Posterior baby position is the fancy way of saying that your baby is face up, or sunny-side up. This means that your baby’s front is facing your front as well.
You see, they want to see the faces of anyone staring down your nether region when they first emerge, instead of the other way around of taking a gander at your bottom. I can see why they would want to. 🙂
But this can come with a few problems that range in difficulties from mother to mother. So if your baby is posterior, you don’t know if it will be an issue or not until you’re in the moment of trying to push or breathe them out.
Related: Breathing Baby Out Instead Of Pushing In 5 Easy Steps
Posterior Baby Position Explained
When your baby is trying to travel down your birth canal during labor, there is an optimum way of fitting through your pelvis. That optimum way of fitting through you is with their back facing towards your belly.
When your baby comes out this way, their chin is tucked down and the smallest part of their head is the first part of crowning to emerge.
Image courtesy of spinningbabies.com
A posterior baby is exactly the opposite. They’re head and face is angled upwards a bit more so the top of their head towards their forehead is what is trying to emerge first. Plus the back of their head is pressing much harder against your sacrum and tailbone.
Related: Peak of Pregnancy Labor Stages To Know
Problems With Posterior Baby Position
So it makes things a little more difficult instead of your baby just coming down their first tunnel slide the easiest way.
- They may get stuck in your vagina.
- Your odds of needing some intervention in order to get them out increases, like using forceps or the vacuum cap on your baby’s head.
- You’re more likely to tear through your perineum because you’re having to stretch even farther than expected. Using a stretch oil beforehand may help.
- Your baby may not even be able to go past your cervix, thus requiring the need for a c-section.
- It’s more common for mothers in labor with posterior babies to have distinct back labor.
- You’re likely going to end up pushing longer than what is typically expected.
- If your baby ends up staying in your vagina for longer periods of time, they are more likely to have minor complications or need for greater assistance after delivery because of low Apgar scores.
Now, just because these things are more likely, that doesn’t mean that ANY of them will happen with you. Most women are able to delivery posterior babies just fine. But some are not because our bodies and babies are all built just a little bit differently.
Only around 10% of babies born that started in a posterior position actually end up staying that way.
Most babies are also able to turn from a posterior position to an optimal ‘face down’ one even during labor. Only around 10% of babies born that started in a posterior position actually end up staying that way.
Related: 5 Steps To Not Get Baby Stuck In The Birth Canal – You’re Only Doing #2
Items Needed To Help Prevent Posterior Position
- Earth Mama Natural Stretch Oil for perineal massage and skin comfort.
- Using a birthing ball often with exercise or during labor.
- Use a Rebozo scarf to loosen your belly and pelvis.
- Routines with Spinning Babies Daily Essentials for optimal positioning.
What You Can Do Before Labor Begins
In your third trimester, your baby will still be moving around and not be head down until up to 37 weeks. So if your baby is ill-positioned before then, there’s still time to see if they will naturally turn on their own.
After that, the last month of pregnancy is a key time to keep your baby in the right position as best as you can. There are things you can do on a regular basis to increase your odds of going into labor without a posterior positioned baby.
Spend time on all fours. When you’re doing your pelvic tilts during exercise is a great time to do this. Simply stay on your hands and knees for about ten minutes a few times a day allowing your baby to sense the gravity of your belly’s hang. Plus it helps A LOT with any pelvic or lower back pain you may be having.
Sit with your knees below your hips. This helps your pelvis rock forward and make your belly cradle your baby more than your pelvis. Remember to keep your shoulders back and chest opened as you sit this way or your bad posture can make it more uncomfortable. Do this as often as possible and make it a habit. If your chair or seating arrangements make it difficult to do this, bring a pillow with you to sit on, then tilt forward off the edge of your seat for a better angle.
Visit your chiropractor. They can keep everything aligned in your lower back and pelvis best. Your body has been stretching and moving so much that your joints and ligaments take a terrible beating and can cause things to slip out of place, leading to other aches and pains. I see mine every other week. But it may be an even better idea for you to see one at least once a week in your ninth month leading up to your delivery.
Related: 5 Easy Pregnancy Exercises Guaranteed To Make Your Delivery Faster
- Do side-lying release. This is a technique that helps your psoas muscle and inner hip connections to stretch and relax. You can do it a few times a week to help lengthen your muscles surrounding your uterus so it is more able to make room for baby to turn. It’s primarily taught by Spinning Babies.
Image courtesy of spinningbabies.com
- Laying on a firm, flat surface with an edge, such as a table or counter top, lay on your side facing the edge.
- Move as close to the edge as possible without falling off.
- Have a helper hold your upper hip verticle so that you don’t roll off the edge. Or you can brace yourself by holding onto a chair directly in front of your upper body.
- Support your head with a pillow so you’re properly aligned with your spine.
- Keep your hips and back at a straight 90-degree angle with the surface.
- Keep your lower leg that’s against the surface straight and flexed to help brace yourself.
- Let your upper leg start to hang forward and off of the edge. It should be relaxed with your knee slightly bent.
- Take some deep breaths and relax your abdomen so that your hip muscles will relax.
- Do this for a few minutes, keeping your hips and dangling leg relaxed. You’ll find that your dangling leg will gradually lower and lower because your hip and pelvic muscles are stretching and releasing.
- Repeat on the other side.
Likely excluding a chiropractic visit, you can incorporate all of these things while you’re in labor too. But there are other things that word very well during labor as well.
Related: What Are Breech Babies? 3 Ways To Help Prevent
What You Can Do During Active Labor
You may not want to do side-lying release just in order to stay comfortable, but there’s no harm if you do. You can apply rocking back and forth on all fours during contractions. Or you prefer sitting with your pelvis and belly tilted forward on a birth ball, those are positions you would already be familiar with.
But you might want to try a few other things too:
Rocking into your hips. If you prefer walking around or simply swaying through your labor, you can dip into your hips, keeping most of your weight angled to the side instead of perfectly balanced. This works well with mothers who are eager to dance through labor.
Rebozo Sifting Technique. This is something your midwife will have to help you with. She will take a sheet or scarf and sling it around your hanging belly or hips while you sway squatting or lean over a birth ball. Then she’ll apply a rocking motion to the sling to stimulate a moving environment for your baby to turn easier in.
Reaching In And Turning Baby. This is something deemed a last resort option to mothers in particular circumstances. It will NOT work for everyone and shouldn’t be done in every case. Your midwife would reach up to your cervix and physically turn your baby by grasping its head. It IS NOT comfortable and often painful. It doesn’t always work, and other times it can very well. But please discuss this with your midwife to be sure that you understand all of the risks and benefits of this if you need to decide to have it done or not.
Related: 9 Ways To Speed Up Labor And Get To Pushing
If You Have A Posterior Birth Anyway
Remember that if you’ve had a posterior birth before, you likely will be able to again just as well. Some mothers apparently can do it successfully many times. But every little bit helps in order to increase the likelihood of an easier birth with less trauma to you and baby, with an easier recovery.
If you’ve had a posterior birth before, you likely will be able to again just as well.
Another thing that can help you prepare for a posterior baby is keeping your perineum primed and flexible for your delivery. If you end up have a posterior birth, the next step is to do all you can to protect your tissues down there with natural methods.
>> Use One of These Essential Oils To Protect Your Perineum <<
I’ll let you know how all of these things work for my and if it makes a difference with this third baby here to arrive in two months.
Have you had a posterior birth?
MORE RESOURCES
- Natural Pregnancy Essentials
- Natural Birth Essentials
- Spinning Babies For Optimal Birth Positioning
- What Does It Mean That Baby Is In Posterior Position? by Baby Center
My baby turned to posterior- not sure why :/ We definitely had some trauma from it (stage 3 episiotomy and the vacuum suction on her). I pushed so long and hard with no improvement so the doctor had to cut. Went to the chiropractor prior, bounced every day on the ball, and did tons of exercises to support the pelvic floor but still ended up with a rough delivery. Hoping for better results next time
Sorry to hear that! Sometimes it’s just how our pelvises are shaped. I did everything “right” as well and my babies would still turn in the middle of labor. Give this a read and see if it helps.
I’m currently pregnant with my 4th and they’ve all been posterier so far so expecting the same this time, all straight forward labours, active, drug free, no tearing, high apgars, no assistance or turning….. I don’t know any different so it’s just normal labour to me!
That’s wonderful to hear Alyssa! We’re all built so differently that I’m not surprised to hear you say that. Good luck with your next one! Sounds like you’ve got it all under control. 🙂
Thank you very much Sarah, this is the first time I come across this website, after my marriage in 2004 my wife became pregnant in 2009, when we went to scan the result shows nothing in the womb, but when we visited one native woman after checking her she said that my wife was pregnant that the baby is at the back, that was when we know that the pregnancy was posterior, so my wife carried the baby for one year and six months and delivered 2011 with the sum of five hundred thousand naira, towards the end of 2011 she became pregnant again, when we went to scan nothing was in the womb we went to the same woman she confirm that my wife was pregnant, and for her to deliver the baby another big amount of money, meanwhile I don’t have money again so my wife carried the posterior baby since 2011 till now 2018 because of know money, and since then my wife was suffering, although I was looking for help to gather the money so that she will go and deliver but none, and for her to deliver the baby now it will cost us the sum of nine hundred thousand naira so I am looking for help. Chike N.
Good article, a lot of paramedics like myself read these in their off time just to familiarize themselves more with obstetrical complications.
There isn’t too much practical information online about the topic.
You’re welcome!
Hi Sarah! I’m a mama to 4, and I had all my babies naturally, no medical interventions. My first-born is a now a 7 year old boy followed by three girls (ages 5 and 3 and four months) and all 3 girls were posterior! Every birth was distinct from each other, however the commonalities between my posterior pregnancies / births were: “short” extremely intense active labor (4 hours or less), back labor, bag of waters staying intact until right before the pushing time, low back pain during pregnancy, babies came out in 2 pushes (all done by my uterus – no “active pushing” like I had with my son), all three girls were born at home. I’ve been seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist for 15 years to maintain my overall well-being, both for sure were beneficial and esstential during my pregnancies!
That’s fantastic Rachel! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Ah, yes! My first birth was a sunny-side-up baby and the 22 hours of back labor was terrible! 4 years later, I’m 32 weeks pregnant with ANOTHER posterior baby and researching all I can to try to get baby to flip. I just cannot do another epidural-free posterior delivery. I did it, but it was awful!
Be sure to follow the exercises from Spinning Babies. They were able to keep my baby anterior through the end of my pregnancy. Let me know how it goes!
I had my third baby 9 years ago in the posterior position. No one knew she was in that position and I went to the hospital late at night so there weren’t any doctors around. The nurses told me I was fully dilated and could start pushing. I felt there was something wrong because I had given birth before and it was different. I never had any pain medication with my first two, but finally asked for something with my third. They would only give me Stadol per their phone call with the dr. It did nothing. When the doctor arrived at 7am he checked me and said she was face up and that I should have had a c-section, but it was too late. She was so wedged he couldn’t tell where her face was so he couldn’t use forceps. The nurses got me out of bed and had be sit on the toilet and push, wrap my arms around their necks and push, etc. After 7 hours of pushing through the night she was born at 7:33am. I believe getting me up and using gravity helped tremendously. Her head was very bruised, but looked completely normal within a day or two, and she is totally fine. Thanks for your article
I would like to add that I was almost 44 years old with that birth.
I’m so glad things worked out for your Judy! Seven hours of pushing is a lot. I feel like the gravity played a huge part for you too. Best to you and your little one!
Does posterior births affect the babies when delivered?my wife is currently having this problem and she is just some 4 weeks left to go into labour….thanks
Hi Leslie. A Posterior birth doesn’t necessarily affect the baby. It’s all so unique with the baby’s size, positioning, the mother’s size and positions she’s using. There are so many factors that it’s impossible to know every variable. But I will say that because of my pelvis shape, and no matter what position I’m using, my posterior babies all turned out fine and didn’t have any negative affects from it. But be sure to checkout Spinning Babies for more info. Hope that helps! Keep positive 🙂 The baby still has plenty of time to turn, and it also has a fantastic chance at being birthed without any difficulty.
Hi Sarah,
This was one of best and most thorough articles that I have ever run into on the subject of the posterior baby position, particularly during childbirth, and what can be done about it.
My wife had two children, both arrived safe and sound, thank goodness, but the second was in a posterior position. This was many many years ago now, but I do remember the trauma of worrying that everything would come out OK…
This is a post that I will send the daughters now lol! My days of making more babies is behind me, but certainly in the family there are more to come! Thanks for your efforts to put this together!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Hi Dave. Thanks so much for your kind words. Many mothers are unaware of how the baby is presented and if it’s in a posterior position. Most just worry if they’re breech babies . But either way, life still figures a way out, especially when we help it along. Like I said, I’ve had three babies, all posterior, all natural. So anything is possible and it should not be a deterrent for any mother.
Thank you for sharing! Have a great day.
Thanks for a website such as yours. Its amazing what can go wrong with mothers that are expecting their babies, This website will make expecting mothers aware of the many issues that they can face but what to do so those issues do not become a problem. You have a lot of information here and I am sure that the viewers of this site will enjoy what they find hear.
Thank you Norman. It’s always nice to hear from kindred spirits such as yourself.
My first baby girl’s birth was needed for intervention of a c- section, she flipped her head when it was time to come and so the doctors wasn’t able to get her back in normal birth position, it was terrible for me. I was exercising before her birth regularly and everything seemed fine, I guess maybe she was a little stubborn just like she is today. 😀
My second baby was a breeze, so easy and effortless.
Thank you for helping moms and moms to be with preperation for an easy birth. As for me, I don’t think I’m planning to have another baby soon. 😀
Hi Nia. Sorry to hear that your little girl was stubborn on not wanting to come! But I’m glad that everything turned out well, and especially with your second gem. 🙂 Feel free to share anytime. Thanks!
Hi Sara! I really enjoyed your website. I loved your theme colors and the layout. Your article was very informative and thorough. I have one child and hoping to have another one day and I think your advice to see a chiropractor will be a new thing for me to try next time..The stretches also looked very helpful. Good luck with everything.
Hi Jillian! I got adjusted by my chiropractor just hours before I went in labor with my third baby , a little coincidence that maybe made a big difference. 🙂
It DOES make such a positive impact on how our bodies function internally in deeper ways than we can even tell on the surface. Be sure to do the stretching exercisess too. Let me know if you ever have questions if and when your second baby comes along. Cheers!
Hi Sarah
Thank you for sharing this information. I think it definitely helps coming from someone who has actually experienced this condition. Sounds like there is a lot that can be done prior to delivery to assist in avoiding this from happening as well as help once posterior baby position has been detected.
Do you know if there is a pattern with regard to who is most apt to have this happen, or is it strictly by chance?
Mothers who are sitting often and not angling their bodies upright or forward during labor are more prone to have a posterior baby. My problem I believe was that in the final stages of labor, I was sitting back more to relax, when I could have been leaning over a ball or on my side. So that’s what I intend to do this time around.
But there are also factors such as a mother’s body frame and how her uterus and baby fit inside of her. If she’s off inside from a tightening ligament or spinal subluxation that affects the uterine and pelvic muscles without chiropractic help, that can cause just the tad amount of discomfort and imperfect environment for the baby to stay in the optimum position. Hope that answers your question, Kellie. Thanks for your comment!
Great post,
This is not a subject that I’m well versed in so I found it quite interesting and I learned a lot.
It’s nice that there are some natural, non invasive things you can do to solve or prevent some of these problems. I can’t imagine how difficult giving birth would be let alone when the baby is turned the wrong direction.
This is a really great resource and I’m sure many people will find it helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Robert
Hi Robert. That’s why I hope that I can experience a birth that’s NOT posterior so I have something to compare my previous experiences to. I’ll update you and everyone how things go. Thanks for your comment!
Thank you for a very interesting read on posterior babies. When I went into labour with my first baby I was told my baby was posterior and my midwife warned me that it was the most painful labour. Yeah it was pretty darn sore but then again it was my first (and only) labour so I had nothing to compare it too. After 42 hours of labour and not dilating past 4cms I went into hospital and had an emergency c-section.
Sorry that your birth didn’t turn out quite how you would have like with your first one. I’m glad that I haven’t had to worry about that with my babies. It doesn’t always work how we like with our births, but I want moms to know that it IS possible even when circumstances vary, so it’s always still worth a shot. Thanks for your comment Lynne!
Hello Sarah,
The whole thing about posterior birth sounds very painful.
I know you are all about natural birth, so is there a natural pain reliever that is safe for mothers to take that will help with the pain?
My wife had to have three C-Sections because of this and I was wondering why, now I know.
We had all boys, is this common to carrying a boy as a opposed to a girl?
Thanks
The Fat Guy
I’m glad you asked because there are MANY ways you can find natural pain relief for a natural birth. First of all, exercise beforehand makes a big difference, relaxation techniques that can be mastered, hypnobirthing concepts, essential oils, sufficient vitamin D intake, feelings of orgasms for some, and even a few other things, especially water.
Having a posterior baby is not more common based on the baby’s sex. But it sure would make us feel better if that was the definite reason I think. Glad that your wife and boys made it through everything well. C-sections can definitely be lifesavers. Thanks for your comment!
This is a beautifully done website. I love the design, header image, how you placed the images, set up the text, and set up the youtube video. Everything is set up and organized perfectly. I especially like how you have your affiliate links to the right, so people can click on them while going through your website.
Thanks Nick. Feel free to share. Best!