Pain Free Labour
Pain Free Labour Books on Amazon
The international best-seller Dean Koontz captured the essence of why we accept painful labours so easily when he wrote:
“Fear is the engine that drives the human animal. Humanity sees the world as a place of uncountable threats, and so the world becomes what humanity imagines it to be.”
In our dark dank past women were exploited. No surprise there then. They were not even allowed an education so that they could say “Hey, stop exploiting me you patriarchal society you”. We have had to fight tooth and nail for our relative freedom. The only battle that has yet to be won in the civilised world is childbirth.
Fear of childbirth has been instilled in us for hundreds of years. Doctors have made money out of us by keeping us in fear so that their services are needed to provide a medical model of care to help us birth. Early midwives were burned as witches so that women would turn to the medics in their time of need.
There are people on this planet that believe that the world is flat. Despite all the evidence to support a spherical earth, they still do not believe. Despite Aristotle, one of the first European thinkers to propose a round earth in 330 BC, who proved it by doing the math. Despite pictures from space that showed the awesome ROUND earth, they refuse to believe. “The world becomes what humanity imagines it to be.”
Modern health care follows blindly the belief in painful labours as the norm. There has been no research that I know of to support this belief. Within the UK we pride ourselves on offering evidence based practice and yet there is no evidence that uterine smooth muscle is designed to cause the sensation of pain when contracting normally. Yet we continue to believe.
Perhaps women want painful labours. Perhaps fear is the engine that drives the human animal. Perhaps we only feel comfortable when something we believe in comes true. Any other outcome would be too hard to accept, too big a paradigm shift for us to relate to.
Well tough. Get with the plan. Pain Free Labour has begun to seep into our belief system concerning childbirth. Midwifery led birthing centres are springing up all over the UK. Women are having pain free labours during the first stage when taught how to approach labour. Relaxation techniques are being learnt in parent craft sessions to keep women from entering the stress/pain cycle often seen in labour.
We are being allowed to learn the truth about labour now in the UK only because the strain on the NHS from medicalised care has become too much. A calm pain free labouring woman in a pool is cheap compared to a theatre full of expensive equipment and staff. The caesarean section rate has reached an all-time high. We have lost faith in our innate ability to labour naturally.
Two out of four of my labours were pain free. If I had not experienced this phenomena then I may well have been one of the supporters of offering elective caesarean sections for maternal choice. As a midwife I have helped countless women to have a pain free labour. As an author, I have explained in detail why uterine smooth muscle was never designed to cause the sensation of pain during a normal contraction.
So, who will join me in supporting the massive shift that we need in our belief system that will enable women to labour as nature intended; with medical support on standby if needed? Who will be brave enough to swim against the tide and face the wrath of humanity when one of their “uncountable threats” is removed leaving them uncertain and afraid? Who will take a leap of faith in order to free women from the last of society’s manacles holding us down? Who, maybe you?
So basically, the less stress there is the less likely we’ll go through pain during labour? Makes sense but I do feel like it’s easier said than done. I’m not necessarily expecting pain and want an unmedicated birth as far is possible, but there is still a level of fear. This is my first child, I have had two miscarriages previously, and it’s all new to me. Although I know a ton of the medical stuff that could happen, is unlikely to happen, etc and therefore tend to be far less worried about all the “what if’s”, my fear comes from the unknown experience I am going to go through. And for those going through a second or third birth, if they were worried the first time and felt a lot of pain (however worthwhile) isn’t it almost impossible to disregard your own experience and be stress-free.
I don’t mean to be critical and would LOVE a pain-free stress-free birth, honestly LOVE it, will beg God for it, but I’d love to know of some practical ways to deal with the fear that sets off the cycle.
Basically you have to look at the simple physiology of smooth muscle. Why it can cause pain when contracting and why it was never designed to. Pain is a way the body has of getting our attention when it needs us to do something like stop walking about on a broken leg. Getting a stitch in our side when rushing is the smooth muscle in our gut telling us to stop rushing about when it is trying to digest food. Pain in labour is when adrenalin takes blood from the uterus to send it to the arms and legs so we can run away or stay and fight whatever it is causing us to secrete adrenalin so the uterus is deprived of enough oxygen. OR. We are lying down in labour and forcing the uterus to push baby up hill instead of down when we are sat on a chair. Listen to your body and it will guide you through labour safely.
http://www.painfreelabour.blogspot.co.uk
@EKM Cronin basically you are right but that doesn’t annihilate pain. Most women need to mix and match a few methods to reduce as much pain as possible. If we are talking about natural birth meaning no epidurals, which by the way I suggest, then there is no harm is doing everything possible to reduce the pain. From meditation, to products like Laboraide, soothing music or even aromatherapy.
http://www.laboraide.com/article/1014-natural-birth
If your smooth muscle was designed to cause pain when contracting normally then every time you had a meal you would be shouting for an epidural! The stomach is mainly smooth muscle, it has 3 layers just like the uterus. So, if the uterus is meant to cause pain during a normal contraction then so should the stomach as they are the SAME muscle tissue. For why labour hurts and why it was never designed to see http://www.painfreelabour.blogspot.co.uk.
Pain Free Labour books on Amazon. Ann x