Can a Breech Baby “Correct” Itself Before Birth?

If you're pregnant and you find out your baby is "breech," that means the baby's head is facing up rather than down.

That could mean you will need to deliver by C-section, but not always.

"Babies can be breech at any point during the pregnancy, and the earlier in the pregnancy it is, the more likely they are to be breech. When we start worrying about it or thinking about it more is toward the end of the pregnancy," said Janna Mudd, M.D., an OB/GYN with Hoffman and Associates OB/GYN, an all-female practice affiliated with The Family Childbirth and Children's Center at Mercy.

There are different types of breech positions. "Frank breech" is when the baby's feet are straight up by their head. "Complete breech" is when the baby's head is up with both knees bent. "Incomplete breech" is when the baby's head is up with one leg bent.

Moms sometimes try little things to see if their baby will move.

"Things that moms tend to do can be position changes. Sometimes, moms will try to go on their hands and knees or try to lay on the floor with their back and then put their buttocks up on a couch or something to see if they can get the baby to flip. Sometimes, moms will put something cold on the top of their belly and something warm down below, but that hasn't been proven to help that much. We need more data to support that," Dr. Mudd said.

In her practice, doctors might perform an ultrasound at 35 to 36 weeks pregnant to see if the baby is breech. If so, they can perform a procedure to manually flip the baby.

"Most patients tolerate it pretty well. The success rate is about, on average, 60 percent," Dr. Mudd said.

If that doesn't work, a C-section will likely be offered. But according to Dr. Mudd, babies can flip on their own, all the way up to the last seconds before birth.

View Mercy OB/GYN Dr. Janna Mudd's interview regarding breech babies.