"What is Optimum Foetal Positioning?
'Optimal Foetal Positioning' (OFP) is a theory developed by a midwife, Jean Sutton, and Pauline Scott, an antenatal teacher, who found that the mother's position and movement could influence the way her baby lay in the womb in the final weeks of pregnancy.
Many difficult labours result from 'malpresentation', where the baby's position makes it hard for the head to move through the pelvis, so changing the way the baby lies could make birth easier for mother and child.
Recent research has suggested that there may be little point in practising OFP techniques in late pregnancy as a matter of course - for instance, if your baby is already 'OA' or occiput anterior (head down and facing the right way) However, if your baby seems to have settled in a 'back to back' (baby's back to mother's back) or occiput posterior 'OP' position, then it may well be worth putting in some effort to shift her.
Pay attention to your posture at the time when your baby may be starting to 'engage', which means its head will be descending into the pelvis. This means for the last six weeks of your first pregnancy, and the last two or three weeks of subsequent pregnancies.
In your second and later pregnancies, the uterus is more roomy and the baby will not normally start to descend into the pelvis until later, and often not until labour starts.
Natural Birth Works offer One to One Sessions on Optimal Foetal Positioning for birth and also cover the topic during the antenatal visits which form part of the 'birth doula package'.
Many difficult labours result from 'malpresentation', where the baby's position makes it hard for the head to move through the pelvis, so changing the way the baby lies could make birth easier for mother and child.
Recent research has suggested that there may be little point in practising OFP techniques in late pregnancy as a matter of course - for instance, if your baby is already 'OA' or occiput anterior (head down and facing the right way) However, if your baby seems to have settled in a 'back to back' (baby's back to mother's back) or occiput posterior 'OP' position, then it may well be worth putting in some effort to shift her.
Pay attention to your posture at the time when your baby may be starting to 'engage', which means its head will be descending into the pelvis. This means for the last six weeks of your first pregnancy, and the last two or three weeks of subsequent pregnancies.
In your second and later pregnancies, the uterus is more roomy and the baby will not normally start to descend into the pelvis until later, and often not until labour starts.
Natural Birth Works offer One to One Sessions on Optimal Foetal Positioning for birth and also cover the topic during the antenatal visits which form part of the 'birth doula package'.