Written by

Gina Conley, MS

February 13, 2024

What is the Best Posture for Optimal Positioning for Your Baby??

Birth Preparation, Prenatal

You may have come across that there is one perfect position you should sit, stand, and exist in throughout your pregnancy to support optimal fetal positioning–which means the “best” position for your baby for birth. Usually, this position is a neutral spine position with little wiggle room for movement.

However, this concept that a neutral spine position is the perfect position that you should maintain for the majority of your pregnancy to support the best position for your baby is not entirely accurate. At worst, it can make you afraid to move your body.

Let’s clear up that the BEST posture is your next one. You must have the ability to easily move from position to position, including a neutral spine, an arched spine, and a rounded spine.

So, the goal is NOT to maintain neutrality ALL the time, but rather ensure that you can easily change positions and are not “stuck” in one position ALL the time. When you are stuck in one position ALL the time, this can cause a muscular imbalance and affect your mobility, which can impact your baby’s positioning for birth!

Let’s explore how you can approach mobility throughout your pregnancy to support your baby’s position and feel confident to MOVE your body during pregnancy!

Ready to support your baby’s optimal positioning and mobility during pregnancy? Join our online prenatal fitness program for daily workouts to confidently move throughout your entire pregnancy as you prepare for birth!

The Best Posture is the Next Posture

If you want to support your baby’s position for birth, the most important thing that you can do throughout your pregnancy is MOVE your body in all three planes of motion.

The three planes of motion include:

Sagittal Plane: Front to Back Movements
Frontal Plane: Side to Side Movements
Transverse Plane: Rotational Movements

You can find these three planes of motion in the spine and the hips! Incorporating exercises in these three planes of motion will increase your mobility, alleviating restrictions and muscular tension. When we get “stuck” in certain positions for prolonged periods of time, it can decrease our movement capability in our spine and hips. If we have decreased movement capability in the pelvis, it can negatively impact our baby’s position and make it harder for them to rotate through the pelvis.

Throughout your pregnancy, you can include exercises that help your spine round and arch (sagittal plane), laterally side bend (frontal plane), and twist or rotate (transverse plane). And yes, you can twist during pregnancy! Read this blog where we debunk this myth and explain why it’s SO important for your comfort and birth preparation to continue to rotate!

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A post shared by Gina, MS, & Roxanne, RN, BSN (@mamastefit)

You don’t need to wait until birth to learn how to move your spine and create space in your pelvis. Grab our free Birth Prep Circuit, featuring six exercises targeting common areas of restriction during pregnancy, to ensure you can create more space in your pelvis for birth!

1) Sagittal Movements: Arch and Round the Spine

The first type of movement to incorporate is the front-to-back movements in the sagittal plane. When adding in sagittal plane movement, focus on the arching and rounding of the spine and pelvis.

If someone is promoting that maintaining a neutral spine position when seated, standing, and existing is the best for your baby’s position, they will commonly demonstrate that an arched or rounded position are “bad postures” that can negatively impact your baby’s position. This notion is entirely untrue. Like I said before, the best position is your next one–so if you are ALWAYS stuck in a rounded position, or arched position, or even a neutral position, this has more of a negative impact on your baby’s position. We want movement for muscular balance to support our baby’s position!

An exercise that you could add into your prenatal routine to find more front-to-back spine and pelvis mobility are pelvic tilts! I like to add a hip shift on a yoga block to bring me deeper into each side.

In an all fours position, place one knee on an elevated surface such as a yoga block:

Shift your weight over the elevated knee to feel your hip shift. You will feel more of a stretch in the elevated hip area.
If you need to add more, press the lower knee into a wall (keeping it lower than the elevated knee), or add a mini band (see breakdown video below).
If you want to add more movement, add in some pelvic tilts where you round and arch in the back 10 times. Then switch sides.

Watch the breakdown video of how to do this exercise! We include breakdown videos like these in our fitness programs to guide you through each of our exercises, many of which are unique to our programming.

For daily workouts tailored to your pregnancy journey, consider joining our online prenatal workout programs! Our workouts are customized to your week of pregnancy, with trimester-specific modifications to support you at every stage. Say goodbye to guesswork and stay strong throughout your pregnancy journey as you prepare for birth with our expert guidance!

Our prenatal and postnatal fitness programs are offered in two formats:

Teambuildr App: list of exercises with demo videos with options to track your weights and progress within the app!
On-Demand Videos: full length workout videos you follow as you workout at the same time

2) Frontal Plane: Side Bending and Lateral Movement

Next, you can incorporate movements in the frontal plane, or side-to-side movements. This involves a lot of side bending of the upper body!

The side-bending motion of the spine tends to be neglected, and many of us tend to favor compression on the right side of the body. You may find that you have more right-side rib pain or discomfort. But, if you have this right-side body compression, it is impacting the tension in your abdominal wall, in which one side may have more tension than the other. The abdominal wall plays a large role in your baby’s position–so if there is uneven tension in the abdominal wall, it could make it harder for your baby to find their best position when labor starts!

Adding in side-bending exercises can relieve this tension and support your baby’s optimal positioning! In the 90/90 position, we are focusing on the asymmetrical positioning of the pelvis with one leg in external hip rotation and the other leg in internal hip rotation. The 90/90 side camel incorporates both transverse motions in the hips with external and internal rotation AND sagittal movement with hip extension and flexion!

In the 90/90 with side body opener:

Start in a 90/90 position, with one leg in front and the other to the side/behind.
Find a comfortable seat, trying to have even weight distribution between both hips. If you are having a hard time getting comfortable, sit on a yoga block to elevate the hips slightly.
Then, lean toward your internally rotated leg and reach overhead with the opposite arm to feel a stretch in your side body.
Hold here for 10 breaths.
Then repeat on the other side.

You can also add in a camel where you extend in the hips for a hip flexor release, as well. Watch this YouTube video for a breakdown on how to do the 90/90 side body opener and the camel movement.

Thank you for all your great programming!! I just had my second kiddo! First one was medical induction with pitocin and ended up getting an epidural. That birth was quite quick and intense going from 4cm to ready to push in 3 hours, but then pushed for 3 hours. This one was also a medical induction, but I was basically in early labor when I was admitted. Was able to stay off pitocin! Had my water broken for me to help progress labor. Took about an hour and some breast pump usage to get things really going but once they did - woof! Went from 4cm to baby in 1.75 hours! The whole time I kept flashing to your content - keep your jaw loose, breathe, sway your hips in whatever way feels good, knees in feet out at the end. Did half the labor standing and swaying, part in the warm tub, and then moved to an all fours position in the bed. My midwife then suggested using the squat bar to lean and push on. Boy oh boy did that work! 2 pushes hanging on that and he was here! So again thank you both for all the information you share through your paid programs, and free content. Everyone I know who works in the birth world or is having a baby I suggest you to them!!

MamsteFit’s Prenatal Fitness Course made me feel strong and ready for birth! During pregnancy I knew I wanted to support my body in the best way possible for birth. As someone who didn’t typically do as many strength focused workouts, I wanted something I could do from home that was easy to follow. All the workouts in this course made that possible. The demo videos are great for showing how to do the movements and how to modify them. I never felt like I couldn’t do the entire workout at home. I felt stronger as my pregnancy progressed! I appreciated knowing that the movements I was doing were helping me to prepare for birth and beyond. I liked the structure of the workouts and knowing what the focus of the day was. Understanding breathing and taking the time to do that for each workout was helpful. As we moved in to the later stages of pregnancy, the partner workouts were awesome! We liked practicing labor positions and finding what worked for me in a calm manner instead of panicking during actual labor. This helped us to know what my go to positions and counter pressure options would be for labor. I felt the strongest I have going into birth and believe this helped me have a smoother recovery!!

I also wanted to say thank you for the amazing Beyond Program. I used MamasteFit in my 3rd trimester for my last pregnancy (with twins) and then the 16 week postpartum program following. I feel like I should share I was [following another prenatal/postpartum fitness program] was boring and still only focused on the same basic strength movements, that left me feeling so stiff and lacked dynamic movement. During my third trimester with my twins and using your prenatal program, I literally felt my pelvis open and relax, and I was able to have relatively short vaginal birth. After I finished your postpartum program I tried [other online fitness programs] but couldn't keep up with either and ended up injurying my back in the process. This summer when I started the Beyond program, I could barely squat a barbell, and now after 4 months, I am able to backs quat heavier weight again and pain free!! I was so scared to get pregnant again knowing what pain I was in before being pregnant, what would that look like once I was pregnant again?? Your beyond program really helped me gain strength and stability, and honestly feel like myself again. Thank you so much for this amazing resource. I love all of your content!

3) Transverse Plane: Rotation and Twisting

The final plane to focus on incorporating into your prenatal workout routine is the transverse plane with rotational and twisting movements. And to repeat, yes twisting your spine is safe throughout pregnancy and NECESSARY. You need to rotate your spine for optimal function–if you limit your spine rotation, it can negatively affect your comfort AND decrease the mobility of your pelvis for birth.

You can find rotation in a deep squat position to find external hip rotation to move in the transverse plane, or the adductor rock back with thoracic rotation to find more frontal motion of the hips.

In the deep squat position you can:

Start by getting comfortable in a deep squat position. If needed, elevate the heels on a supportive surface or sit to a yoga block.
Then you can press the knees apart with your elbows. And then target the press only one one knee.
Then you can add in thoracic rotation.
If you want to advance this, hold a weight and press it overhead as you rotate. This will help you move deeper into the exercise.

Watch the breakdown video for a breakdown of different elements you can incorporate into your deep squat mobility routine, such as pressing the knees apart and thoracic rotation with and without a weight!

There is no ONE best posture! Support your baby's position by moving MORE!

In summary, there is no one best position or posture to be in all the time to support your baby’s position for birth. The best posture is your next one! The best way you can support your baby’s position for birth is to move more–incorporate movement in all three planes of motion: front-to-back, side-to-side, and rotational, to improve the mobility of your spine and pelvis.

If you are always in one position ALL the time, this could negatively impact your baby’s position as it can cause a muscular imbalance. So, if you want to positively impact your baby’s position for birth: move more and move well!