Monday, December 22, 2008

this end up

Baby update

A few weeks back we discovered that Ducky was hanging out in breech position. This was at 30 weeks. Our midwife suggested inversion poses to encourage her to flip. Actually, she said "if you want to start doing any handstands, now would be a great time." So I (d) experimented with a few inversions and settled on the most comfortable and easiest - laying on an ironing board propped on the sofa. It put me at a bit under a 45 degree angle, head down. 15 minutes at least 3 times a day.

We returned to the midwives this past week and discovered the inversions did not work and Ducky was still hanging out breech. The midwife said it was time to get serious and recommended Moxibustion, a service provided by an acupuncturist. Luckily G & I had met a midwife/doula/acupuncturist recently at a birthing prep course. Elizabeth came to our place this past weekend - a house call! When she got here she first showed G how to check out Ducky himself and determine which way is up... and guess what? Up was down. Yes, she had flipped. So instead of performing acupuncture to encourage the duckling to move, Elizabeth went straight to the Moxa (mugwort herb incense cigar thing). Basically, the moxa is held right by the little toe of each foot for about 15 min - total of 30 min (if you have two feet, which I do) for 10 days in a row, this helps to encourage the baby to move. Or, as Elizabeth mentioned, just spending 30 minutes or so focusing on the baby and expressing your desire for the flip helps the baby move.

We go back to the midwives on Dec 30 and will find out if she's breech or not. I hope she stays head down. We will continue the moxa treatments for the next 9 days. Here's G perfoming the moxa on me: