Son of a Breech

We got some less-than-ideal news this past Monday when Darin found out our baby is breech.  The past few weeks, she's experienced a constant pressure in her right ribcage.  She thought this was just Baby-D practicing karate kicks.  As it turns out, it's actually the baby's head.

From the get-go, Darin has been hopeful that she would be able to experience a natural birth.  We were originally going to have the baby at a birth center until Darin's cardiologist told us that her heart condition necessitates a hospital birth (Darin had open-heart surgery at age two to address a heart murmur).  While she's incredibly healthy and has not had any complications with the murmur, she is still a 'high-risk' pregnancy, so they want to have her in a hospital where they are prepared to handle the situation if her heart reacts adversely to the stress of giving birth.

It was a smooth transfer of care over to UW, and we've built a good rapport with our doctor there.  Unfortunately, our doctor has been out of town the last two weeks on vacation, and Darin was on her own at her appointment Monday when the attending doctor delivered the news about the baby being breech.  It is past the point where the doctors can manually rotate the baby for us.  She was told that it was 'possible but not probable' that the baby would flip on its own in time for delivery and that she should consider scheduling a c-section.  Based on our goals for the birth, this was the last thing she wanted to hear.

After recovering from the initial disappointment of the news and consulting a variety of resources (thank you Kristin, Jenny, Karen, Meghan, Christine, Elise and Penny), Darin has taken it on as her personal mission to get the baby to flip.  So far, this includes the following regimen:

1. Water:  Swimming/pool handstands
2. Gravity:  Lying on her back with her feet/hips elevated
3. Music:  Playing music below the waist to encourage the baby to flip
4. Moxibustion
5. Acupuncture
6. Chiropractic care
7. Homemade chocolate and Snickers ice cream

While there is no definitive research on #7, I can't see how it could hurt...and it clearly makes Darin happy.

Truly, none of these have been proven to work, but we'd like to say we've given it our best shot.  Another piece of advice we were given was to recruit positive thoughts from our friends and family.  So, if you have a moment, Darin's belly is currently accepting good vibes.