About posterior position

Why posterior?
Attitudes to posterior labours
Strategies to deal with a posterior labour

A few babies will start labour in a posterior position. This is when the baby's back is facing the woman's back inside her uterus, on either her left or right side. Posterior babies are simply a variation of normal. They are not in themselves a complication.

Image 5-26 shows a baby in a right posterior position.

Image 4-06 shows a baby in a left posterior position.

About 90% of posterior babies will turn to the more common anterior position, during the course of the woman's labour, before the birth. About 10% of posterior babies will come down the birth canal, still in the posterior position, being born looking up at their mother's belly (instead of looking down towards her bottom!). Caregivers often refer to this as the baby being born 'face to pubes'.

WARNING: This image shows a real photo of a baby being born 'face to pubes'. If you would like to look at this image, you can click here Image 5-49

Posterior labours have an increased chance (but are not guaranteed) of:

or View All