One, two, breech...

Last week my mum went to have an ultrasound -the last of three that are scheduled in a normal pregnancy in Italy. It is called the “growth” ultrasound, because it mainly serves to check whether the belly-dweller is growing well (and I am…I’m following the normal growth-curve). Actually my parents were also looking forward to have a look at me, and in order to make them happy I decided to do something very special. At 32 weeks 85% of all belly-dwellers are turning their heads down and they keep hands and feet crossed, but that’s not original enough for me. Unfortunately I’m too big to be able to have my whole-body-ultraound-picture taken, so you’ll have to take my words for what I did.

Well, imagine someone, e.g. Alexandre Despatie that is going to do a simple reverse pike from a 3m springboard. He would start the dive with a normal forward approach where he swings his arms forward and over his head as he jumps on the board to gain extra momentum. Once of the board he lifts his legs up into the air until they point straight up, perpendicular to the water. He bends the waist and reaches forward to touch his toes with the fingertips. If you are following the sequence in your mind you will realize that his buttocks are now in the lowest point. What should follow now is that the diver should keep his legs extended upward while straightening his torso and point his head straight down toward the water, then swinging his arms with the whole body so they remain over the head and end up pointing toward the water before entering the water in a vertical position. But I want you to stop the image before, while the diver is bent over his legs with the buttocks as the lowest point, in what is called the reverse pike position. This position lasts only a fraction of a second, and it may seem very easy to do, but actually it takes years of practice to perfect and only the very best can do it flawlessly. I think it’s elegantly simple and beautiful -and for that reason this is the position I chose to show to my parents!
I looked rather graceful if I may say so myself (I even stretched out the toes for absolute perfection), but rather than hearing the cheering from my parents and the doctor, the first comment was: Ah..he’s in a breech position! Which means that I got the butt down! Well, how can you imitate a crucial moment of a gold winning diving performace and still keep your head down?

But there was no way they could concentrate on my skills and elegance, and the doctor even started talking about the necessity of a ceserean birth if I didn’t turn before the end of the pregnancy. Silly! My mum, my dad, well, everyone seemed to be a bit worried. Maybe they missed the fact that 2/3^rd of all belly-dwellers that are in a breech position at 32 weeks turn before the estimated due date.

Anyway, the next morning my mum went to her monthly appointment with the gynecologist and the midwife, both of which were equally worried about my breech position. One of the things that is normally done at these appointments is to measure my heart-beat. The midwife started looking with the probe for my heartbeat, but she couldn’t find it. After a few minutes of letting the probe slide on the gelly on my mum’s stomach she gave up, and the gyncologist took over. She pushed and moved, and added half a bottle of gel on my mum’s belly but nothing worked…they just didn’t manage to find my heartbeat. With a suspicious look on her face, the doctor started squeezing the skin on my mums belly between her fingers, checking if the underlying fat-layer had become so thick and solid that my heartbeat didn’t pass through! I don’t know which conclusion she came to, but at least she kept searching. I started kicking my mums belly from the inside trying to let them understand that they were actually looking for the heartbeat in the wrong place…something which took them more than 5 minutes to realize by themselves! Finally they found it…but not on the side of my mum’s belly where it was expected to be (based on the ultrasound the day before) but on the lower part of the belly, as I had actually turned during the night and was lying on the side, i.e. with the head to one side! Since then I have turned many times (indicating that there is still a lot of space for me to move). My mum realizes this both because she has the sensation that there is a centrifuge in her stomach when I turn, and also because she can feel the kicks on the left side of the belly one moment, then on the lower part of the belly, then on the right side, and so on. I still haven’t fixed myself with head down (why should I when it’s so much fun to turn around and well, there is still a lot of time left…isn't there?). Who knows if I will turn to the head-first position before day X! In case I don’t turn, my mum has booked a “external cephalic version” at the hospital some days before christmas! This means that the doctor (with the help of ultrasound) will intervene from the outside, turning me to the right position in order to try to avoid a cesarean birth! In addition, my mum is going to start to do all kinds of turn-the-baby-exercises to try to convince me to turn. But let’s see who is more stubborn in the end, me or my mum!