Gentle Methods to PREVENT & TURN a Breech Baby

Gentle Methods to PREVENT & TURN a Breech Baby

Interview with Dr. Daoshing Ni and Dr. Jessica Chen, by Allie Chee

 Just the word “breech” can strike fear in pregnant women—and rightfully so.

 In the U.S. hospital environment, a breech presentation would “almost certainly mean a cesarean section, considered major abdominal surgery that generally leads to longer hospital stays, longer recovery and, like all surgery, the risk of complications[1]”—and loss of any hope of a natural childbirth experience.

In the case of home birth with a midwife, some midwives will deliver breech babies and some won’t. World-acclaimed midwife, birth educator and activist Ina May Gaskin said in one of her lectures, “At first, we brought breech pregnancies to the hospital, but we found after a while that we could deliver them here just fine. Footling breeches, which are thought to be the most difficult, in our experience, they often just slid right out.”[2]

However, today more than 90% of breech babies are born by Caesarean [2]. A woman will be hard-pressed to find a provider who will happily encourage a vaginal birth with a breech presentation and she will likely find herself in the OR on her big day.

But for any woman wanting to avoid that scenario—great news!

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers an extremely gentle, painless procedure with a high success rate for turning breech babies.  Further, TCM offers suggestions and ideas for how to avoid a breech presentation in the first place.

To find out more, I interviewed two doctors considered top in the field:

Prenatal Glucose Test: Is it Necessary?

Do I need to take the glucose tolerance test?

•50 grams of glucose •tap water •artificial flavor

 

 That's not what you'd expect to find on a “recommended” list for pregnant mothers, but those are the ingredients of the drink a pregnant woman must consume if she follows doctors orders for glucose tolerance screening.

Women who are discerning with the things they consume during pregnancy--or at any time in their life--are not likely going to drink the glucose test beverage without, at least, asking: “Is this really necessary?”

When pregnant,

The Secret to Calm & Confidence in Childbirth

 

The Secret to 

CALM & CONFIDENCE  in Childbirth

With Excerpts from New Mother

 

Throughout my thirties I watched not one or two, but almost all my friends enthusiastically enter the hospital in labor, having claimed for nine months that they would have a natural birth. Yet they came out two (or ten) days later having been induced, forced to labor on their back, drugged, cut, and observed by countless strangers. Their babies had been taken from them immediately after birth and they were having problems nursing.

I wondered what had gone on behind the doors of the L&D that all of them were checking out with dramatically altered birth stories.

In my third trimester I attended an all-day birthing class at a store for new moms and babies. The women in attendance were from around the world, highly educated in their fields of work, and well to do with all conveniences of life available to them.

And yet... here are some things I heard during class:

CANCER, CIRCUMCISION & C-SECTION...What Will People Say?

 DARK AGE II: REPORT ON THE RITUALS & BEHAVIORS OF ANCIENT TRIBES LIVING IN NORTH AMERICA FROM 1950-2050.

  

“The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next.”

-Sir William Osler

It is now the year 3013, and in this report we will discuss briefly three rituals and behaviors of the tribes of people living in North America: the tribe of the United States collectively called “Americans,” and the tribe of Canada collectively called “Canadians”—during an era now called “Dark Age II”—1,000 years ago in the period between 1950-2050.  As we’ll see in this report, Dark Age II was marked by extraordinary aberrations of nature and a reign of fear, exemplified in these three rituals/behaviors:

When people ask new moms...

How Can You Stand Staying At Home?

I’m often asked that question.  It implies that staying home, raising our children, is less desirable, fun or respectable than working in an office.

Personally, I can’t imagine any joy greater than staying home with my baby, cooking for her and my family all day, and being her best friend and teacher.  That’s not what we’re all called to do, nor what we’d want at every phase of life. Maybe that’s why some women feel it’s less desirable than working in an office.

To be fair, I understand what is driving the question...