I am going to divide this up into 10 things that you can do during pregnancy to prepare for a natural birth and 10 things that you can do in labour to cope with a natural birth.
You can check out 10 things that you can do during pregnancy to prepare for a natural birth here.
And now for 10 things that you can do during labour to cope with a natural birth!
1. Your environment. Think warm, dim, quiet, calm, and private…a space that feels safe for you.
You want to consider both your home environment (because ideally most of your labour will happen at home) and your hospital environment.
Yes, you want to think about things like LED tea lights, music that makes you feel good, closing the curtains, shutting the door, asking those around you to keep chat to a minimum, having a no phones rule, but you also want to think about how you are going to use that space to best facilitate natural birth…which brings me to the next point, active birth!
2. Active birth. Motion is lotion…and we want our bones to pelvic bones to open so our baby can move through. Remember though, that active in labour is relative and that it is okay to have periods of rest!
Essentially you want to avoid being in bed, on your back…and you really want to avoid your legs being up in stirrups.
You want to be very instinctual during birth and able to move when your body is encouraging you to move. While the principles of active birth are upright, forward leaning, and open, there aren’t really any rules. You want to adapt positions that are comfortable for you and move in a way in way that feel good for you.
You can use your environment to promote mobility. Move that hospital bed out of the way and set up a labour circuit…include things like an exercise ball, a floor mat, a chair in the shower, and don’t forget that the toilet (sometimes referred to as the dilation station) needs to be part of your circuit too!
3. Your birth partner. On the journey of birth, they are your sherpa.
Birth is all about surrender and some of that surrender involves letting your birth partner carry the load. They will be ensuring your environment is feeling safe for you, providing practical and physical support, liaising with your care provider, ensuring that your birth preferences are known and are adhered to, encouraging you.
It is imperative that your birth partner is as prepared for this experience as you are.
4. A hot water bottle. Or a rice bag or a wheat bag. Small things can be big things!
I think we often consider the pain of labour to be too big to relieve with basic pain relief options, but those simple things are often very effective!
Think a hot water bottle over that tension in your lower back or a rice bag positioned over your pubic bone. You can tie a scarf or a sarong around your hips to hold everything in place so you can move whilst benefitting from the pain relieving heat.
5. Acupressure. There is a point for just about every labour problem!
In order to be most effective, this one does require some knowledge and preparation prior to labour.
But even if you don’t know anything about acupressure, you can still do the double hip squeeze. It is a fabulous way to reduce tension and pain, provide a sense of security during contractions, and create space in the pelvis to help your baby move down.
And don’t forget to have a comb as part of your labour tool kit. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but you have pain relieving points in the palm of your hand that can be activated by pressure from the teeth of a comb. I cannot tell you how many clients have said that it was the comb that helped them the most in labour, so don’t discount the power of the comb!
6. Massage. It relieves tension, promotes relaxation, encourages the release of endorphins, plus who doesn’t love a massage!
To relieve tension, you want to really get into the muscles and connective tissues, so you want to do more of a kneading massage. If you are doing active birth work, it is likely you will be carrying tension in your lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and quads. In labour we want to keep tension of our the body…so you will need some massage! Your birth partner can use their hands, a tennis ball, or a small peanut ball.
For relaxation, you want more of a light touch massage. This is essentially a tickle…your birth partner can run their finger tips along your back, arms, belly, or legs.
You can also combine massage with aromatherapy by combining essential oils with a carrier oil.
7. Aromatherapy. You don’t need a diffuser and lots of oils…keep this simple so you will actually do it!
You can use aromatherapy for a variety of reasons during labour…for relaxation, for an energy boost, even to encourage contractions.
You can put a few drops on a tissue, or on a cool face washer, or mix it with a carrier oil and use it topically.
Be sure to check to ensure that any oils you are using are safe for pregnancy and labour.
8. Water. Whether it is a birth pool or a shower, warm water solves most labour problems.
Warm water helps to relieve tension and pain. And warm water also promotes endorphin production through relaxation…and in labour we want as many endorphins as we can get!
Particularly, being in a birth pool has been shown to reduce the need for drugs and other interventions, relieves tired muscles and relaxes you through weightlessness, conserves your energy, increases endorphins, allows for a sense of privacy and safety, shortens labour, aids in stretching the perineum, and promotes a positive experience and a sense of control.
It can be hard finding a hospital that has birth pools and staff trained to care for women labouring and birthing in the water. But if you can’t get in a tub or a birth pool, set up in the shower…you can bring a plastic chair or a floor mat and an exercise ball in the shower, and the hospitals never run out of hot water!
You can even use water in a different way by asking your care provider to administer sterile water injections.
9. A TENS machine – Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. It’s a form of pain relief that you can control with a hand-held device.
A TENS machine works by sending mild electrical impulses to sticky pads that you place on your lower back. TENS is thought to work as the electrical pulses stimulate nerves that run to the spinal cord and block the transmission of pain. This creates a tingling feeling.
And because you get to select the strength of the current, another way TENS is thought to work is by providing a distraction and restoring a sense of control, both of which may lessen the anxiety that can lead to tension and pain.
You can use it at home, in the car, at the hospital…you just can’t use it in water!
10. Mindset. I love the quote, “The biggest organ involved in birth isn’t your uterus, it’s your brain.”
I found this to be absolutely true. For me, while my body was doing the work (and that could be intense), the real challenge of labour was in my head. I constantly had to convince myself that I could do it, that I could keep going, that I was strong. And I needed the people around me to convince me too…I needed them to show that they trusted me and were confident in me that same way I trusted them and was confident in them.
You will hit moments in labour when you want to all to stop and when you want to give up. What are you going to do during that crisis of confidence? What tools do you need to use to push through? What do you need your birth team to say to you to encourage you?
You’ve got this. But you need to really believe that you’ve got this!