Comfort in Labor
Maintaining as much comfort as possible is on every woman's mind when preparing to give birth. We are programmed to believe birth hurts from the time we are children. Not many ever bother to tell us any different.
The biggest step toward achieving natural birth is to be prepared to handle the intensity and discomforts of labor. At the risk of sounding unrealistic, I do not encourage referring to the discomfort of labor as painful. I do not deny that the hard work of natural childbirth may very well be extremely 'painful' to many women. However, pain is deeply rooted with fear. When you educate yourself on birth as a safe and normal process, much of the fear of childbirth (if not all) is completely eliminated. Most women I know who approach natural childbirth from this perspective, including myself, describe the experience as very intense rather than painful.
FEAR = TENSION = PAIN
All of this work and preparation you are hopefully doing ahead of time may seem like a lot to go through. As I'm sure you've heard by now, childbirth is hard work! Rest assured that the time and energy you put into preparation will make that work much easier. With the entrance of obstetrics into medicine and childbirth into hospitals, society as a whole began to view birth as an illness. Laboring women are greeted at the hospital doors with wheelchairs. By educating and empowering yourself, you will be able to see birth as a normal life event. As your fears surface, realize those worries or fears, then deal with them. Once they are dealt with, whether that means developing a plan or learning about a procedure, then let that worry go.
Get to know your body while getting ready for birth. Practice different positions to know which ones you find most comfortable. It is also very important that you practice deep relaxation every day, even if it is just for 10-15 minutes. Active labor is not the time to learn how to relax!
To begin learning to relax, lie on your side with lots of pillows supporting you. When you are comfortable, consciously tense all of your main muscle groups. Then, beginning with your feet, relax each muscle. Work your way up your body until you are at your scalp. You can do this with your eyes open or closed, as long as you can be undistracted. If you have a muscle that won’t relax, tighten it and try again. This helps you learn to distinguish what a tense muscle feels like versus a relaxed one. Your partner may help you with this by gently placing a hand on the muscle group you should relax.
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