Anterior Right to Anterior Left Position

misterdonut

Hey yall! I'm aiming for a natural birth and now 39 weeks. My midwives have told me that the most ideal position for birth is anterior left (if looking down at my belly the back of baby is on my left side, and she's facing my back). However, my baby is anterior right. Of course, anterior is good enough so far, and better than her facing forward for posterior or breech...but I was wondering if any of you had experience with this difference, and did it matter?

Some of the birthing books I've read mention that baby tends to turn clockwise when coming out, so the only possible downside of anterior left would be turning posterior again. Would love insight from those who have experienced this or are in the same boat!

LilTiger15

Haven't heard of this before.  I had a posterior baby first time around, so all I'm hoping for is anterior this time.  I could care less of right or left. 

deux

My last baby went back and forth between ROA (anterior right) and ROP (posterior right) through my third tri. I did a lot of crawling on hands and knees to keep him out of posterior position, and he was ROA when he was born. No issues at all. Placenta location or your anatomy can have an effect, but I don't think ROA vs LOA makes a huge difference. See a chiro to make sure everything's aligned properly, but otherwise I wouldn't do anything about it, including worry.

oliversmommy32912

DS2 was ROA. I had a relatively easy, yet long labor. I stressed out about it a lot and was always on my left side trying to get him to flip over and it turns out it didn't really even matter in the end. He was ROA until he came out and will came out easily. I only pushed for 8 minutes.

catsinawindow

I'm honestly a little skeptical of all the natural birth community hand-wringing about optimal fetal positioning. With DS, I was on bed rest so I was unable to do all the exercises, sitting properly, etc towards the end. He was ROA and I had a really hard time delivering him.

With my DD, I did everything right. Not reclining, sitting on a ball, yoga every week. Turned out she was posterior during labor and also was delivered completely posterior (she never turned). If my MW hadn't told me, I never would have known. I had no back labor (although hands and knees did feel good while I was laboring) and I delivered her in 12 minutes with minimal tearing.

There's an article called "in defense of the op baby" or "celebrating the op baby" (I can't remember which). It's on a midwife blog. I read it before I was PG with my DD, but it has really resonated with me since her birth.

misterdonut

Good to know  

oliversmommy32912 said:

DS2 was ROA. I had a relatively easy, yet long labor. I stressed out about it a lot and was always on my left side trying to get him to flip over and it turns out it didn't really even matter in the end. He was ROA until he came out and will came out easily. I only pushed for 8 minutes.