Posts Tagged ‘contractions’

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.

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.

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.