Archive for the ‘childbirth’ Category

1) Position. Vertical positions are less painful and ease the delivery. Lying on the back is a sure way to improve pain and have a longer delivery. It’s really necessary lying down, choose your left side.
2) Environment. The more personal, silent and respectful ambiance, the easier and happier birth is. Nothing can substitute the lack of freedom and warmness. A woman should have at her disposal music and any personal object. And most important of all, the people she wants by her side.
3) Massage. A relaxing massage can improve enormously the back pain during labor. Circular massage on the lower back can be done by the partner or the doula.
4) Movement. Walking is an important ingredient in any delivery. It facilitates the delivery and lessens the pain of contractions, besides controlling anxiety.

5) Breathing. The breathing should be deep and slow, up to the nose inspires and out the mouth. It improves the supply of oxygen to the baby.

6) Tools. Water is a wonderful tool to sooth and/or accelerates the birth process. Being immersed in a bath tub or under a shower it provides much relief.

What is the best position for them to come out? This is important to know because by “best position” we mean the easier and safer for him and for you.

The best position for your baby to be born is, first of all, when you are in labor and, second, when he is upside down, with the back of the head slightly toward the front of your womb.

In this position, the baby perfectly fits into the curve of your pelvis and it is easy for him to move gently down during labor.

When it comes to the lower part of your pelvis, the baby turns his head a little so that the widest part of the head is in the widest part of your pelvis.

Then, the back of his head can slip down from your pelvic bone; his little face will pass through the perineum, which is the tissue between the back of the vagina and anus.

When the baby shows up from the vagina, he has the back of his head facing toward the front of your abdomen. He is looking backwards compared do you.

In this position the labor is often shorter and easier.

Some babies go down to the pelvis with the back of the head turned toward the spine of the mother. That is the opposite of what they usually do, with their back towards their mother’s womb.

This is called a POSTERIOR position and can lead to a series of events:

• Your bag is broken at the start of labor
• You have a lot of pain during and in between contractions
• The labor is slower
• You may need forceps or vacuum (a suction apparatus) to help your baby to be born.

The close proximity between the bones of the baby’s skull and the mother’s spine can be very uncomfortable. In this case, the best position for the labor is all four, with hands and feet. In this way, the baby is away from his mother’s relieving the back pain.

When he reaches the lower part of the pelvis, he needs to rotate 180 degrees to be in the best position for birth. This may take a long time, or he may decide that he will not turn! In this case, it will be born with the little face looking at his mother. Or he may need external help.

If you are expecting your first child, you should begin to adopt the correct lifestyle since about the 35th week of pregnancy. This mean, starting to do standing exercises that make your womb lean forward. This is when the baby “sinks” in your pelvis, and this is the time to lead him into the right position.

If you are expecting your second child, although the baby does not fit into your pelvis until later, yet it is best to keep your back toward the front of your abdomen from the 35th week.

Sometimes women have a lot of pain, very uncomfortable for several days before labor actually begins. It can be very tiring. However, these pains may be due to the fact that the baby is trying to turn from a posterior position. The best way to deal with the pain is trying to rest as much as possible during the night, and during the day remaining upright and active, leaning forward over the pain. Also eating and drinking regularly will maintain your strength. And do not despair. Nature is turning your baby in the best position for birth.

Women instinctively know how to conduct their labor if they are left alone and at ease. However, giving birth in hospital sometimes means that it is harder to do what your body asks you to do because of lack of space in the delivery room or because you have to subdue to multiple procedures. Thus, it’s important to prepare your way by visiting the hospital and have a frank conversation with your doctor or midwife. Also writing a birth plan helps you, and the professional, to better know what you want and how you want it.

Even so, when in the hospital you will inevitably find some limitations. Here some tips to ease your time there and improve your baby position during labor:

- Maintain up straight as long as possible
- Avoid lying down in bed for any length of time
- Leaning forward during contractions
- Ask your birth companion to massage your back
- Balance your pelvis during contractions to help your baby to turn as it passes by the pelvis
- Avoid sitting in a chair or a bed in a reclined position back.

There are three criteria to define how good a delivery is from the woman’s point of view. These tree criteria also represent three different levels or stages in the experience of birth:

- safety
- satisfaction
- empowerment.

A safe delivery means the presence of minimal risk for the mother and the baby. We cannot deceit ourselves about the total absence of risk. Any delivery involves some risk and it is with this small margin of adverse possibilities that we must learn to deal with.

A satisfying childbirth is the one in which a woman reaches a balanced emotional condition. Despite the fact that seeing her child for the first time is a deeply moving experience, she has to cope while giving birth with her own conflicting emotions (anxiety versus safety, desire versus fear, etc.) plus the medical and hospital stress, the lack of privacy, noises, bright lights and unknown people.

An empowering childbirth is the one that brings a profound transformation in the woman’s inner identity. It’s a rite of passage.

Unfortunately nowadays delivery is conducted in order to be more dangerous than it is, causing more risks than those associated with the inevitable fact of being alive. Therefore, the birth experience is rarely empowering for women.

• Company during labor and delivery – Write who you want to be with you. Positions for labor and birth – Mention which position you would like to use and how active you’d like to be.
• Pain relief – Tell what kind of pain relief you want if any. Water – You may choose to use the shower or a bath tub during labor or delivery. Write it. Monitoring the heart of your baby. Write if you want the doctor hear the baby’s heart intermittently using a handset or if you want an electronic monitoring using a band strapped immobilizing your waist.
• Birth attended – You may want to express your preference for forceps or extractor if you need help with the delivery.
• Position for birth – Say if you want to give birth in bed, or kneeling, standing or squatting.
• Third stage (delivery of the placenta) – You can choose to take your placenta home. There are interesting uses for it.
• Feeding Baby – Be clear about breastfeeding. If you do not say anything, at the hospital they will probably give him the bottle.
• Unexpected situations – Some women write what they want to happen if their babies need special care. They may want to have permission to be with him as much as possible and to be transferred with him to another hospital if the transfer is necessary.
• Special Needs – If you have a disability, write that kind of help will need during childbirth. If you have special religious needs, be sure to include them. Or you may need some rituals or a special diet while in hospital. Write all.

Birth has been reduced to a medical event. That’s why the World Health Organization launched in 1986 its recommendations for childbirth and newborn’s care.

The way the labor is being conducted today is harmful to women and babies. It turns us into hospital patients. Most women do not know it, but suffer this situation, without understanding why.

Nobody can be more interested in changing the model of obstetric care situation than us. Raising this issue, demanding change, information, taking charge: that is what we have to do. No one will do it for us.

Rescuing childbirth as a natural and physiological event starts with getting informed and aware. Women have to take responsibility and create positive partnerships with their health care professionals.
In doing so, women, their partners and family, will turn into active protagonists of the childbirth transformation model. It’s about relearning what a non-medical birth is and what it a physiological and really satisfactory one.

Giving birth the right place it’s deserves in our lives as women we are being adults and responsible towards our children and society’s future. For a gentle birth leads to a gentle world.

A birth plan is a way to communicate with the midwives and doctors who take care of you during labor. It tells to these professionals about the type of delivery you would like to have, what you want to happen and what you definitely want to avoid. It is not written in stone because the best birth plans acknowledge that things may not go according to the plan.

Before you start writing get as much information as possible:

- Attend classes in prenatal care. A good pre-natal teacher will help you make the best choices for you.

- Talk to women who gave birth in hospital where you will give birth, or at home if you want a homebirth. Find out how easy or difficult it was for them to achieve the kind of experience they wanted.

- Talk with your partner or the person who will be with you during childbirth. Ask them how they see their role during your labor and check if they are the right people to accompany you.

- Finally, read good articles you can find in the web about birth. Tell your professional care the doubts you have and discuss your desire.

Childbirth is a natural physiological process; it follows an instinctive rhythm without our awareness and commitment, just as the neuro-vegetative functions.

Birth should be respected as an autonomous process. It’s why freedom is an essential element in childbirth. Freedom of movement, position and self-expression. The natural childbirth is the one in which woman is active.

History shows that the most common and spontaneous position among pregnant women are squatting and kneeling. The upright posture facilitates the exit of the baby, widen dilation and makes delivery be faster.

Many of the medical procedures adopted in hospitals nullify the freedom of women in labor in order to give freedom to the physician doing the delivery. The logic is reversed: the woman in labor is passive and the doctor is active. By doing so, they expropriate women of their power

The instinctive position (vertical) they would tend to adopt, facilitating delivery and easing the pain of childbirth, is replaced by the induced position (in bed) that complicates and prolongs labor. It also increases the pain, causing the use of anesthesia. In this way, women lose their sensitivity and become even more passive. In C-section, women are e literally tied up, like in a cross, which is highly symbolic.