When a Melbourne mum found her baby was breech at 32 weeks, she 'turned' him herself.

When Melbourne mum Natalie Alessio discovered she had a breech baby at 32 weeks, she began using a technique called Spinning Babies to avoid a caesarean.

Natalie says it meant she could still be hopeful for a home birth which she was booked in for at her local hospital but feared she would be taken off the program if the baby didn’t turn before 37 weeks.

With the clock ticking, her doula told her about Spinning Babies and guided her through a series of positions aimed at turning her baby around.

“I was determined to try everything, and I was lucky he did turn in time. I was under the pump because I hadn’t been cleared for a home birth,” Natalie tells Mamamia. 

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She began doing inversions a couple of times a day, resting on her forearms with her legs up on the couch.

“Everyone would laugh at me and my partner would ask what the hell I was doing. He was laughing at me too.

“There is quite a science to it, to keep your back straight to maximise the inversion.”

With the clock still ticking, Natalie began to up the ante and introduced a few other techniques, practising them three to five a day.

At 36 weeks, Natalie’s baby boy, Kai, turned.

“The midwives didn’t believe it until they felt him,” she said.

Natalie continued to practice the forward leaning inversion method right up until labour to ensure her baby remained in the right position.

“It is a more natural form of helping to move the baby. It shows you can do it yourself and it is not invasive.”

Creator of the specialised technique US midwife, Gail Tully, said it so successful at turning babies that she often hears stories of babies born outside operating theatres.

Spinning Babies was developed to address foetal position and overall comfort during pregnancy and labour and overcome obstructions in labour causing it to stall by using specific stretches and gentle jiggles that work on the fascia.

“Every day I hear women from around the world tell me their back pain has eased, their caesareans were cancelled outside the operating room, transverse babies suddenly turn head down and first-time labours that last less than eight hours," Gail tells Mamamia. 

“Too often it is said baby is too big for pelvis, but it is the angle of the head not size of pelvis.

"We need to get the circulation of the tissues more mobile which we can do through these stretch and jiggle techniques."

Gail says the baby is an active member in birth and by activating the body’s anatomy in ways never done before it allows it to be optimally positioned and create more room in the uterus.

Gail said Spinning Babies starts by determining where the baby is positioned and then uses natural solutions to release tight ligaments causing pain during pregnancy or birth.

She says often habits in our lives can cause our uterus to become twisted and with an inversion for no more than 30 seconds a day the uterus can untwist and often within 24 hours the baby will go head down.

Has your breech baby turned around? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below. 

To find out more about Spinning Babies, you can visit Gail's website.

The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Mamamia. For further information on breech babies please consult a health care professional.