I was just about 37 weeks pregnant and the baby was still breech. People stopped saying to me that she has plenty of time to turn, because we were running out of time. The doctor mentioned that if the baby was still breech for the next appointment, then he’ll try external version which is when they try to turn the baby from pushing on your stomach (which I hear is pretty painful and doesn’t always work). My hospital doesn’t attempt vaginal births for breech babies. I began to get desperate and didn’t want to play the waiting game any longer so I started to research what I can do. I found a list of a variety of things and I pretty much did ALL of them. The funniest of which were the different physical positions, like laying on your back on the floor with your legs up against the couch sticking straight up in the air (breech tilt). Or getting on all fours and laying your arms and top-half of your body on the ground, so that your butt is sticking up to the highest point possible (cat stretch-ah, how I hope the mailman didn’t see me those days). Or laying on your back with your knees bent and putting 3 huge pillows under your butt (pelvic tilt). Or trying to do this choreographed “crawl” around my entire house on hands and knees (on hardwood floors), which gave me a lovely array of knee bruises.  I also sat on my exercise ball and would rotate my hips around in a circle for about 30 minutes at a time.

The less physical methods included meditation and focused thinking, such as picturing my baby turning; putting an ice pack on my stomach; very light self-massages in a circle motion on my belly. I would shine a flashlight on my belly from up high and slowly move the light down to where the head _should_ be; the idea being that the baby wants to follow the light with its eyes/head. I would sit at work and do this in between my work assignments. I would also do the same thing with tapping my hand, instead of using a flashlight, hoping the baby would follow the noise. My husband would talk to my pelvic area in hopes that the baby would follow the sound. But the method I used the most was playing music from my mp3 player and putting the headphones up to my pelvic area. I found myself using a set mix of about 10 songs, mostly softer-sounding alternative rock-type songs, and a few slow pop songs.  I tended to use higher pitch songs since I heard that babies seem to like high pitched voices. My song list included “Dizzy”, “Meet Me in the Tower”, and “Places” by Ours (these became my “staple” songs throughout my pregnancy), “The Frail” by Nine Inch Nails, most of the “Ok Computer” album by Radiohead, “Angel” and “I Love You” by Sarah McLachlan, “Turn My Head” by Live, “Angel Standing By” by Jewel, and “I Grieve” by Peter Gabriel. I also put some original songs from my husband on my mp3 player, one which included both of us singing, and played them to the baby down low, since she would prefer our voices over anyone else’s. One day I finally got some validation that the baby could hear the music. I didn’t realize that my mp3 player was up on full volume and I started to play a song to her, while holding the earbud down very low in the pelvic area. When the music started (very loudly), I felt the baby jump. I scared her! I felt bad, but then I was elated, because I knew for a fact she could hear. After that day I made sure the volume was on a better level.

I had read that being so far along in my pregnancy, you can feel if and when the baby turns. Some women said they totally felt the baby flip, and that it was the biggest baby movement ever. My baby had always kicked/moved a lot and you could see her moving if you looked at my belly. But during this period of trying to get her to turn, I felt nothing like a huge movement and was convinced that she was still breech when I walked into my Week 38 doctor’s appointment. I was shocked when the doctor felt my belly and said she turned! I don’t know which of the 20 or so methods did it, or if it just happened anyway, but I was thrilled! So to all those women carrying breech babies…don’t give up. And keep trying these methods you hear about, because I am one case where it DID work, so stay positive and get on all 4’s girl! haha.

Live concert Ed Kowalczyk

From that experience, it was around this time that I became aware of the connection that the music I listen to can have on the baby. I was psyched! You always hear about how babies love classical music, instrumental music, soft music, etc., but what about modern rock music? Why does it always have to be Bach over Radiohead? Mozart over Muse? Beethoven over Nine Inch Nails? I do like the classics, but I wanted my baby to hear some drums also! From that point on, I decided I would start exposing the baby to “my” music right away, in utero, instead of waiting until it was born. So at 5 months my husband started to play acoustic guitar and sing to my belly all the time. I would also play acoustic guitar and piano as loudly as I could. I’m no where near as good on guitar as my husband, but I don’t think the baby knows chords yet, so it didn’t matter. Haha. Whenever I was in my car I would turn the radio up very loud so the baby could hear it. And I was still going to concerts. I hardly even looked pregnant and I felt great (none of those horrible pregnancy symptoms yet that women can get), so why not? The only change at shows was I became more aware of my surroundings so that I wasn’t in a place where I could get shoved or squished, and I always carried a bottle of water. Who says you can’t do much while pregnant? Ha!

Anyway, all those tests came back fine, so it was time for me to have this procedure done called a Hysterosalpingogram (HSG). It’s where they shoot radioactive dye up you and take an x-ray to make sure your uterus and fallopian tubes are clear/normal. From reading online it made it sound like the procedure felt like you were in labor for about 3 minutes or so and some women said it was worse than labor. Fun. To help deal with the pain I brought my mp3 player since nothing relaxes me more than music. So now I’m laying there all ready to go, listening to “Our Final Hymn” from the Neverending White Lights music collaboration, and I’m waiting for this intense pain to begin. All I feel is what can be described as a few seconds of strong menstrual pains. No big deal. The song wasn’t even over and it’s done. I do have a really high pain tolerance, so I’m thrilled about that. The good news was that the HSG didn’t hurt. The bad news was that the results showed that BOTH of my fallopian tubes were blocked. What the??? How did that happen? I wondered if the miscarriage could have caused that, and of course no doctors wanted to answer me on why it happened. All they said was, “here’s your referral to an IVF (in vitro fertilization) specialist; lots of women have successful outcomes with IVF; Good luck!” And I’m thinking Slow Down! Aren’t there other options first? Again, no answers. They said the IVF specialist will have to answer any other questions I had.

I made my appointment with a specialist, which was a month away. For the entire month I researched on how to clear blocked fallopian tubes, which suggested everything from surgery to special massages to relaxation/meditation techniques. Since I truly believe in the mind-body connection, I embraced anything that was affordable and within reason. I got a hot stone massage, and I would do relaxation techniques every night, which normally involved some “Ok Computer,” and various Sarah McLachlan and The Cure playing in the background. Since I couldn’t afford the fancy massage that’s designed to clear your tubes (yes that actually exists for a few thousand bucks), I just massaged my own abdomen in hopes of it doing something. And of course I went to two Ours concerts because nothing makes me happier than their live shows. Even during the show I got a little psycho and tried to visualize my tubes clearing out. I had recently read the book, “The Secret” which basically says that what you visualize will occur. Because of that, I made a “vision board” which is a cork board with inspirational images on it, like babies, pregnant women, etc. I figured it couldn’t hurt!

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