“Nikki mentioned how modern life sets up babies for being in less than optimal positions for birth. I don't know who originated the work but Pauline Scott has published two very interesting books on optimal fetal positioning: Understanding and Teaching Optimal Foetal Positioning by Jean Sutton and Pauline Scott (this one is more for practitioners) Sit Up and Take Notice! Positioning Yourself for a Better Birth by Pauline Scott (this one is more for parents) Both of these talk about getting moms out of the comfy slouchy chairs and encouraging them to crawl among other techniques that can get these babies in better positions for birth. Laura Mundt, MA, ICCE Portland, OR” There is also the work of Gail Tully www.spinningbabies.com. In my capacity as a birth doula in training, I attended her workshop last August at Pascack Valley Hospital in NJ. She discussed the cultural, anatomical and labor management causes of posterior presentation. We learned how to do belly mapping. She discussed the effects of posterior presentation and techniques on how to correct the posterior lie during pregnancy, labor and pushing. This was truly an excellent learning opportunity for anyone caring for pregnant moms and their babies. There were several midwives, nurses, many doulas though sadly no ob’s in attendance as well as pregnant moms as demo models. Truly there may be circumstances out of anyone’s control in terms of birth outcome, interventions and successful breastfeeding. But I was very happy to add on a few more ways of helping women achieve their birthing and breastfeeding goals. Sadly the last birth I attended was at a truly mother/baby/doula unfriendly hospital (with an insanely high c-section rate). And after the usual cascade of interventions, the mother hooked up to every available monitor, unable to move to handle contractions, unable to push with the epidural, the baby, who had been lying OA for most of the labor turned OP during pushing and she ended up with a c-section, a 4 hour mother-baby separation, and formula supplementation all against her wishes and the details of her birth plan. With great effort and lots of support, she is now fully breastfeeding. So even when parents have gone to great lengths to inform themselves, have discussed their choices with their HCP, they can be scared and manipulated into situations they were trying to avoid. I'm not so sure change will happen unless it comes from within the institutions serving these women and babies. Carmen Clark, LLLL, IBCLC Teaneck, NJ Mom to four boys 14, 11, 9, 5 year old nursling *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html