TENS machines are widely used across the pond to help women deal with labor pain. They are safe for most women* with no side effects when used properly. They don't eliminate the pain completely, but it helps a lot. What is it? Here's a description from BabyCenter's UK website:
I have completed training on the use of TENS in labor at Renew Physical Therapy with Elizabeth Isa Herrera MSPT, CSCS and Rachel Schneiderman, DPT, ATC. I can help you learn how to use your TENS and will make suggestions for placement on specific locations on your back. If you choose to incorporate a TENS machine into your birth tool kit, we can integrate it with your other coping techniques; such as directed breathing techniques, massage, positions, yoga, hypnobirthing, Bradley and more. If you choose to get an epidural, it can help you delay getting an epidural too early. While you don't use a TENS at the same time as an epidural, it may help a mom who wants pain medication delay the introduction of an epidural into her labor. The longer we can stall getting an epidural, the less chances you will experience the possible side effects, and/or you can minimize the side effects. *Please check with your provider if you can use a TENS machine before using one.
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This is my longest blog entry to date. This thought and the need to explain it kept me up till 4am writing it out. If shorter blog posts are more your speed, just scroll past this one as all the rest are quite short.
My greatest tool in my doula “tool box” is my ability to help you regulate your emotions. Regulation is our ability to maintain stress within a window of tolerance. Its often referred to as being calm, being connected, being present, essentially its when your body mind system is in a balanced state. When you are you are thinking clearly, you’re engaging, your interacting, because your stress is maintained within a window. We all have a window for how much stress we can handle. Once we eclipse that and our experience exceeds that window, we move into dysregulation. Commonly referred to as stressed out. When you are in a state of dysregulation, you feel irritable, withdrawn, depressed, defiant, aggressive, you can’t think clearly, your short term memory is repressed. Its the state of road rage, losing it, seeing red. We all vacillate between these two states all the time. With the right support and understanding, a person, and specifically a woman in labor, has the essential tools to regain a calm state of regulation. Labor can be an intensely stressful situation. Doula care is spefically intended to address the emotional needs of the laboring women to help her deal effectivly with the stress of labor. To work with her contractions, to work with however her birth unfolds, to help her have the birth experience she desires, and/or help her manage an unexpected labor that is far from what she had expected or hoped for, in a positive way. Stress is normal to experience during your birth. But balancing that stress with calm is a vital balance to help you adjust to the huge transitions of labor and delivery. Not finding the balance can be pathologically harmful. The abstract below addresses the effects of stress on the body’s ability to function. Chronic Stress, Immune Dysregulation, and Health In the past 40 years, a growing body of literature has shown that chronic psychological stress can lead to immune dysregulation. Notably, these stress-induced immune changes are large enough to be clinically relevant. Chronic stress has been associated with a state of chronic low-grade inflammation, delayed wound healing, poor responses to vaccine, and increased susceptibility to infectious illnesses. Activation of neuroendocrine and sympathetic systems provides physiological pathways linking stress and these immune outcomes. Behavioral changes under conditions of chronic stress also contribute to immune dysregulation. Behavioral and pharmacological interventions may attenuate stress-induced immune dysregulation. (Jean-Philippe Gouin, MA, MPs, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois http://ajl.sagepub.com/content/5/6/476.abstract) My role as your doula is to help you regain calm and return to regulation from state of dysregulation. To help someone find their calmness, you must first be calm within yourself. As a doula, a mother and a calm energy person, I stay in a deeply regulated state during your labor no matter how stressful the scene may be. I feel most calm when I am at births. Births regulate me (why? I don’t know, thats why its called a calling) and in turn, I get the privilege of helping to regulate you. In addition to bringing you my calm energy, there are additional tools to help you. These techniques interweave with hypobirthing and yoga birth and are essentially bringing about the same desired results. All of the effective childbirthing techniques are essentially just ways to practice the following principles. Regulating the environment. Dimming lights, hydrotherapy, selecting specific sounds, music, or just silence are some examples of how I help affect your environment to help support you. Also practicing and modeling a calm, slow speaking voice to partners and others present. Directed breathing techniques are an extremely effective tool in helping laboring women regain regulation. When you create that dynamic of breath, you can bring regulation back to your system. Touch is another amazing tool for regulation. Lymphatic massage is a very gentle type of massage therapy used to flow off redundant fluid from the body and build up the general performance of the lymphatic (immune) system. This type of massage is easy to learn and a great technique for partners to learn as well. It can be done on isolated body parts or on the entire body. This kind of massage helps to bring about the proper direction of the lymph flow. (Lymphatic massage definition from: http://www.yogawiz.com/massage-therapy/lymphatic-massage-techniques.html#continued). Counter pressure is a more intense form of massage. Counter pressure is the firm application of hands and/or other hard objects such as tennis balls, massagers, etc to help alleviate the intense pains of contractions. This is most often done on the sacrum, hips and buttucks. Positions Changing and suggestions positions can help a woman feel like she has choices. Some positions are for the comfort of the woman, some are for aiding progress, many of them overlap those two things. Choices in labor are a useful calming and empowering tool for her. Some positions can also bring the desired affect of centering, like child's pose. Childs pose helps a woman quiet down the outside and regain calm. It puts her in a power position with her body as well as being great for opening and widening the pelvic outlet. The next piece of helping a woman regain and keep regulation is hydration and nourishment. A women needs to be well hydrated yet not over hydrated. Dehydration will zap her energy and decrease the efficiency of her labor. Advanced dehydration is of course a very dangerous condition. Over hydration can have adverse affects as well. Beyond swelling, we don’t want to overly dilute her oxytocin either. For nourishment, I am carefully monitoring her emotions and labor progress, or lack thereof, for signs of deficiency in calories, protein, sugar, carbs and/or sodium. Preparing highly nutritious yet low volume foods that don’t require much chewing or effort to eat and beverages to the laboring woman whenever possible helps regulation and labor progress. Speaking up in the labor room and advocacy As your doula, I do not address your health care provider on your behalf. I cannot speak for you, nor do I desire too. My goal is for you to find your own voice. But why is it sometimes so hard for women (and many men) to find their voice? Why are doctors sometimes so intimidating? Beyond their medical expertise that may make some feel less confident to voice their opinion, there are stress hormones affecting our abilities to cope with and react to the environment as we would like to. When people don’t find their voice during their births, they can then have a sense of failure, regret and/or other negative emotions. This is not your fault or failure to be strong and assertive. It is our survival mechanism in the face of stress. The flight or flight response mechanism we all learned about, which yes inhibits oxytocin (hormone responsible for contractions) and can inhibit contractions, and then necessitate the need for augmentation, ie pitocin, is more complex than we used to understand. And stress has a different reaction in women than in men. Stress in women does necessarily not cause the “flight or fight” response we all learned about. More recent research has shown that when under stress, women “tend and befriend”. Tend and befriend is not standing up to authority. But she is protecting her young and herself. Women need to realize it is a normal response to stress and nothing to be ashamed of. " Human Stress Responses The human stress response coined, "fight or flight" by Walter Cannon in 1932 is a hormonal response characterized by the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine. This hormonal cascade is caused by the activation of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system in response to a potential threat or danger. These threats can range from a predator attack to natural disasters threatening the survival of the individual and species such as earthquakes, fire, or even flooding. Up until 1995, research investigating the fight-or-flight response had been done primarily with males, females only constituting 17% of the participants. Researchers have rationalized this inequality because of an inconsistency in the results obtained from female subjects due to fluctuations in hormone levels during menstruation cycles. Taylor et al. (2000) suggest that the primarily male based research may have caused many to overlook a unique female stress response which they term "tend-and-befriend." Taylor et al. (2000) argue that due to differences in parental investment, females may have evolved their own stress response in order to protect themselves while they were pregnant, nursing, or caring for offspring. The male fight-or-flight response would not have been advantageous to the survival of females and their offspring because often the female would either be unable to fight or flee during pregnancy, or unable to protect their young if they were nursing or taking care of their young. Evolutionarily the tend-and-befriend stress response in females would have been selected for and the fight-or-flight response would have been selected against in females. Unlike the fight-or-flight response which allows one to fight against a threat if overcoming the threat is likely or flee if overcoming the threat is unlikely, the tend-and-befriend response is characterized by tending to young in times of stress and befriending those around in times of stress to increase the likelihood of survival. Since a group is more likely than an individual to overcome a threat, this response is a protective mechanism for both the female and her offspring. Basically, befriending other females is inherently necessary for the protection of offspring since pregnancy and nursing make a female even more vulnerable to an outside threat. Forming a network not only allows the female to have added protection and help with the raising of offspring, but also serves to secure resources such as housing and food. Although the threats mentioned are assumed to be external to the female home environment, this female network also serves to protect the females from the males even within the home environment. Studies even show that females who emigrate and are unable to form a female network, characteristic of female befriending, are more likely to become victims of abuse than women who are able to form these ties (Taylor et al., 2000). " (Quote from: http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/mccarthy.html) When women are with women, they are better able to manage the vulnerable state brought upon through the care for their offspring during and before birth. When women are under attack with their babies, they will try to deal the aggressor with kindness. It goes with the saying, ‘you can get more bees with honey’. And when you are in vulnerable state, such as having contractions, and if you are in a hospital with an incompatible staff to your expectations, and you maybe didn't have any other support, it might just be the wise decision in that moment to be nice to your care providers. So women should never feel like they failed if the didn’t stand up to a hostile person. They were surviving and protecting their young in a way that felt the most effective and safe. As your doula, I am your “other females” that help calm your nervous system from the “threat”. And that “threat” may not necessarily be your doctor. It could just be your pain of labor. Maybe the threat is that you are confused by what is being said in the room and I can put it into simple terms so that you have a genuine understanding of the options and you can make confident informed decisions. By taking away the feeling of threat, your nervous system can calm down and you can release your fear. When you release your fear you are not afraid to express yourself, you are not triggered to go into tend and befriend. You can speak up confidently without fear of attack to you or your baby. Expressing emotion Emotional issues, past and present, can be an additional challenge in labor. When you have fears and anxiety and you can express it in a healthy safe way, you can begin to let it go and move on. Simply put, it feels good to talk to a trusted friend about it. When you don’t have someone to express your feelings to, or you do have an ear but they don’t listen, understand or respect what you are expressing, it can make the feelings worse. A doula uniquely understands the stresses and emotions of labor, so that when a woman needs space to express them, we are appropriately acknowledging those emotions and fears and complaints. As your doula I am listening to you. It can be your stress of labor you need space to let go of, or it can be something else. It can body issues relating to food, abuse, losses. It can be a stressful family history, fears about becoming a mother, finances, fears about what this baby will do to your body, your relationship with your partner, your parents, and yourself. If a woman doesn’t have her fears and anxiety and feelings being heard, then the experience becomes trauma. When a woman feels heard, understood and respected, the pain may not disappear, but the fear and despair can begin to dissipate and no longer govern the experience. How the doctor/midwife work together with the doula We need a medical provider to safeguard the health and safety of the mother and the baby. Their mindset needs to be focused on maintaining that clinical safety while simultaneously looking out for pathology and treating it if detected. Some medical personnel work from a place of stress and fear. When caregivers have stress and fear, they are unable to help the laboring woman return to a regulated state herself. And sometimes that kind of stress and adrenaline is a useful emotion to make sure they can activate the needed parts of their brains to think clinically and quickly to keep the woman and baby safe. But that stress energy is only beneficial on that one level. On the one hand its helping them act quickly, but if it dysregulates the woman’s emotional state, it can worsen whatever the emergency is. Even if a woman needs an emergency c-section, she and her baby will have a better outcome if she remains calm. A doula is still helpful for the emotional and clinical outcomes in that scene because she can help the mother regain calm even if the rest of the room isn’t. Keeping her breathing and regulated is also keeping the baby regulated. Which is a much better state for them to enter surgery. And before any c-section is performed, the medical staff are first trying to avoid a c-section by various means depending on the situation. If the mother is regulated and therefore helping her baby to be regulated, there is a better chance that the medical interventions to avoid a c-section will be more effective and an c-section can hopefully be avoided altogether. Professionally trained doulas work very well with doctors and midwives complementing each other helping moms have better outcomes. Some women worry that their doula’s presence may make their doctor uncomfortable. That is only true if the doula doesn’t respect understood doula boundaries. The boundaries are not limiting to a doula, but actually help a doula. Defined along clinical lines, by excluding clinical tasks from the role of the doula, she can focus on the emotional and informational needs of the laboring woman. When done right, doctors and midwives love having doulas present. I enjoy working with obstetricians and midwives and have never had conflicts because I show them respect for their importance and role in the birth. I respect their medical expertise and responsibility and at the same time I am confident in my expertise in supporting the woman in the doula role. In addition, the doula and the obstetrician may sometimes have very little interaction at all because many are rarely present in the room until the end of the pushing stage. With this understanding of doula care and its effects on the emotional state of the laboring woman we can see how essential it is for better birth outcomes. Research has proven the benefits of doula care on birth outcomes: Numerous clinical studies have found that a doula’s presence at birth;
After births, women often tell me they were most appreciative of my calm presence during their births. It is this calmness that helps women regain control and awareness of self and body. It is this calmness, along with an in-depth understanding of birth and the needs of laboring women, that I bring to your birth. Your birth experience is something you will be replaying over in your head for the rest of your life. I am forever honored by every family who chooses to include me on their sacred passage into parenthood! Another why-you-might-want-to-hire-a-doula article.
I remember the last time I drove without a GPS. It was a nightmare. I was alone with my boys driving to Atlantic City to meet up with my husband and friends for a work-related event. I considered bringing my mom, but I decided it would be too crowded once I got there with my husband and the other friends we were already meeting up with. So I did what we used to do. I went online, map-quested the route, printed it out both ways, and set out driving. But you know what? You can't drive and read directions at the same time. And you know what else? The printed directions didn't take into account that wrong exit I took. And another factoid, little kids who may be great at reading, are not so great at reading driving directions off a mapquest printout for mommy. It was supposedly an easy drive down, but I took that wrong exit somewhere in NJ, I was aggravated and losing patience and losing my mind. I had to stop at a few gas stations before I finally got the directions I needed and finally got on the right highway and got our derrieres to AC...five hours later, two hours wasted in lost-land. In that frustrated moment I was cursing (in my head, kids in the car), the naivete and craziness of my not buying a GPS for this trip. Yes, I rarely drove and didn't own a car anymore. But so what. I decided next time I rent a car, and/or get behind the wheel for any reason going somewhere I've never been, I'm driving with a GPS. Since then, when I drive, I plug that baby in and get in-the-moment, on-location instructions. I've also had the luxury of not having to listen to backwoods directions from crazy gas station attendants. My GPS never judges me or complains when I take a detour, be it for pit stops or accidental wrong turns, she just recalculates. So next time you're on a journey to someplace you're not familiar with, to an unknown foreign destination, and you'd like to get there the shortest, smoothest way possible, maybe even upgrade and get the traffic alerts, take along a knowledgable, in the moment, non-judgmental guide. You just enter your destination and press Go! If anything changes, or if you just change your mind, your GPS quickly notices and recalculates the best possible new route under the circumstances. In the end, I did eventually get to Atlantic City sans GPS, but driving with one I am a much happier and calmer mommy! xo Maiysha It's been a wonderful, albeit HOT summer of babies. Fall has been a lovely time to give birth too! Now we are winding down to colder shorter days and getting ready for these winter babies. This fall I'm taking some classes and adding additional certifications to my credentials. Namely; the Yoga Birthing Method, Hypnobirthing and FEAR to FREEDOM. As their names imply, they will teach me some very specific techniques for supporting moms in labor. I will be completing Yoga Birthing and Hyponobirthing certifications by the end of this November. FEAR to FREEDOM is a longer certification that will also enable me to teach childbirth preparation classes in addition to being a method of labor support. Yoga Birthing Method From the Yoga Birthing Method website: The Yoga Birth Method is an 8 step birthing pathway that empowers women through a natural and mindful childbirth experience. YBM's philosophy is for the mother to connect with her baby during childbirth and to engage in her labor as an experience of enlightenment. A very specific sequence of breathing and postures adapted to the physical and emotional changes in the stages of labor enable women to manage contractions from a calm, meditative and controlled perspective. I really wanted to take this because Yoga is such a great tool for health and well-being. I'm looking forward to learning about how to safely incorporate yoga breathing and exercises into labor and birth support. Hypnobirthing From the Hypnobirthing website: HypnoBirthing® - The Mongan Method - is a unique method of relaxed, natural childbirth education, enhanced by self-hypnosis techniques. HypnoBirthing® provides the missing link that allows women to use their natural instincts to bring about a safer, easier, more comfortable birthing. Emphasis is placed on pregnancy and childbirth, as well as on pre-birth parenting and the consciousness of the pre-born baby. As a birthing method, HypnoBirthing® is as new as tomorrow and as old as ancient times. My mother became a certified hypnotherapist when I was in junior high school so I am already familiar with these philosophies. I have already had a few clients use the hypnobirthing techniques and I wanted to learn more about how to best support a mom using this method. FEAR to FREEDOM From the Fear to Freedom website: Fear to Freedom is a method of childbirth education that is directed to helping women find their power that exists within them, helping them to connect to their own power. It is based on Karen Brody's work with the BOLD movement and she is the originator of this course curriculum. We will be integrating Body, Voice and Action. I've just started the birth facilitator training for this certification and I'm really looking forward to incorporating these ideas into my practice. Not only will be able to use the method during birth, I will also be able to offer optional childbirth preparation classes in your home in addition to your regular prenatal appointments. Happy birthdays, Maiysha *Every labor and birth is different. This is just a general guide.*
Most of your hours in labor will be taking place while you dilate from 0-6cm. This could be two days, or it could be less than an hour. For a first labor, 10-20 hours, plus or minus 8-10 hours...for this part is common. Once you get to 6cm, most of your labor is past. It's prob way more than 60% over. Maybe 75-90% over. (As much as I don't like you doing math in labor, this is just to give you a general idea.) The more dilated and effaced you are, the faster it can go. Therefore, don't worry if it took long to get to 4,5,6cm, it doesn't mean you have another equal marathon to finish. By the time you get to 7 or more, it's just about the end. If you get checked at 7-8, the next check they may tell you to push and you may never hear about 9 because the cervix can melt away so quickly at that stage. **Good labor visualization: Think; over ripe mango, soft warm butter... Since I don't do internal exams, at home I'll be using external observation to try and deduce where you are in your labor. It's not an exact science. On the outside, the difference between 4cm thru 6cm can be very subtle and tricky to call. 4-6cm is also a big shifting time. Mom can still talk, but things are getting pretty intense. Often at this stage mom is feeling confidant she can handle it, but if she hears she is "only" 4, 5 or 6, she may feel discouraged as to whether she could handle it getting more intense. At this point, we are probably giving lots of touch and massage with every contraction. If she gets checked and the midwife/doctor announces a number 4-6, moms may say,"If this is 5, I don't know how I'm gonna handle this getting twice as bad!!!" It can be a "Oh crap!" moment. But have no fear, nature has a way. That moment will pass, and your labor will intensify and you will still be there, doing it. It's a good time to go deeper into surrendering. Up to that point the intensity may have been where you could avoid/tough it/fight it/avoid it some more. But what is needed for your next level is to surrender. Trust that nature will give you the tools you need every step of the way. Trust your body. Don't fight it. Release your shoulders down. Release your pelvis. Let your whole belly and bottom hammock. Relax your face. Say ok to your next rush. Then say yes to the next one. Experience it, just be in it, be your birth. 7-10 cm is known as transition. It's the most physically and emotionally intense. It's when women most need support. If she doesnt want pain meds, she will need the most positive encouragement and faith in her abilities. If she has chosen to deliver without pain meds, no one should offer her them at this point. Nor should you feel sorry for her, on an epidural or not, this still applies. You need to embody faith in her, and support her. It can be a time of doubt, vulnerability, all consuming intensity. It is when a woman who may have been in the labor trance up to now, wakes up. The shift may surprise her partner. She may get irritable at this point. She may also be completely blissed out and enjoy the new found rush of energy. This time of intensity demands the attention of everyone in the room. And well it should! A miracle is about to happen. This rush of energy nature provides is so that mom can both push baby out, and immediately activate the protective mom brain. When you are fully dilated, it is amazing to reach down and feel your baby's head inside yourself. It also helps give a tired mom tactile proof that the end is literally in sight. We all have seen pictures of babies' heads crowning (what did you say the first time you saw that??) and often believe that is the cause if the labor pain they've heard so much about. Actually, it is the contractions, the dilation of the cervix, and the pressure on the back during labor, that is usually the most physically challenging part. By the time it comes to pushing, "pain" is often not the fitting word for it. More, pressure, tightness, bigness. It can feel like serious constipation pushing. You may feel a burning sensation during crowing, or not. Not everyone feels it. The burning sensation can be decreased with water birth. When pushing, many women feel very powerful, and well they should. My best, Maiysha Are you looking for a doula but having trouble deciding what-who-if to choose when you're just still not sure what a doula does? I get it. I didn't have a doula for my first birth because I thought I wouldn't need one. I was planning a birthing center birth with a midwife, and I thought I had all the support I needed. In my fantasy, the midwife was very close to me, guiding me through the process. The reality was quite different. My midwife only came in the room periodically during my labor, said little to me, and basically just came in at the end to catch. For my second baby, I went and got myself a doula.
During my second labor, when my doula came to my house, she saw where I was in my labor, and gave me really helpful suggestions. Before her help, I was lost and barely surviving. With her help I had someone who really understood what I was going through and was giving me something practical to help me ride the wave. And in the end, my doula birth was less than half as long as the first. Granted, second babies usually are, but not always, and I could see how her advice directly affected the speed of my labor. "So what do you do?" Is the common question parents ask me. Well...that depends. From our prenatals I am working on discovering what kind of birth you want, and helping you discover the possibilities so that you can choose from the different choices that are out there. There are three main approaches to childbirth, with lots of gray areas in between. There are those who do not want any pain and want to go straight to the epidural, there are those who want to try laboring naturally but are not sure they will tough out the whole thing, or will tough it out for as long as they can before getting an epidural, and the third are those who absolutely do not want any elective pain medication. Once I am clear where you fall in that spectrum, I will work with how your labor is presenting to help optimize what nature is giving us, adding in what you want, and working within what restrictions your provider is giving. I will also inform you of the pros and cons of each approach. Going for the epi? You still need support. While you are no longer in pain, you are still in a hospital having a baby. Positioning is still vital to a encouraging a vaginal delivery. As is helping families understand the medical terminology and procedures. Keeping mom calm in labor land is helpful to help limit further complications.In between? I will work with you to help you manage contractions. Position, massage, counter pressure, nourishment, walking, and more.Going au natural? In addition to the above, I will work with you prenatally to help prepare for the mental and physical challenge of giving birth naturally. I am right there, minute by minute, helping you get in it, and through it. For all families, I will offer prenatal education. Each prenatal session will be geared toward your concerns and I will take the time to answer all of your questions. If I do not have the answer, I will help you find the answer. I will provide a list of suggested questions for your provider to help you discover what page they are on, before you come in in labor. In labor, your partner and I work as a team to make sure you are supported every moment of the way. For a long labor (as most are) this is so critical so your partner can take a break, go to the bathroom, shower...eat! For single moms, I will help you think selectively about who to invite to your labor. I will make sure you feel completely supported. In a homebirth I do the added work of helping to clean up afterward. For clients who desire to breastfeed, I offer my extensive knowledge and support to help you get off to a great start. While I am not a certified lactation consultant, I have had wonderful success supporting nursing mothers. Thirteen years ago (with the birth of my first child) I started going to La Leche League meetings, talking to other nursing moms, sharing stories, learning and teaching all the time. I breastfed my own two children back to back for a total of four years. Since that time, as a mother often around other mothers, I have gleaned many pearls of mother wisdom. I continue to read and talk to other moms, doulas and midwives about pregnancy, labor, birth and motherhood. I am always excited to learn more and bring more to my practice. What I do, is bring all my knowledge and love and support of birth and motherhood to you. ![]() Ina May Gaskin talks [in her new book Birth Matters a midwife's manifesta] about the importance of "oxytocin high, adrenaline low." This is a great concept for partners to know and understand. Partners often worry how they will be able to support her effectively when the time comes. While I fully support childbirth classes, people often find themselves confused as to how all that information actually applies when the time comes. "When do I start counting?" "When do I rub her back?" "When do I tell her she's doing a good job?" No matter what tools you utilize; Bradley, Hypnobirthing, Birthing from Within, etc, the point is the same. To keep her oxytocin high and her adrenaline low.Natural oxytocin is the love hormone. High levels of oxytocin help produce effective contractions. Oxytocin is high when a woman is feeling love, happiness, generosity, safe, amused...all the good stuff. Oxytocin is also what is in action when a woman breastfeeds, has an orgasm, and is feeling good in other situations too. When oxytocin levels are high, they keep adrenaline levels low, like a seesaw effect.Adrenaline is the opposite. It's emotional makeup is stress, fear, anger etc. Adrenaline has its place when we quickly and without thinking evade a car accident and our body goes into auto-pilot. Then many of us are familiar with the feeling after and adrenaline rush. The trickling down. When supporting a woman in labor, our [doula and partner] goal is to keep her adrenaline down and her oxytocin up. When oxytocin is up, she will feel less pain and fear, and be able to embrace the intensity of labor as productively as possible. Labor can then be more enjoyable and transforming, just like loving, giving, & nurturing can be. Giving selflessly is hard work. But it also feels so amazing. When we are working hard for something good, we are better able to push through challenges. We need to make sure a woman in labor feels safe, loved, nurtured, amused (wisely finding the right moments to crack a joke) and supported. Tell her you love her. Tell her in your own words how honestly amazed you are by the work she is doing to bring this baby into the world. Our words, touch, suggestions and support help her keep the balance in favor of the oxytocin and help keep her healthy birth, healthy. Women often come to me very informed, and very freaked out, about the high cesarean rates going around. I agree that these c-section rates of 30, 40% are alarming. And I agree that this over medicalized model of birth is detrimental to women and babies. At the same time, I want to help women trust that with the right birth circle, the technology of today can be a great tool not to be feared.
First off, remember that c-sections can be a life saving procedure for mother and baby. Hospitals do save lives everyday. What we also know is that the choices of many medical practitioners create preventable emergencies. To avoid the latter, it is of utmost importance that you select a care provider and support team for your birth circle that you trust and share your philosophies on childbirth. The care provider you select is so important. If you are feeling unhappy with your care provider, don't think you will get more comfortable with them as the pregnancy progresses. People transfer care late in pregnancy all the time. So if you're getting a nagging feeling you're with the wrong person, you may want to really listen to that voice. Then of course we know we cannot control life. And you can do everything "right" and then have cesarean, or other interventions you didn't want anyway. You may have a lot of conflicting feelings about it. Whatever you are feeling is OK. Many people try to hush the negative feelings women have about their c-section saying, "But you have a healthy baby!" Yes, that is of course important. And being disappointed about how your birth went doesn't mean that you don't appreciate your baby. It's important to honor your feelings. It's also important to have people around you who honor how you feel about your birth. Your feelings about it may change, as the weeks, months and years go by. Be sure to get support and respect for whatever you are feeling. And if you find yourself alone in this endeavor, you need to give yourself that space and respect to do so. |
Maiysha Campbell
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