@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
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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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Great tips! I also had an unmedicated birth with my twins despite the pressure I received in the hospital. I had an amazing support system, including a doula that offered so many pain relieving techniques like back pressure, and thigh jiggling (as hilarious as that sounds). Affirmations were a large part of my success too. I went deep within and felt like I was tapping into the strength of all the mother's who came before me. Birth is truly an empowering experience. Thanks for sharing this great article! -A
Wow! So incredibly amazing that you had an unmedicated birth with twins. That is very empowering and inspiring! I’m so glad the affirmations helped you!
Generally I find western women's worst enemy is other women and the expectation that it will be awful. I birthed my daughter here in Thailand without any pain meds at age 41 - no family supports and no friends handy - and can honestly say I find going to the dentist more painful. I think largely cos I didn't expect it to be horrific.
Sadly the first impression of birth is negative because of lack of knowledge. So many women don’t realize what they are capable of. Natural practices have become scarce and need to be taught and encouraged again.
That’s really awesome that you birthed with no pain meds at 41! Especially with no support, I can’t imagine that. Wow! Support was everything for me, helped me keep going.
Thanks for your response.
Mothers through the ages have often birthed without support - when you are in tune with Mother Earth you instinctively need a lot less external stuff.
The Freedom Tribe challenge has been extended by another week - hoping to see something from you about the loss of freedom that comes from restricted birth choices. :) Your mission, should you choose to accept it. 50 Steem on offer!
It’s funny you say that because just last week I was having a conversation and this thought came up. I was thinking about how women were giving birth to their babies back then with no medical professionals or tools, just themselves and their instincts.
I just might have to take that offer ;)
Thank you!
It has been about 30 years ago when I gave birth to my daughter and my son, but I can still remember it wasn't easy. We didn't have a lot of choices way back then and didn't know everything we know now :)
Yes I definitely understand. We have so many more resources now to help us that we didn’t have before. I am glad we have more information available to us now.
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