out of something gone old, even decayed or perhaps wiped flat by storm. Somethings given up, there is a loss, there is a

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Where OP babies get stuck in labor and what to do

Occiput Posterior Presentation




The Occiput Posterior baby is head down with the back of baby's head, or occiput, towards mom's posterior, or back. The posterior positions are LOP, ROP, OP, and midwife Jean Sutton includes ROT due to the strong tendency for the ROT baby to rotate to posterior before the end of the birth process). 

Facing forward makes the baby's head seem bigger. This is

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    Hi, Spinning Babies,
   I am 39 week pregnant and been reading and doing Spinning Babies exercises on and off since 30 weeks as baby been on Right Occiput Lateral (Right Occiput Transverse in US) and Right Occiput Posterior for all pregnancy. I had him go transverse for a week and back down again. 2nd baby. I can't find links to the positions to do in labour since the site has changed and

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New website goes up tonight!

We're so excited to announce that the new Spinning Babies website will be going up tonight. There might be some time while the old site is migrated over to the new one where you can't access SpinningBabies.com. We've compiled a list here of important articles if you find yourself in need of some guidance while the site is down!

In Labor Now? Here's what to do.
How to do The Fantastic Four


Why

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SpB Trainer Training 2015

Please help me to welcome our new Spinning Babies Trainers with me!

Preparing for months ahead, our Trainer Training brought everyone together for 10 days from our arrival on February 27th through March 8, 2015.
My sister, Kathleen, and I are proud to announce the lovely emergence of
6 Spinning Babies Approved Trainers!
In alphabetical order,

Lorenza Holt, Massachusetts
Marya Molette, Virginia

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In labor now? Here's what to do.

Are the following happening?

Strong labor seems to start and stop, or surge and withdraw, for some hours to days
Surges come on at any time
Contractions may be long and irregular, but strong for hours and then fade away
Pattern occurs with or without back labor
An internal exam reveals that baby is still high in the pelvis


Baby might not be engaged. For some, the uterine action to engage baby

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Tammy dreams of reducing obstructed labor in Kenya

  Obstructed Labor is when the mother is in labor, her body is working
hard (sometimes until her uterus tires and contractions slow) and yet
the baby isn't able to come through the pelvis. 



Obstructed labor. In this example, baby's hands tap at the fetoscope (stethoscope).

In the doula world, a powerful phrase is the "doula spirit." This means the social love and self sacrifice a community

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Women are Women where ever we birth

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