My friend’s daughter did go on to deliver a baby boy, but she had a lot of back pain during pregnancy. She was part of a C section because it was termed as sunny side up delivery. What does sunny side up baby mean would be the first thing to strike you. The reason being that all of you might have heard of breech birth.

In medical terms the sunny side up delivery goes by the name of OP position. The head of the baby happens to be turned but it is in the wrong way. The posterior which is the back portion of the head of your baby you are going to press against the pubic bone. What happens is that it makes it hard for the baby to extend the head out from the pubic bone. In doing so the process of delivery does become longer.

A lot of studies have been conducted on OP positions. What does it mean for a delivery and you can go on to prevent it. Let us observe the results

• In the starting phase of labor this is common and affects 30 % of pregnancies
• By the time of delivery most of the babies are expected to be in normal position. Persistent levels of OP are only found in 5 % of the babies
• If the levels of OP is persistent it does mean an emergency C section or assisted form of delivery. Research does show that 20 to 30 % of babies that have persistent OP are delivered via C section.
• The chances of a persistent OP does increase considerably if it happens to be your first pregnancy. In numerical terms the risk would be 7 %

The main option for dealing with an OP positioned baby has to be a C section delivery or in some cases a manual rotation of the baby was undertaken. This can be done via the birth canal along with maternal posturing. Here you go on to replicate a position in the knees or hands with the back stretched out and the chest leans in front. In a lot of studies such a position has gone on to reduce back pain but till date there is no clear cut evidence which shows that posturing is going to have an impact on OP position.

The better news is that even if you start the delivery in a sunny side position, by the delivery time a baby is expected to be in the correct position. It does seem to be a great feeling if posturing could improve the odds, but so far limited results have emerged.

Do discuss with your health care provider on what their experience has been in dealing with OP positioned babies. Do discuss with them the options of delivery if the baby appears to be sunny side up. The more you are aware it is going to happen, the better prepared you will be in dealing with the situation.