Birth position

The Birth position of the child describes the position in which an unborn child lies in the mother's body shortly before birth. Its birth position determines how it comes into the world and can provide clues about possible complications in natural birth.

What is the birth position?

During pregnancy, the child is constantly changing its position. This happens especially at the beginning, before the maternal abdomen even bulges, because then the embryo still has a lot of freedom of movement in the uterus. The bigger it gets, the less it can move. Around the second trimester of pregnancy, the child moves into what is presumably the final birth position, although this can sometimes change.

The birth position is only observed more closely from the third trimester, since the child can hardly move in the womb and a change in its position is unlikely. If the child is still in an unfavorable birth position, decisions can be made that simplify the birth or reduce a possible risk for mother and child at birth. Depending on the specific birth situation, this can also be changed later.

Function & task

The possible birth positions include the optimal anterior occipital position and the posterior occipital position, which can already lead to complications. Both are sub-forms of the so-called skull position, which the baby can adopt during pregnancy. It is located upside down in the womb so that it is pushed head first through the birth canal. This birth position prevents his already well-mobile extremities from getting stuck.

In the optimal birth position, the anterior occipital position, the baby lies with its back in the direction of the mother's abdomen. It can rotate when it is born without the umbilical cord being able to wrap tightly around its neck or without it getting stuck. That is why this birth situation is considered optimal and promises an uncomplicated birth.

In the posterior occipital position, the baby lies with its back turned towards the mother's back. Since the head is still down and first sees the light of day, these births are usually easy too. However, this birth situation can also result in a longer birth, in the worst case it can lead to complications. The baby can wrap the umbilical cord around its neck, the birth can stand still or it has to be intervened in the birth. The posterior occipital position can still cause worse labor pain.

The positional anomalies belong to the far more complicated birth situations, which strictly speaking no longer belong to the birth situations, since the baby can only be born under difficult circumstances. The position of the skull is therefore the only real birth position.

Up to the 37th week of pregnancy, women have the option of having their baby turned from the outside if there is nothing medically against it. So they can give birth naturally.

Illnesses & ailments

While the position of the skull with its variations is the only real birth position in which most children also lie, there are some positional anomalies that make birth difficult or even impossible. If the child lies in the breech position, it lies with the head up and the feet down. Since the limbs and not the head go into the birth canal first, the baby can get stuck. In addition, it cannot immediately begin to breathe on its own because its head does not come out until the end.

The breech position has a total of seven precise positions that determine whether the baby is more likely to sit or stand, have the limbs close to the body or stretch further away. A natural birth cannot be ruled out in the breech position, but it must be looked after by experts. Vital signs of mother and child require constant, precise monitoring, the risk of a perineal tear increases, perineal incisions are more frequent and an emergency caesarean section can occur. For this reason, many women are recommended to have a planned caesarean section for breeches in order to avoid risks.

A caesarean section is a necessity in the transverse position. The baby lies across the mother's womb, which is usually caused by too much amniotic fluid or a placenta. The pregnancy was then usually already problematic. The transverse position is very rare and the baby can still move into a birth position in the last trimester.

If this does not happen, however, a natural birth is impossible, since the damage to health for mother and child would be too great. The mother could suffer severe uterine injuries and high blood loss. The baby could have its umbilical cord wrapped around its neck and suffer from severe oxygen deficiency during or soon after birth.

Even if the birth position is good, it can happen that the baby is in a deflexed position at birth. It stretches the head away from the chest or the limbs in the birth canal away from you. This causes the birth to stall and the baby could suffocate in the birth canal. In these cases, despite the good birth situation, an emergency caesarean section is performed at the beginning of the birth in order to avoid the risk of lifelong harm to the child.