Cheryl, I just wanted to share something I found in my own archives
regarding breech birth.
Judy Ritchie



      NANCHANG, CHINA. The threat of a breech birth (buttocks rather
than the head appear first in the birth
      canal) is particularly high among women having their first child.
A breech birth can often be avoided by
      external manipulation (ECV) prior to labor, but in some cases
necessitates the use of cesarean delivery with
      the accompanying dangers and discomforts for both mother and
child. A team of Chinese and Italian
      researchers reports that moxibustion (stimulation of acupuncture
points with burning herbal preparations
      containing moxa [Artemisia vulgaris, mugwort]) can markedly reduce
the risk of breech birth by increasing
      fetal movement and can actually turn the fetus around so that a
normal head-first birth (cephalic presentation)
      is achieved. Their study involved 260 women in their 33 week of a
first pregnancy who had all had an
      ultrasound diagnosis of breech presentation. Half the women were
given a daily 30-minute treatment with
      moxibustion (self-administered at home) for one or two weeks while
the other half served as a control group.
      The moxibustion was aimed at stimulating acupuncture point BL 67
(Zhiyin, located beside the outer corner of
      the fifth toenail). During the 35th week of pregnancy 75.4 per
cent of the fetuses in the moxibustion group had
      changed to the cephalic (head-first) position as compared to only
47.7 per cent in the control group. The
      fetuses in the moxibustion group also showed greater mobility with
an average of 48.45 movements per hour
      as compared to 35.35 in the control group. Twenty-four of the
women in the control group and one in the
      moxibustion group later underwent ECV to turn the fetus around.
Despite the greater use of ECV in the control
      group the number of babies delivered head-first was still
significantly higher (75.4 per cent) in the
      moxibustion group than in the control group (62.3 per cent). The
researchers conclude that moxibustion
      performed for one or two weeks starting in the 33-week of
pregnancy is an effective and safe method for
      converting breech presentations in first-time pregnancies.

Cardini, Francesco and Weixin, Huang. Moxibustion for correction
of breech presentation. Journal of the American Medical Association,
Vol. 280, November 11, 1998, pp. 1580-84

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