If your baby is in the breech position, you may feel the baby's head moving under your rib cage. Or you may feel as if you have a hard knot up under your ribs. Your doctor may be able to feel the baby's head or hear the baby's heartbeat above your navel rather than in your lower abdomen. The breech position is common in early pregnancy. About one third of all babies are breech at 24 weeks, but by the 32nd week most babies are in the head-down position.
Women carrying twins often have one baby in the breech position.
If your baby is in the breech position, your doctor may try to turn the baby to the head-down position after 36 weeks. He or she may use a procedure called external cephalic version to try to turn the baby. If this is not successful, your doctor will leave your baby in the breech position until you deliver. Most babies change position by the time labor begins. Because your breech baby's head is the last part to come through the birth canal, special problems might occur that could make vaginal delivery unsafe.