Chinese Medicine has been treating breech babies, for over 2000 years. The ancient doctors believed that the babies wanted to be close to the mothers heart and that’s why the babies were in the breech position.
In my practice, I see many mama’s with breech babies. There has been significant research in this area indicating the use of moxabustion to be an effective treatment to turn babies. The reason is that the moxabustion over the acupoint BL 67 changes the mother’s hormonal levels causing the baby to be more active. The more active the baby is, the more likely they will turn.
Most women come for treatments from the referral of their doctor or midwife at 35 weeks in their pregnancy. Although the moxa treatment is still effective, the treatment would be more effective if the women stared to address the breech presentation at 32 weeks. Most babies turn into the head down position from between weeks 28 – 32. Once they are head down they usually stay head down because the head is the heaviest part of their body, and they become very comfy in this position. If the baby is not head down by 32 weeks, there is still a high likely hood that the baby will turn all on his own. However, the longer the baby is in the breech position, the less room there is for the baby to turn. But if one starts to use moxabustion at 32 weeks it increases the odds that it will turn up to 85%.
There is an increase with stress and tension to the mama because of the discussions of a potential external cephalic version (ECV) and/ or C-section because of the breech baby. This is usually not a part of any mama’s birth plan, so the thought of these intervention causes muscle tension in the abdomen, causing an already small area to become tight and firm. We need the mama to be relaxed, so the belly can relax. When a baby does turn, they usually turn at night, thats when the uterus and mind are both at ease. This is another reason why we should treat the mama as soon as we know the position of the baby, to avoid any unneeded stress.
Finally, I always recommend to have a little chat with your baby. Explain to your baby that they will always have your heart, so it is okay for them to turn and enter the world.
For an instructional video on how to moxa for a breech baby, please click here
Leave a Reply