Turn, baby, just turn.
There’s a special kind of crazy reserved for a woman whose pregnancy isn’t going to plan.
A woman like Kim Kardashian West, who has just found out that her baby boy is breech. ‘Breech’ is what we call babies who are the wrong way up for birth – they are feet first, rather than heads down, and delivering a baby who is leading with their toes is a whole different ball game. A more complicated and potentially dangerous one.
Once upon a time, of course, we didn’t know what our babies were doing while they were inside us, but now we do. And so, if at your later pre-natal appointments, it turns out that your baby is still “upside down” and hasn’t instinctively repositioned themselves for the smoothest possible arrival by week 32, you will be given some options.
Those options are:
– Find yourself a rare medical professional who will perform a breech delivery.
– Schedule a C-section, stat.
– Try to turn that baby.
Kim Kardashian, woman of will that she is, wants to do the last thing. And, like many a deluded parent before her, she is trying everything.
Behold:
“I lay practically upside down three times a day for 15 minutes,” she writes on her fabulously overshary blog. “I play music in the right position and ice my belly in certain spots to get him to squirm out of the breech position. I even started accupuncture where I burn moxa (mugwort) on my pinky toe every day! I am even attempting hypnosis!”
Oh, Kim, I feel you. I have been there. When my first child was deemed in an inappropriate pose for birth, I went all out to change its (later proven to be a HER) tiny mind.
I lay with my legs up against the wall whenever I possibly could, which, considering I was working full time up until the birth, was inconvenient, to say the least.
Top Comments
Why be so negative? Just because YOU don't care how you give birth doesn't mean other women feel the same. It is very important to some of us how we bring our babies into the world, and evidence is emerging that it is also important to our babies on a population level. ECV and breech birth are not necessarily 'dangerous', if the caregiver is experienced and knowledgable, both can be a very safe, positive experience.
Just as it is unfair for women who have had cesareans to be 'shamed', it's also unfair for women who are trying to keep their birth 'normal' to be shamed. Having a baby does not reduce us to simply being an incubator and our desires as women and mothers are still relevant. It's really not cool to criticise KK for wanting to have a normsl birth (and no, I'm not a fan).
Really. It's okay. Just do it however. It's a baby and be so grateful it arrived safely. This tiny life.