Breech babies and home births

I really must manage to start posting more than once a month...it's just not good enough!

My word for the month this month has been "moxibustion". Our little chap is resolutely squatting like a Buddha rather than doing the usual head-down thing, and although by traditional reckoning the little blighter still has 9 weeks to go (and it seems that at this stage somewhere around 10% of babies are still breech), it seems to make sense to check out what we might be able to do to encourage him to do a somersault.

The big thing of course, as I've only recently found out, is that the vast majority of hospitals dislike the risks associated with trying to give birth to a breech baby naturally - these days in most cases they encourage a caesarian section. We're really keen to avoid hospitals and to have the birth at home - so we're trying to avoid breech presentation at all costs! All that talk about cord prolapses, head squeezing etc makes me a bit queasy.

It didn't take long before we came across moxibustion (details and definition above). It's an incredibly intriguing alternative therapy which involves burning herbs next to the mother's little toes. I have no idea how it might work - but apparently it does, in around 75% of cases...fantastic! I'll be queuing up for my sticks of mugwort when the time comes (about another 4 weeks I think).

Other things worth trying include putting a bag of frozen peas at the top of your bump and/or a hot water bottle at the bottom (the baby turns so that their head is warm, allegedly). There are also various strange positions that you can get in, which have been known to turn the baby around. The strangest thing I've read about(apart from moxibustion) is the practice of doing handstands in deep water...

Lordy. Let's hope it doesn't come to that - I'm not sure our local swimming pool would be up for it!