Vanessa de Beer

Vanessa de Beer, Homebirth Midwife

Location: Potchefstroom, South Africa

Challenge: First baby with a deflexed head and total face presentation

Solution: Rebozo, forward leaning inversion and side-lying release

Place of birth: Home

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Vanessa’s story begins with a phone call.

A man was calling on behalf of his wife who was 40 weeks pregnant and looking to have an out of hospital birth. I agree to meet, but I'm hesitant. I've never taken on a client at 40 weeks because I love to develop a relationship and help them prepare optimally for birth and beyond. When I meet the couple, they seem like the perfect candidates for home birth. They are knowledgeable about everything I usually need to talk to people about.

Then I feel the lady's tummy. The head is extremely high. For the first time in my life, I felt a baby's head that was deflexed. This was a total face presentation. So, here was our plan of action: rebozo, forward leaning inversion and side-lying release.

After lots of rebozo work (shaking the apple tree and sifting) I asked the lady to get in to a forward leaning inversion and I positioned myself under her; using both my hands and fingertips, I gently and firmly pushed the occiput of the baby's head forward. The baby's head easily obliged and was flexed. She lay down and I felt her tummy - baby's head felt well-flexed. Then she put on a belly band and wore that for the majority of the rest of her pregnancy. 

Two weeks after we met for the first time, (so she was exactly 42 weeks pregnant), she went into labour and had a wonderfully uneventful waterbirth. She was in labour for about eight hours and sustained no tears.