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CHILDBIRTH - DOES IT HAVE TO HURT?

Who are we worrying about hurting?

Perhaps when we forgot about BIRTHING WITHOUT VIOLENCE.  As a mother who used this book as my bible, as Ina May’s Spiritual Midwifery was a few months too late for my first baby, I followed as we all do, what I thought would be best.  Recently, as I work with women through what happened in their last birth or to help them achieve what they want with THIS birth, I see that we could do well to look at baby – and in a baby friendly way, start to birth better.

In birthing better – as nature intended – on our own body/baby schedule – possibly the rash of very distressed babies who seem to be screaming everywhere (especially instead of peacefully sleeping to grow well) would then be reduce  . . . and mums would be happier and all would be less traumatized through baby’s arrival.  So I am suggesting we travel past the ‘is it going to hurt’? interface to a more loving maternal and long term focus.

Baby emerging/meeting the outside world initially/learning to breathe /pump blood very differently and to ‘be’ here seems hardly to be given a thought.  Yet as Dr Sarah Buckley has well pointed out, the beginnings of life outside mum are pivotal in all of our lives.  We may not remember what happened to us, yet it moulds everything we do.

The ‘rebirthing’ wave that started thirty years ago is now a respectable way to undo a lot of our later traumas and ways of relating to the world.  Dr Michel Odent has published many books, and a few amazing websites to share with the world what his slant on birthing statistics shows – that the primal time when we first emerge from our mother shapes us forever.

My master teacher – the late Dr John Shen, spent his life observing people as a Chinese herbalist and healer. His system of pulse diagnosis and body reading allowed him to appear almost psychic – as he could within a few seconds of summing a person up tell them what had happened and why they were now suffering from whatever it was that they had come for him to relieve.  These things are very clear when we change our perspective.

Hence this piece on pain on birthing is to explore a little of what we have all forgotten and what we are visiting on our babies.

BIRTHING

As we descend through our mum’s birth canal, the hormonal storms that were occurring with the rhythmic pumping and massaging of labour probably awoke us as nearly-borns from whatever slumber we were indulging in, and warned us of change. The very tight and squeezy exit allowed us to be awoken physically - all of the body getting pummelled so that the infant lymphatic system (where the infection control tissue is now needing to be alerted of change) and the lungs full of amniotic fluid from practice ‘breathing’ need to be emptied in readiness for a life time of breathing air.

If mum has elected to allow nature to assist her through the transition pregnant to mother – life is good, as baby is receiving all the assistance needed to arrive safely.  If mum has given in to panic and tension and interference, or if mum has not been prepared on all levels - not just hope and intention – then it is very possible in today’s’ birthing climate that ‘an emergency’ is emerging from baby’s pending emergence.

What is stopping baby from coming gracefully?  Those who are supposedly there to help.  But these are not the actual players putting their perspectives and worries onto the very natural and easy birthing process. 
In birthing, there is little spare room to move and to negotiate the exit, baby and mum need to work together as a team.  Possibly the maternity care chosen could alert mum of baby’s potentially less than optimum position.  Possibly mum has studied the amazing work in ”the Pink Kit” – the resulting work from a NZ team who collated international and traditional midwifery /women’s ways of knowing, so she works it out herself.
Possibly she has stopped working outside being pregnant for long enough to bond and talk with her baby.  Possibly she is in tune with her body and has been attending “Yoga Baby” or some other helpful classes.  Possibly she has just gone along with the current medical take – ‘we will tell you what to do when you get here’.

We do not sign up for a marathon with no training.          Birthing is no different.

HOW TO BIRTH EASILY

Although this is a topic on PAIN, I have tended to focus on mum and her being at one with the birthing process – as without this, all perceptions and everything that follows is run by her head – not what is ACTUALLY happening in her body and in fact to baby at all. How do we feel pain? Through being emotional.  Through being attached to suffering. By being more tense and upset we will be more pained.  Hence any form of self hypnosis/calming technique is going to help.  Including gentle and loving support in whatever form.
Through sometimes being premenstrual, we all know everything can be all too much – and really nothing has changed – just how we are in relation to . . . . so everything is heightened – so too if we are fearful – or if we hear/feel fearful intent – we get into a ‘fight or flight’ mode, and birthing loses its gentle and helpful edge and becomes something to be fought – with the usual pain to validate the fear . . . . so how to not go there?

  1. Trust birth — we are all here because natural has worked through the ages — 95% of the time.
  2. Find birthing attendants who also trust natural birth.
  3. Become informed and surrounded by positive, life affirming people and birthers.
  4. Become very aware of your choices and your rights as a pregnant woman — baby is safest while you feel safe and supported.Choose always to work WITH birth.

WHAT MAY GET IN THE WAY OF AN EASY BIRTH?

Mum being upset should have been taken care of above.
In addition, good prenatal health care – not just taking a few vitamins – is also important.  Many different very good health care practitioners are always around - be it massage, homeopathics, acupuncture, herbal or chiropractic care – all working with the body to assist normal to easily continue, whatever pregnancy holds for you.

Be really clear that bodies accommodate babies – www.bigbaby.org.uk is a great start.
 
6.    Remember that nature needs you safe and well to nourish and love your baby for years yet. Why would it be anything other than safe and easy to birth your baby — just as you grew him/her — if you follow nature’s lead?
 
7.    Ensure baby is in OPTIMAL FETAL POSITION.  If not, please read all below . .
A baby’s position can have a major influence on the kind of labour a woman experiences and the way her baby is born. Encouraging a baby to lie in the most effective position for his /her journey through mum’s pelvis increases the chances of a spontaneous and straight forward childbirth. Unborn babies instinctively try to move into the most effective position for birth and may need some help if they are being always encouraged through mum’s postures and actions, to go back towards a non-optimal spot.
 
Modern furniture and lifestyle encourages maternal slouching. Sitting in a car seat also gives little incentive to sit upright and forwards. This means that the weight of the baby often swings around to where gravity dictates there is more room — towards the mum’s back. This leads to baby being in the wrong angle to enter the pelvis, which then flows on to not being able to get out of there (mum) easily.

BABY IN THE OP POSITION FOR MOST OF US MEANS:MORE PAIN
. . . Including - posterior (backache) labour

(This is a great indicator of OP). As many women can testify, posterior labours can be a huge pain in the back — literally. This is because the back of baby’s head presses on the woman's lower spine as labour progresses.
Labour is slow to start (and in fact may not do so without assistance), ‘overdue’ and most often ‘augmented’ (hurried up chemically — often at great stress to mum and baby).

Labour is often slow to progress, if it is pushed along artificially.
Labour is extremely painful — especially giving rise to dreadful back ache during contractions.
Labour stalls and is often not coordinated, or behaving as labour naturally does.
(Many, especially those who labour so well and who then get stuck — ‘Failure to Progress’ at about 7 cm, would be horrified to find later that understanding how baby was lying, and being able to alter this prior to labour beginning, may have been all that was necessary to give them an easy birth).
 
8.    If full dilation occurs, for some mums, a tortuous process of getting baby out the wrong way begins. Baby has a lot more work and distress to negotiate the more difficult pelvic configuration.  For some, baby is born as a frank OP naturally.

9.    For others, a C section follows — or may be arranged before labour even begins, or after trying to birth and failing, due to ‘Failure to Progress’.
 
SOLUTION?  Always be leaning forwards and at least upright — not slouching ‘comfortably’ backwards. Watching this footage again may give you the confidence to go ahead and make the sorts of changes that women all over the world, are doing — it really works!!!
http://www.homebirth.net.au/2008/03/rebozo-technique.html

Why bother?  OP presentation plays out as being too difficult in all aspects of labour — ending often nowadays in too long/too tortuous and easily fixed labours that may eventually end up as ‘emergency’ C sections. Simple midwifery tricks in labour can prevent this. The subtle twisting and turning a baby has to make to manoeuvre into the most effective position for labour is often not clearly understood. Revisit this footage to see the journey:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Xath6kOf0NE&eurl=http://www.homebirth.net.au/search/label/birth 

 
10.    Baby has to manoeuvre through mum’s pelvis. Your awareness of where baby is lying in your pelvis and the most effective path to take can make all the difference to the experience of labour and birth — for both of you.



Watch rebozo footage (http://www.birthingbyheart.com/doulas/rebozo-foetal-positioning  and http://www.homebirth.net.au/2008/03/rebozo-technique.html to see how you can easily safely and shift baby about.

A LITTLE ON BIRTHING PREPARATION

I always suggest a strong nutritional support – including Chinese herbs if I see a weakness where there may be possible bleeding or general debility after birthing – as pregnancy is the time to completely make mum over. At least a large amount of Magnesium/Calcium – especially of the Magnesium is transdermal – please Google – as tablets are not as great at carrying the nutrients internally.  Many homeopathic and herbal remedies also assist to relieve muscular and stress issues.

If you wish to use nature’s tools, getting the premium birth attendant — a doula, or midwife who is employed by you, who gets to know you prior to birthing and who will be supporting you throughout labour and in the initial weeks following the birth, where breastfeeding and being a new mum may try your capabilities — is a great move.  You need to be loosed and happy in labour.

I often suggest a doula for those birthing in a hospital, as most in the Western non-European countries have been colonised to believing that ‘something bad’ may happen — by virtue of being pregnant -  and so go to medicalised care centres where normal birthing is not encouraged may mean what is focussed on becomes reality. Doulas are not midwives, but provide loving nurturing support for both you and your partner that can make an immense difference to how mum feels she is coping, thus how labour progresses. A doula is also there to ensure natural happens — so instead of going off to do other duties, she is there to assist in many ways as labour unfolds.

Homebirth, where mum HAS to help herself, with nature leading gives the best maternal and baby outcomes — as it is assumed that should any deviation from normal and safe start happening, transferring to a sympathetic and local birthing establishment is available.

Henci Goer in her book, The Thinking Women’s Guide to Better Birthing (1999:180/81), states that in a study done in 127 cultures, 126 of them had one or more experienced women with them throughout the labour. The researchers (Klaus and Kennell and colleagues), explained that doulas reduced stress and anxiety, factors that can inhibit labour, and that the doulas close contact and massage stimulates natural oxytocin production.

Unlike intravenous oxytocin, in addition to strengthening contractions, naturally secreted oxytocin produces feelings of drowsiness, feelings of wellbeing and a raised pain threshold. All things that help mum relax, which foster birthing progress.

Please look at the whole issue of meeting baby as a mammalian primal experience. Nature has set it up for you to win, and for baby to have the best possible entry into our world. ANYTHING that interferes with the natural blueprint we all carry within/ natural order of birthing can escalate the likelihood of ‘something’ going wrong. Not trusting birth and not having normal birthing specialists (midwives) with you begins the possible process of the cascade of interventions - through wanting to ‘hurry up’ what is designed to be safe through allowing both mum and baby to attune to the birthing dance together. . . . .

LOOSENING UP THE PELVIS

Adequate BODY birth preparation. I have covered this extensively in my works, Birthing – What Dads Can Do and the manual and DVD, What Dads Can Do. 
Loosely, any massage/deep and very slow gouging that can be done (also very painful) to loosen up mum’s bottom/sacrum, prior to starting birthing helps both allow mum and dad to bond more, and to allow mum to trust that she can tolerate pain, and that dad is there to offer relief.
The massage basics
 

1. Warm the whole of mum’s body with preparation strokes     
2. Then concentrate on the bottom     
3. Warm up the whole sacrum with deeper and slower gouging with the pads of your fingers     
4. Massage strokes should follow the arrow directions
 

Massage much slower and deeper than you think is warranted. Ease off the depth as you leave the bone and get into the flesh. Start then aiming more laterally (towards the sides).
 

5. Find the acupressure points within the bony plate (sacrum) and hold with VERY deep pressure for about a minute and then go gradually down the pairs of points.    This helps remarkably in labour. Some mums prefer to NOT be touched; others, just very firm constant pressure on the sacrum with your palm, while other like very deep pressure on the points themselves. The further down baby descends, the lower the points that will help — ask mum which feels the best.
 
6. The point ‘GB 30” is where you start    Then move out from there and deeper — to wherever you can feel lumps or ropes within, and very firmly press/gouge these, whilst mum breathes out and lets go – and the tension that is stored (maybe forever) in the pelvis will dissipate. This also will allow amazing back and upper body release/relief.

Active birthing

It is widely accepted in midwifery circles that if a woman is mobile during the first and second stage, her labour is often shorter and more bearable than if she were lying on her back or in a semi-reclining position. http://www.birthright.com.au/birthing-information/Active-Birth.aspx

Being present

Having the apparent luxury of not feeling the labour means baby is on her/his own to birth. Your experience in labour is not what is happening to your baby. All the effort and worry about possible damage due to what you eat or don’t, what you take or don’t, what you scan /test for, or don’t, is not a patch on the damage inflicted on baby if you decide to take what appears to be the easy way out (not feeling labour yourself).

Baby NEEDS you to be there so s/he can communicate through sensations what you need to do to help meet him/her. Taking the chemical/surgical way out may visit far more distress in the coming days/months/years than you could imagine. Please review all work found on this site.  www.sarahjbuckley.com

CONCLUSION

Labour is sometimes not difficult and always bearable — if you have loving, positive support and lots of natural pain relief methods to choose from. If you are able to encourage good alignment of your baby before labour begins, your chances of a normal straightforward birth are much more likely.

Please CLICK HERE for your copy of Fetal Positioning Solutions eBook (instantly downloadable) and more on what you can do to give yourself the best birth possible . . . . especially if you have a transverse lie/breech in there (as Fetal Positioning Solutions comes with Breech Solutions” – the reasons behind all of these positional/possible birthing challenges are all the same).