I am now 39 weeks pregnant and I had an interesting thing happen to me last Thursday.
I had a midwife appointment and as usual they checked the position of the baby. It so happened that I felt something change earlier that week and mentioned to my midwives that I think the baby switched positions. She had been head down since she was 33 weeks but for some reason I thought she was now head up. When they palpatated my stomach, they agreed with me and sent me for an ultrasound that day to confirm as I was already 38 weeks and they wanted to perform an ECV (External Cephalic Version) if the baby was in the right position for it. They specifically requested on the form that the technician tell me if the baby is breech so I could report back to them right after the exam.
So I made an appointment and went to an ultrasound clinic nearby. When they called me in, I laid down on the table and within seconds I knew the baby was breech. A few minutes after that I started to feel nauseous so I told the techincian I needed to sit up. This happened two more times until I finally asked to go to the bathroom. As I sat up, I started to feel dizzy and I began to sweat profusely. I knew something was wrong because I am not a big sweater by nature. The technician wouldn't allow me to go by myself so she walked me over and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor with three technicians asking me if I was ok. Luckily the technician came with me. She said she laid me down when she saw I was about to pass out. As soon as I got up, I felt much better and the color returned to my face. They explained to me that because I was lying on my back, my blood vessels were being constricted which was blocking oxygen to my heart. I know it made sense, and I also knew there was another reason as well, but I coulnd't figure out what it was. Until…
I went for energy work that night. After I told Franco DeNicola the story, his first question to me was: When did the nausea start? And then it clicked — the minute I found out she was breech. It made perfect sense that my nausea was caused by both physical and emotional circumstances. Needless to say, we worked on clearing them that night.
The next day I had an appointment to see my midwives. They had received the results from the ultrasound clinic the day before and knew I was a good candidate for turning the baby via ECV (her head was up on my right side underneath my ribs and her back was across my belly to the left). The ECV procedure was very cool. I had to lie down on my back (there was no more nausea) and my midwives had to monitor the baby's heartbeat for 20 minutes to ensure there was no stress. Then two midwives (one on either side of my belly) worked together to turn the baby. They lead with the bum and guide her head. They explained to me that with an ECV, they never lead by the head, but rather guide it in the direction they want it to go (which is down). It wasn't painful, but there were some moments of discomfort — more from pulling on my belly skin rather than the baby actually turning inside it. Once the procedure was done (they monitor the baby's heartbeat the whole time to make sure it is ok with it), I had to lie on the table for another 20 minutes to ensure all was good — and it was. When I asked what the success rate of an ECV is, they told me 30%-40% but that takes everything into account.
After the ECV was finished, I had to go for a walk, do squats, walk up and down stairs and make sure to lean forward the rest of the day — so I had to lift the back legs of my chair to go back to work and watch a movie with my kids that night. My midwives also suggested I go and see a chiropractor who specialized in something called the "Webster Technique" which is known to have a high success rate (80% or so) for turning breech babies. When I asked my chiropractor if he knew about the Webster Technique he told me he did an extra year of school after Chiropractic College in prenatal and pediatric care and speciazes in it. Jackpot!
