Gail Tully

Gail Tully is a homebirth midwife (CPM) and The Spinning Babies Lady in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. She also developed Belly Mapping and Resolving Shoulder Dystocia. Visit her at SpinningBabies.com and ResolvingShoulderDystocia.com.

Tanya Villano—tanyavillanophotography.com

Posterior Perspective

by Gail Tully June 1, 2015

A woman’s subjective experience of her pregnancy is important to the midwife. With so many negative birth stories and comments bombarding mothers today, the last thing a midwife wants is for the pregnant mother in her care to be stressed by negative talk during a prenatal.

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Identifying and Resolving Obstructed Breech Birth: When to Touch and When to Be Hands-free

by Gail Tully June 1, 2013

An educational article that not only covers the signs of obstructed breech birth, but also teaches the skills that best deal with resolving the situation.

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First Twin: Breech

by Gail Tully June 1, 2013

Gail Tully, known for her work with Spinning Babies’ workshops, teaches us lessons on breech via a twin birth story.

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FlipFLOP: Four Steps to Remember

by Gail Tully September 1, 2012

FlipFLOP is a memory tool listing four successful techniques to free a baby from shoulder dystocia, an emergency caused by one or both shoulders caught by the pelvis after the birth of baby’s head. Read more…. FlipFLOP: Four Steps to Remember

Arm Behind the Back: A Shoulder Dystocia Complication

by Gail Tully September 1, 2012

Gail Tully offers insight into shoulder dystocia complications by informing on how important it is to look for the placement of the arm.

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Opening the Pelvic Brim with Walcher’s Position

by Gail Tully March 1, 2011

This past year, two labors I attended benefited (meaning we avoided a cesarean each time) from a technique shared over a hundred years ago by Dr. Walcher. The first of these mothers labored for her third homebirth after four previous cesareans. She’d had a hard time getting her first baby into her pelvis (lying in bed) and was given a c-section at 3 cm and then she had three more cesareans in following years. Umm hmm. So, I was honored to help at her first homebirth, her fifth child. He also took a long time to engage. Beginning posterior, a variety of positions eventually got him through. Her second homebirth occurred after a long latent phase but before her midwife arrived.

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Illustration provided by the author

Belly Mapping: Put Positioning into Parents’ Hands

by Gail Tully December 1, 2010

Help new parents feel more comfortable with their growing baby and teach them about the importance of positioning at the same time with this helpful, instructional article about belly mapping.

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Shoulder Dystocia: The Basics

by Gail Tully August 31, 2003

The head had come out, mostly. The chin pressed deep into the mother; it didn’t emerge in the way expected. The baby grimaced but stayed tight. His chin didn’t arch and swing to the side so that he could face his mother’s thigh. My mentor said softly but firmly, “check for the cord.” Slipping my finger out of sight, I felt an odd crease around the baby’s neck but couldn’t get under it; so, no cord, I thought. I placed the same finger on his shoulder and pressed gently to corkscrew the baby. I worried that pressure could cause him discomfort. My finger pressed tentatively. No movement resulted at all.

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The Doula’s Contribution to Mamatoto

by Gail Tully June 1, 2001

Even as midwives we can underestimate the long-term grace brought through the presence of a doula at a mother’s side. This is a curious blind spot in our maternity care. As a homebirth parent and midwife, I came to this realization slowly, even though I was a doula myself! Read more…. The Doula’s Contribution to Mamatoto