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Day 253 of 280 · 36 weeks + 1 day

Breech, and turning

Last reviewed · 3 min read · 9 sources · Plain-text version

Thirty-six weeks and one day. Most babies are head down by now. If yours isn't, today you write the one question to ask at your next check.

Size this week
about the size of a romaine lettuce
Length this week
around 47.4 cm from head to heel
A Black woman with a full bump in a loose striped dress sitting across a desk from a midwife, gesturing to her side as she asks a question, bright clinic daylight.

Thirty-six weeks and one day. Somewhere under your ribs or low in your pelvis is a head, and this week your provider will want to know which. Today is about the baby's position, and what happens if it isn't the usual one.

Your baby

A single head of romaine lettuce on a plain pale wooden table, soft window light.

Your baby is around 47.4cm from head to heel now, about the size of a romaine lettuce, and may already have engaged, with the head moving down into your pelvis (NHS).

If your baby isn't head down, the NHS says you may be offered an external cephalic version, or ECV, a way of trying to turn the baby, and that it works about half the time (NHS). Whether it's offered, and whether it suits you, is a conversation with your provider.

Your body

Leaking a little urine when you laugh or cough is common now, because the pelvic floor muscles relax in late pregnancy (NHS). MedlinePlus's answer for leaking when you cough or sneeze is Kegel exercises (MedlinePlus). The Office on Women's Health describes them simply: tighten the pelvic floor for a count of three, relax for three, repeat 10 to 15 times, three times a day (OWH).

The evidence is real but modest. A Cochrane review found that pelvic floor training during pregnancy probably lowers the risk of leaking urine in late pregnancy for women who weren't leaking to begin with; it found no evidence that it treats leaking that has already started (Cochrane). So: worth doing, not worth worrying about.

Try today

  1. The breech question

    Time: 5 minutes, then at your next check

    1. Write "Which way is the baby lying?" at the top of the page you bring to appointments. Third-trimester visits check the baby's position (MedlinePlus).

    2. If the answer is head down, you're done. Cross it out.

    3. If the answer is breech, ask whether ECV is an option for you and when (NHS).

    4. Then ask what the birth options are either way, if the baby turns and if they don't, so neither answer catches you off guard.

    Make it work:

    Bring your partner, or put them on speaker. Two people remember an answer better than one.

Watch for

  • Normal

    a little urine when you laugh or cough (NHS).

    Call your provider

    right away if you might be leaking amniotic fluid instead (MedlinePlus).

  • Normal

    needing to pee often.

    Call your provider

    for pain when urinating, or a change in the smell or color of your urine, which may signal a bladder infection (MedlinePlus).

  • Normal

    pokes, kicks, and pressure low down.

    Call your provider

    right away for constant, severe belly pain (MedlinePlus); severe belly pain that doesn't go away is on the CDC's urgent list (CDC).

For you

If you've just been told the baby is breech, the numbers are kinder than the word. About 95% of babies are head down by 37 weeks, breech babies still have time to turn, and some don't move until labor starts (NHS).

And if the baby stays breech, that's a change of plan, not a failure of yours. You didn't sit wrong or sleep wrong. You'll still meet your baby, and you'll go in knowing how.

Sources

This guide is general education that summarizes published research and guidance from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, and the WHO. It isn’t medical advice, and every child develops on their own timeline. Your pediatrician knows your child; if something feels wrong, call them. In an emergency, call 911.

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