I have been asked a LOT lately about the topic of breech babies and Chiropractic. What is Webster Technique and Why does Chiropractic "turn" a breech baby? This is why...
First of all I just want to say that there are techniques that skilled Chiropractors use to "turn" breech babies. One of them is called Webster Technique. It works a LOT of the time, but does not work for all babies. If there are reasons other than ones that I will discuss, for example a short umbilical cord, then the baby is NOT going to turn no matter what is done. There are anatomical reasons for the "breech" position. I am going to call this "breech" position inuterine constraint which means that the fetus does not have optimal room in the uterus. This could even be in the "head down" or vertex position.
As a woman, our uterus would be a free floating organ in our lower abdomen if it weren't for a few ligaments attached to it. Those ligaments are attached at the other end onto our pelvis (more specifically our pubis and sacrum). When our pelvis is misaligned, called a subluxation, it pulls on those ligaments which in turn pulls on our uterus. This causes a torque, or twist in our uterus which in turn causes less space in our uterus.
As an example if you had a balloon and were to pinch on portion of it and pull it towards you it would alter the shape of the balloon. Similar idea with the uterus. When the fetus is inside the uterus and the uterus is being pulled it makes the space inside the uterus compromised. The fetus then has to give up its preferred head down, freely floating position for a less optimal position.
When a pelvis that is subluxated is adjusted accurately and soft tissue work is done to the pelvic ligaments and muscles then the uterus is freed from that torqued position there is no reason that the fetus wouldn't take the path of least resistance which would be head down. (Unless of course there are other complications going on as stated before.)
The best thing about using Chiropractic for inuterine constraint is that there is no risk for mother or baby in using this technique. This technique will NOT WORK if there are other factors involved, and there will be no risk for an emergency Cesarean section.
