Gentle Birthing, Empowered and Joyous Birth
Labour Massage Oil
This massage oil is good for assisting your contractions throughout labour:
Massage over your back and abomen during labour.
Caution: do not use, until your baby is due, as Clary Sage Oil and Jasmine Oil, bring on uterine contractions.
What are flower essences?
Flower essences, are a homoepathic method of healing. Discovered by Dr Edmumd Bach, a British physician, who approached healing by seeing the disease as the “final symptom” or the manifestation of stress, anxiety and worry. Flower essences address individual symptoms, and alleviate them before the body translates them to physical disease.
Bach flower essences are made in the UK, from flowers steeped in spring water, using grape brandy as a preservative.
How can Flower Essences help me in labour?
The following are Bach Flower Essences, that may assist you in labour.
Rescue Rememedy – available in drops, and cream form. The cream can be applied to broken tissue. It’s also available in a non alcoholic solution, suitable for breastfeeding mothers.
Cherry Plum: Helps you to remain calm, rational, and cool.
Elm: for sheer overwhelm
Gentian: For encouragement, and to help with “stickability”
Impatiens: for impatience.
Larch: Helps you regain confidence.
Mimulus: Fear for one’s life, or the life of your child.
Olive: for exhaustion.
Rock Rose: Helps everyone involved in the unlikely event of an emergency, where there is a feeling of frozen fear and helplessness. (Present in Rescue Remedy®)
Walnut: Helps the new family adjust to change.
How do I take Flower Essences?
Flower essences ought to be diluted in a cup of spring water, 4 drops is enough to see you through a day. (You can’t overdose – however they lose their effectiveness) Up to seven remedies can be mixed in a mixing bottle at a time, and taken diluted in water.
Where can I buy Flower Essences?
or
Easy to digest, nutritious and high energy foods, can help you keep up your stamina throughout your labour. Some delicious and easy to have on hand labour foods are:
Anything that’s easy to digest, (i.e. no complex carbs, stay away from potatoes and bread) that keeps you hydrated, and is choccas full of energy, is a nice food for labour.
Remember, you’re not going to feel like chomping too much when you’re tired, so keep the food suckable, or drinkable, or chewed with a few bites.
The position of your baby as you go into labour, can affect several things with your birth. For example, if you’re birthing in hospital, the simple position of your child, may determine whether or not you end up with a caesarian section. At the least, it can affect the intensity and duration of your labour. With some positions making it
So on that note, it’s a good idea to focus on optimal fetal positioning.
A good pictorial article about your baby’s postition can be found here
As your pregnancy approaches term, the absolute best way to have your baby facing (in a perfect world) is head down, facing your back, with his spine to one side. It’s called the Ociput Anterior position. When your baby lies in this position, his neck is easily flexed, his chin is tucked neatly onto his chest, and thus presenting the smallest part of his head birth first.
Ociput Posterior position, is here the baby presents head down, facing your front … A baby in this position can mean a longer and more painful labour for the mother, as the baby’s neck is not as easily flexed, and the presenting part of the head, is much larger to birth first. Babies lying in Ociput Posterior position may not engage (descend into the pelvis) as early, and are more likely to be classed as “late”.
Of course there are many other ways your baby can present as you go into labour, including breech (feet, knees, or bum facing down) But as your pregnancy progresses, prevention, and positioning your baby well are much better than facing a birth with a stubbornly positioned bub!
So, what can you do to focus on good foetal positioning?
Some great information on foetal positioning can be found at these links:
http://www.homebirth.org.uk/ofp.htm
Both sites explain the various positions your little one may present in, and offer gentle and practical ways you can assist positioning.
Other techniques, that will require the assistance of a professional, include
Prevention is much more pleasant than having your baby manually turned! And an easier vaginal birth includes less stiches and recovery time than a caesarian.
A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt.
He said, “I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart.
One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.”
The grandson asked him, “Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?”
The grandfather answered: “The one I feed.”~ Native American Story ~
In a society where we are fed ‘horror’ stories of pregnancy, labour and birth, as thought that is the norm in childrearing, it is easy to understand where fear in labour emenates from.
Fear of pain, fear of dying, fear of hospital intervention…. it doesn’t matter what the fear is, if you as a labouring mother are feeling it, then it is real to you, and needs to be addressed, before you can overcome it.
To identify what your fear is, a good technique to use, is to free-write. Take a pen and paper and just jot down every thought that occurs to you when you’re visualising your birth. You may well uncover some fears that have been lurking quietly in the back of your mind, needing some assistance to come forth to be conquered.
Once you identify your fears, it’s easier to rationalise them, or at the least discuss them with your doula, midwife, or even your partner.
It’s important your support person doesn’t trivialise your concerns, but rather helps you to find a healthy way to move through them.
For example – fear of pain at a home birth. Some powerful ways to move address the fear, are to rationalise it as such:
Positive affirmations about your concerns are very powerful, and a healthy way to address fear. And it’s a good idea, to spend a good deal of time before labour visualising the postive!
Ideas to help you visualise:
Your fear is real, but the key point is, you’re in charge of how you address it. This is your mind, your creation, and your birth.
Your perineum, is the area between your vagina and your anus. It’s the area that takes a fair bit of stretching in childbirth, to accomodate your baby.
It is said that the perineum is designed to stretch and accomodate a baby, however, certain situations can make it more prone to tearing. These include:
Perineal massage, has anecdotally been shown to reduce the instance of tearing in childbirth, and many women find it an empowering and reassuring activity to embark on prior to labour. It’s best performed daily in the last 6 to 8 weeks of pregnancy (Or from approximately 34 weeks). It’s meant to hurt a little, like a chinese burn.
Here’s how you massage your perineum:
After your bath or shower, sit in a comfortable position. The bed is usually a good choice.
Put a water-soluble lubricant (Perineal Massage Oil, KY Jelly, or Olive Oil) on your perineum and on your hands. (If you’re using a lubricant for the first time, be sure to patch test first!)
Press downward towards the rectum and to the sides at the same time until a slight stretching, burning sensation is felt (NOT pain, just like a mild chinese burn)
Hold the pressure gently for about 30 seconds. Breathe Deeply and try to relax.
Keep pressing down with the thumb and slowly and gently
massage back and forth over the sides of the vagina in a ‘U’ movement for 3 minutes.
The idea is to gently stretch the perineum area, to make it as elastic as possible to allow your baby’s head to pass through.
Caution
Avoid pressure on the urethra (at the top of the vaginal opening, where you pass urine) Be sure to massage gently, as vigorous massage can result in bruising or swelling.
Other techniques that may assist in avoiding tears are warm packs and oil massages as the baby crowns. Gentle support of the perineum may well be all that is needed to help it stretch to accomodate a baby.
Birthing in water, improves the elasticity of the skin, and supports the perineum.
Lubricating the area with vitamin E or Jojoba oil daily in the last few weeks of pregnancy may help improve elasticity. You can also try olive oil, or almond oil. Be sure to patch test before you slather the whole area in something you may potentially be allergic to!
Consider nature, cows, rabits, dogs, cats (all animals to the best of my knowledge) birth in instinctive positions, not even considering the impact of tearing. Nature didn’t get it quite as wrong as our obstetritcians would have us believe…
And never underestimate the power of positive visualisation. Visualise your vagina stretching beautifully to accomodate your baby. Your body is very capable, and is designed to birth.
I have personally birthed 3 babies vaginally, the first baby was born in hospital and resulted in a 3 inch episiotomy. The second baby was born at home in water, with only a mild perineal graze (on the episiotomy scar), the third baby was born at home in water resulting in an intact perineum! (And he wasn’t a small bub, 9lb 6 oz!!)