@NaturalMedicine’s Archive Amnesty - Helpful Ways to Cope During Labor - Intervention Free Birth

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This is the second part of my archived posts series on encouraging and empowering women to have Natural Non-Medicated Births! If you haven’t read the first post you can do so Here.

@naturalmedicine has challenged us to an Archive Amnesty to fill up our ’back catalogue’ with remedies or advice. I hope many will find the information I share helpful.

Today I want to share with you some of the techniques I have used to help me cope with the pains strong sensations of labor.

When I am delivering our babies naturally with no pain medications or interventions, I explain what I feel as intense sensation, not pain. It’s all in our minds and how we perceive things. I have heard many women say

the pain is just too much to bare.

When I focus on connecting and working with my baby, on what my body is telling me to do and getting the baby through the birth canal, I have much more Will Power to get the job done. There is a lot of pressure but I know the more pressure I feel the closer I am to holding my baby in my arms.

Affirmation Cards

During my first delivery I used affirmation and picture cards to help keep me in a “Happy Place”. They have these cards available for purchase but you can make your own by writing down messages on index cards that will keep you hopeful and give you strength during labor. Reading these affirmations during the most difficult times will remind you that you CAN do this and that you have the POWER to continue on. I also had a few picture cards that helped take my mind some where else mentally during contractions and gave me positive feelings ie. a picture of a beautiful beach, a vacation spot, a mother holding her baby etc.

Body Scan

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There are moments during labor that we tense up. No matter how hard you try to stay relaxed sometimes it just happens. We have one of those long intense contractions and we began to cringe, ball our fists, curl our legs and sometimes even stop breathing. All of these things makes you feel more pressure during a contraction. The body scan is a method to help you breathe and relax all of your muscles which helps you stay calm instead of tensing up.

While in a relaxed position in between contractions, take a deep breath and focus on one part of your body at a time. I usually start with my head then move on to my eyebrows, nose, cheeks, mouth, neck, shoulders and so forth all the way down to my toes. What you do is visualize each part of your body relaxed and calm as you exhale and before you know it there is no more tension. You are literally picturing all of the tightness, stress and strain melting away from your body. Sometimes we don’t realize how tense we are until we become attuned with our bodies.

Contraction = Baby Descending

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One of the things that always helps me to be relaxed, work with my baby and listen to my body is when I imagine my baby descending through the birth canal. I realize that he/she needs me to do my part and allow my body to open up in order for them to come out. With each sensation I feel I know it’s only getting closer to me meeting my new baby. When we stay tensed up labor is prolonged and more painful. When we allow our bodies to open up naturally for our babies, labor is shortened and more tolerable. So think of those strong sensations as a step closer to labor being over and you holding your new sweet bundle in your loving arms. The more loose and relaxed you are the more your baby descends.

Conclusion

As you can see giving birth naturally takes a lot of mental strength. Each one of these methods I shared with you today calls for visualization and imagination. If we envision how we want our births to be and keep a positive mind set we can get through the toughest times a lot easier. We can always refer back to that picture in our mind and focus on making it happen.

I love supporting women and giving them encouragement to refuse interventions and totally rely on their own strength and on their partners as a support system. We are WELL capable of doing this on our own but we have been told we are not strong enough or it is not possible. It IS possible and you ARE strong enough. It’s time we take back our births and trust our bodies to do the guiding as we mentally stay focused on the end goal.

Thank you for Reading!

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