What are the Best Positions for Labor and Birth?

Here are some of my favorite positions for labor and birth! I recommend switching positions every 30 to 60 minutes during active labor. It's important to switch positions even if you are laboring with pain medications such as an epidural. Switching positions frequently helps to change the shape of your pelvis giving your baby more room to engage and move down. It also helps you stay comfortable and use different coping methods like sitting on the toilet, being in the shower, using a birth pool on hands and knees, laying on your side with a peanut ball and more. The more active you are during labor, the more you can feel in control.

Using gravity and upright positions can really help your baby move down through your pelvis. Positions where you're leaning forward and hammocking your baby with your belly help them stay in the optimal fetal position. Here's a big list of my favorite positions, in the order that I teach them in my prenatal class. For more info you can always Join one of my prenatal classes, or reach out to me for a private session! Hiring a doula means that you have Hands-On in person support with all of these positions during your labor.

Upright

-Standing

-Slow dancing

-Runner's lunge

-Captain Morgan's Lunge

-Rocking your hips

-Full moon hip rotation

Hands and Knees

-Neutral spine hands and knees

-Cat Cow breathing

-Inversion with your head lower than your hips

-Child's pose

-Fire hydrant with a peanut ball

Side Lying

Laying on your side with a peanut ball or pillow between your legs

Exaggerated side lying

Sideline release from spinning babies

Flying cowgirl with a peanut ball

Sitting/Squatting

-Sitting on a peanut ball like a park bench

-Sitting on a yoga ball with hip circles

-Sitting backwards on a chair

-Sitting forwards on a chair with counter pressure

-Sitting backwards on the toilet with or without yoga blocks.

-Hanging squat with a rebozo

-Supported squat with your partner

-Riding the peanut ball like a horse