midwife's muse

Toxic Moxi

In an effort to encourage unborn babe, Poppy, to flip into a more conventional head down position daughter has been using moxibustion sticks. They look rather like roman candles or highly decorated cigars. What happens is that you acquire a pair of these chinese medicine rolls, chinese herblists have them, sit Mum in a chair with her feet on a couple of books, we used video boxes, and line books of a comparable size up next to the sides of her feet. When you've done this you light the moxisticks and let them smoulder, lie them along the books and position the tips near the point on the little toe where the nail meets the skin. Pregnant one had done this at her home, and then reported back that her whole house smelled like a bonfire. In common with many pregnant women she has an extremely hightened sense of smell so I dismissed her accounts as being an exaggeration. After yesterday, when she used the sticks at my house, I now know that she was not being overly dramatic. They produce a thick, odourous smoke, not unlike the smell of an illegal 'weed' much in evidence during my youth. Amy and Jack and the cats vacated the room, we had to keep the door closed to stop the smoke detectors going off, and if you stood at the other end of the room visibility of the moxi area was severly hampered. This goes on for 20 minutes, 24 hours later and the house still stinks.

Anyway, they did relax her uterus, I could palpate baby easily, even feeling the feet nestling under the bottom, but would the babe turn, no way, even with music playing next to the ears and a torch shining, leading the way round. At one point I had a fit of the giggles, picture it, thick smoke, daughter sitting with feet on video boxes, Bob the Builder will forever carry the scars of a close encounter with smouldering weeds, other daughter holding music playing toy next to her sisters bulging tummy, whilst I slowly move torch over the area. The three witches spring to mind but, these are all researched methods for turning the breech.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have good news, if I don't then the anxiety levels will have increased substatially, daughter is still adament that she will not have a section.

7.1.07 12:55