Optimal Foetal Positioning

Modern society would have you believe that childbirth is something that simply happens to you. That besides eating right and taking your prenatal vitamins, you have little importance to the whole shebang once conception has taken place. But what if someone told you that the activities in your daily life could actually sway the course of your labor?

Jean Sutton, a midwife, and Pauline Scott, a childbirth educator, coined the phrase Optimal Foetal Positioning (OFP) to describe their idea that a pregnant woman could help her unborn child settle into a position in the uterus that would lend itself to a normal, straightforward labor and birth.

During your prenatal check-ups, especially in the last trimester, the doctor or midwife will palpate your abdomen to detect the baby's position. While most moms-to-be know that head down is good, few understand the significance of a baby facing the mother's naval or the mother's spine.

Occipito-anterior (OA) and occipito-posterior (OP) – often called "anterior" and "posterior" for short – are the technical terms to describe the way your baby is positioned in the uterus. Both of these terms apply to a baby who is head down.

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