A midwife asked me if trying to influence the baby’s position wasn’t an intervention that is disturbing to the mother. Introducing mothers to the risks of posterior labor and the label of having a posterior fetus felt wrong to her. She said, “Let’s see what nature does.”
Now we know that 60% of first-time babies that are OP to start labor will change position before the end of labor. Several studies show that about 30% of the babies that were OP at the start of labor are OP at the end of labor.
Recent studies report about 8% of babies are OP at the time of delivery and not quite half of these are being born vaginally. The May 2005 Lieberman study showed 12% of babies from epidural births were OP at the end of labor compared to 3.3% of babies who were not exposed to epidurals. The OP labor may be long or short and, when born vaginally, the midwife can feel satisfied in her hands off approach–and so will I. However, the mother has one of the 30% of OP labors that need special help to finish she will move up the intervention ladder to Pitocin augmentation of labor (IV with medication to strengthen contractions), a vacuum or forceps delivery or major surgery. It is these mothers and babies that Spinning Babies® is designed for.