Your labor and delivery is a marathon - are you training?

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My friend Liz had a midwife during her first (of three) pregnancy. Her midwife explained to her that giving birth is like running a marathon.

There is no way that you are going to have a good experience running a marathon if you just show up the day of the race and start running. If anyone has had a good experience doing this, keep it to yourself! I have ran and was glad that I trained. I hear from endless women who made little to no effort to prepare for their baby's actual birth. They planned for the nursery, the clothes, their diets, their maternity leave but completely left out the birth. I've heard pregnant women say "I'm just going to show up and get that wonderful epidural" or "my doctor is going to step me through it". I know no one in these situations who looks back on their experience as beautiful and being in control of their body. So here's the issue with those thoughts.

That epidural is usually only given during certain stages of labor. You have to be laying down and cannot move naturally to let the baby fall with gravity. Just picture which way gravity pulls. Yep, the woman's body is designed to let the baby fall vertically and not to projectile shoot horizontally. My friend Liz found herself to be in a painful position unless she was on her hands and knees. Then the pain was gone and it was just the pressure of the baby pushing out. I enjoyed laboring while dancing with my husband (actually that is the last time that I danced with him!). The epidural doesn't even alway work. I know many annoyed women who got the epidural only to find out that they could feel everything and were stuck in a bed that did not feel good to be laying in. Since it causes you to go against your body's natural flow and changes your bodies natural hormones, you are at high risk of having a longer and more complicated birth thus a longer recuperation time. All of this snowballs and causes you to have a less positive experience and less success at breastfeeding. Here are some great epidural free positions.There are many women who had to resort to epidurals during their labors but they were educated and waited until the last minute in case the baby changed positions. If they were prepared and educated then they asked their caregiver the right questions and were okay and accepting of their birth and their body. Here are some Hidden Risks of Epidurals from Mothering Magazine.

I've heard all about your great doctor that you have had since your first period. You have a vision of that caregiver by your side coaching you through every contraction. Really you should be at home until the contractions get rather close and who is coaching you there? Your caregiver might be on vacation in Hawaii and then who is filling in? Doesn't your caregiver have a whole hall of pregnant women that he or she is tending to? Good birth planning programs take weeks to finish and entail a good amount of study and homework. Here are some good birthing classes. I very much recommend a doula for first births, home births, births in need of support, and for you and your loved ones to feel less stressed and more in enjoyment with your labor and birth. My husband and mom enjoyed the massages that my doula gave them.

The more prepared that you are and the more positive planning that you have put towards anything in life, will make it a better experience. Knowledge is key.

Which birthing class to choose?

In the movies it seems like a woman goes into labor, runs to the hospital, lays on her back and then has her baby. In reality, most women have an early labor that lasts for hours (and often days) in which it is in their best interest to stay home and work through their labor before going to the hospital. So what do you do at home?  Well a good birthing class will teach you what to do during each stage of labor and delivery. Most importantly, birthing classes give moms and partners the self confidence that they need and the tools to empower themselves. I am sure that most of you reading this are looking for a natural un-medicated birth and a good class will teach you how to be in control of your body and not experience "pain." There are several options that you should investigate to see what is the best option for you.

image: www.123rf.com

ronen

Doula
For my first birth, I had a doula who came to our home and gave my husband and I private birth preparation classes.  She prepared us psychologically and physically for the birthing process using various methods that cross over with the other birthing methods. She wanted us to be ready to use whatever method would feel good to me during each moment of labor. Before the doula came, my husband was adamant that he would not cut the cord and he was not in favor of seeing the baby crown or the idea of a slimy baby coming out of me. When we had to watch a home birth video as our homework, we compromised and watched it on double speed.  At the end of the video he not only thought that birth was a beautiful family process but that he would consider a home birth for our future kids! Yay! The added bonus of going the doula route is that the doula is present during your labor, delivery and postpartum so she was able to support my husband to feel empowered in the process (did I mention that she gave my husband and my mom massages while I was in early labor!). There are different types of doulas and you can hire one for just a portion of the process but I encourage first time moms to get the whole package (well worth it)! The birth was not painful, we had someone to help us deal with stuffy hospital staff, and my husband remained calm, helpful and with beautiful memories.


Hypnobirthing
From www.hypnobirthing.com: "HypnoBirthing is a childbirth method that focuses on preparing parents for gentle birth.  In HypnoBirthing classes, you will learn proven techniques in a well-thought-out program of deep relaxation, visualization, and self-hypnosis. All of these are designed to help you achieve a more comfortable birth. HypnoBirthing encourages a calm, peaceful, and natural pregnancy, birth, and bonding experience for families. Unlike other childbirth methods that teach you how to cope with and manage pain, HypnoBirthing is based on the premise that childbirth does not necessarily need to be painful if the mother is properly prepared and relaxed. When women understand that pain is caused by constrictor hormones, created by fear, they learn, instead, to release fear thus creating endorphins—the feel good hormones. They are then able to change their expectations of long, painful labor and are able to replace them with expectations of a more comfortable birthing.  Rather than exhausting, shallow breathing and the distraction techniques of typical “prepared childbirth” programs, HypnoBirthing parents learn deep abdominal breathing and total relaxation, enabling the laboring mother to work in harmony with her body and her baby. This allows her to achieve a shorter and more comfortable labor for herself and baby."


The Bradley Method^®
From www.bradleybirth.com: "Natural childbirth is an important goal since most people want to give their babies every possible advantage. Without the side effects of drugs given during labor and birth. The Bradley Method^® classes teach families how to have natural births. The techniques are simple and effective. They are based on information about how the human body works during labor. Couples are taught how they can work with their bodies to reduce pain and make their labors more efficient. Of over 1,000,000 couples trained in The Bradley Method^® nationwide, over 86% of them have had spontaneous, unmedicated vaginal births. This is a method that works!" The classes are 12 weeks long so plan ahead and be prepared to do some homework because you will have a 130 page workbook.


Lamaze
Www.lamaze.org is a practice that my mother learned in her birthing classes in the 1970's. It teaches women six practices: let labor begin on its own; walk, move around, and change positions throughout labor; bring a loved one, friend or doula for continuous support; avoid interventions that are not medically necessary; avoid giving birth on your back, and follow your body's urge to push; keep your baby with you -- it's best for you, your baby, and breastfeeding. Personally I get the impression that these are the basics for a natural birth and that all of the other methods go into deeper insight and support in the areas.


Prenatal yoga
Most studios that offer prenatal yoga offer a yoga based birthing class usually as an afternoon session. I found that the special breathing that I learned in my yoga classes in NYC with Melissa Feldman to indeed make the contractions painless by me mentally embracing the contractions (she had the greatest "pain" position). My current NJ yoga classes are less preparatory in embracing pain and laboring breathes so it all depends on your instructor. Generally the instructors do save most of their tricks for the preparatory classes. If you feel that you just need a little class to get you rolling, then this is it.


Hospital Birthing Class
Hospitals offer these classes and it is a coin toss as to what you get. I would think that they are general Lamazee sort of information. Since the hospitals in my area have a 37% C-section rate, I am not so keen to follow their natural birth advice!


Birthing Refresher Classes
During my second pregnancy, my husband and I took an afternoon natural birthing refresher class because my husband was nervous that we were not having a doula. Our previous doula, Karen Kelly, was taking her midwifery finals during my due date and my midwife swore that my labor would be so fast that I would not have time for a doula because she would be with me the entire time (and she was right). We found the refresher class useful to mentally prepare us. This third time around, we feel that we remember what to do and are excited for labor and delivery!


What methods did I not list? I would be interested to hear about more.