My daughter had recently gone on to deliver a baby born, but the sad part is that she experienced a lot of pain towards the fag end of pregnancy. The reasons give out for the same was sunny side up birth in the first place. In a lot of ways this seems to be an abnormal birth position for a baby. The medical term for this position is termed as OP position as this points to the fact that the head of the baby is being turned in a wrong way. The back portion of the head the posterior means that the face of the baby is being pressed against the pubic bone. In fact the head of the baby tries to extend out of the pubic bone. On all counts the labor would be longer and even a lot difficult.
The things you need to be aware about the OP position
- OP position is more common in the event of being a first pregnancy and occurs in 30 % of pregnancies
- The babies are expected to turn back to a normal position by the time delivery occurs. Only in case of 5 % of babies they are known to be suffering from persistent OP
- If you have persistent OP it is going to lead to longer labor, or the need for an emergency C section or assisted form of delivery might be needed. Only in case of babies that have persistent OP they are delivered by C section.
What are the courses of action if a baby has persistent OP?
The options to manage a OP apart from a C section means an operative delivery. This could be in the form of vacuum or a forceps delivery. This means maternal posturing or a manual rotation of the baby.
Maternal posturing points to a position where you assume your hand on the chest or knees with the chest leaning forward and even the back stretches out. As per a review done about maternal posturing it is found out that it does go on to reduce back pain, though still a lot of evidence can be related to the fact. As per studies OP position was found to be found in case of mothers at the starting phase of labor. The women were asked to take up this position.
The better piece of news filtering out is that even if a sunny side up birth is expected, the baby is going to return back to a normal position by the time delivery occurs. It could be really nice if maternal posturing could go on to improve the odds, but till date very limited levels of evidence exists on the same.
It would be better if you discuss with your health care provider on what their experience is with OP positioned babies. Discuss with them the options once your baby is sunny side up. The moment you are aware it is going to happen the better you might be prepared to face up the situation.
