Labor & Birth Positions
Birth Positions for Unmedicated + Medicated Labor
Learning all about birth & your many options is awesome. It helps normalize the process and can help you plan for your own experience. Even with all of that awesome knowledge, you can’t think your baby out!
You and your baby are a team, working together to move through labor. The most amazing part is your pelvis. Relaxin & progesterone hormones relax the connective tissue holding your pelvis stable so that it can actually open up a little wider during labor. It has flexibility & you can actually change it’s shape with the positions you use – it is a shapeshifter!
Caution!
THESE ARE COMMON LABOR POSITIONS.
MODIFY THEM FOR YOUR OWN BODY.
JUST LIKE PRENATAL MOVEMENTS, IF IT DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT, DON’T DO IT.
Body Basics
UFOs – positions that use gravity & movement
- Upright
- Forward
- Open
- where your baby enters your pelvis
- earlier stages of labor
- KNEES OUT = BABY IN
- possible positions: butterfly, deep squat, supported squat on birth ball, all 4’s with knees wider than feet, pelvic tucks, abdominal lift
Mid-Pelvis – use asymmetry to open up:
- baby is doing an internal rotation
- rocking low lunges on the floor
- high lunges side to side
- one foot on a stool
- pelvic movements on all 4’s, standing or on a birth ball
- sideways stair walk
Pelvic Outlet – bottom of the pelvis:
- where your baby exits your pelvis
- last stage of labor
- KNEES IN = BABY OUT
- possible positions: all 4’s with knees closer than feet
- side-lying with top knee shifted down
- semi-sitting with knees slightly dropped together
Labor & Birth Positions
Playlist
Labor & Birth Positions with an Epidural
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Pelvic and Pubic Bone Pain
Pelvic or pubic bone pain may require modifying many common UFOs in labor.
- All 4’s, kneeling or standing asks your tailbone to move instead of your pubic bone which is already strained
- Semi-prone or reclining positions require the pubis symphisis to move
- Side lying position with support for pushing may work
- Knees closer together actually opens the pelvic outlet
- Epidurals are not ruled out but support has to be careful not to open the pelvis too far and aggravate it
- Deep water immersion can be very soothing & the buoyancy takes pressure off
- You have most likely already learned which positions work best for you and you can carry those into labor as well