A pregnant woman, waiting for the significant day when her baby is born, experiences not only positive emotions. The thought of the upcoming birth causes many expectant mothers a lot of fears and worries, sometimes developing into real panic. The main fears that cause anxiety among women in labor are the fear of severe pain during labor and possible complications after childbirth. Let's consider how justified these fears are, and whether pain during childbirth can be avoided.
What causes pain during childbirth?
If you understand what factors cause pain during labor, you can reduce them to a minimum. The most painful stage of childbirth is considered to be contractions - contractions of the muscles of the uterus, which lead to the expansion of its cervix, which allows the baby to move through the birth canal.
But the contractions themselves should not cause unbearable pain. Severe pain occurs only if a woman begins to worry. Fear provokes the release of adrenaline-like hormones into the blood, causing spasm of blood vessels and muscles. This prevents the baby from moving freely through the birth canal. The child's head puts pressure on the tight muscles, which leads to excessive irritation of the nerve endings and causes pain that could be avoided by relaxing and normalizing breathing.
Another area where pain often occurs during childbirth is the lower back. Some women feel only a slight aching pain in the sacrum area. While others complain of much more pronounced discomfort compared to the sensations caused by uterine contractions.
Back pain is relieved by rubbing. Sometimes a more intense massage may be required, which can be done by a specialist or trained husband. You need to perform quick circular movements with clenched fists, moving from the coccyx to the sides. Some women in labor begin to sway intuitively, which helps eliminate the causes of pain.
Closer to pushing, discomfort begins to be felt in the pubic area. Light massage and moving to a semi-sitting position with knees raised helps reduce pain. Most women who have given birth claim that after pushing joins the contractions, the severity of pain decreases. This means the worst is already behind us.
A mentally and physically prepared woman has no reason to be afraid of childbirth. Even clients with a low pain threshold tolerate the whole process normally if they do not panic at the beginning of contractions and do not forget to relax their muscles.
How to reduce pain during childbirth?
Labor requires physical endurance. Women who are fit have an easier time with childbirth compared to those who avoid exercise during pregnancy. The following physical exercises will help you prepare for the process of childbirth:
- squats and daily walking to strengthen the pelvic and abdominal muscles;
- Kegel exercises to improve the tone of the pelvic floor muscles;
- spreading the legs in a lying position to the sides to strengthen the thigh muscles;
- water aerobics for breathing training, improving blood circulation and unloading the spine;
- yoga to work the back muscles, develop spinal flexibility, open the pelvis and train breathing;
- perineal massage to prevent ruptures.
You can relieve labor pain by learning to relax between contractions and breathe correctly. Relaxation techniques and breathing techniques are taught in special prenatal training courses.
Physical activity during childbirth helps reduce pain. You can walk around the room, shift from foot to foot, or simply perform circular movements with your pelvis while lying down. Movement increases blood circulation and thereby increases the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the uterus, and helps relieve excess tension in the muscles.
Another way to survive childbirth without pain and fear is to resort to medicinal pain relief. Only an obstetrician can decide whether to use analgesics or an epidural. Therefore, it is better to consult about the possibility of carrying out the procedure in advance.
If anesthesia during childbirth is not indicated, you can turn to a non-drug method of pain relief - hypnosis. The essence of the so-called hypno-birth is that during the last trimester of pregnancy the expectant mother learns special self-control techniques, memorizes affirmations (verbal attitudes), practices visualization of a healthy baby and an easy course of labor, and then uses self-hypnosis skills during labor. As a result, a woman goes through childbirth without pain and fear, and the process itself takes much less time. You can learn self-hypnosis through courses.
How to prepare the cervix for childbirth
What to do if your cervix is not dilated enough?
There are contractions, the baby is trying to be born, but what about me? Why is my body preventing the birth process? Is my cervix prepared enough for labor?
Causes
One of the reasons is that your doctor is in a hurry, because usually the due date is set a week earlier than it actually is. You begin to experience and increase complications during childbirth, such as insufficient dilatation of the cervix. There is no need to worry, because childbirth from the thirty-eighth week to the forty-second is normal. They will help you meet your deadline even by inducing labor.
The second reason is that the woman in labor is not ready or mature. Childbirth may follow a different scenario, unlike natural ones, or may not begin at all.
Your personal physical condition and hormonal levels influence your psychophysical readiness for childbirth. If you are in good condition, then there is no need to prepare or worry, but if your health is poor, you should prepare your cervix for childbirth! You can start from the twenty-fourth week if you wish and, if recommended, from the thirty-second.
What to pay attention to before giving birth
In order for your labor to proceed safely and naturally, you should pay attention to:
- Physical activity. Fresh air and a couple of kilometers will do you good, even at home. Try to get out into nature and be active after eating.
- Trust in medical personnel. Knowledge of the birth process, development options - burden you with unnecessary responsibility, your task is not just to study the birth process, but to prepare for it psychologically, trust the medical staff - your energy is needed before and after childbirth. Stress and anxiety during labor will be stressful for both you and your baby. Let go of your thoughts and tune in to your body!
- Adding oil and fish to your diet. Linen, butter, olive... - have a good effect on the elasticity of fabrics. You can season your salad with oil, cook fish for several days a week, and you can also add seaweed.
- Herb tea. Raspberries have a great effect on relaxing the cervix, start drinking tea from the thirty-sixth week and be careful, because it can cause labor. Special collection: rosehip, St. John's wort, cudweed, hawthorn, motherwort, birch, horsetail, lingonberry, strawberry.
- Evening primrose oil is like evening primrose. It contains gamma-linolenic acid, which is converted into prostaglandins in the body. By increasing tissue elasticity, antioxidant effect, reduces the risk of high blood pressure, prevents inflammatory processes, and restores hormonal levels.
- Physical and psychological pleasure. Yes, regular sexual activity after the thirty-sixth week prepares the cervix, sperm softens it.
Fear of complications
Many women are not so much afraid of pain during childbirth as of possible complications. More often than not, such fear is completely unjustified. Since the likelihood of risks for the baby and mother is calculated during pregnancy during standard medical examinations. If there is reason to fear that any problems may arise, the obstetrician-gynecologist would report this.
So you shouldn’t stress yourself out in vain by specifically searching the Internet for information about isolated medical tragic cases. The emotion of fear is the body’s reaction to the work of your imagination, drawing the worst scenarios for the development of events. Once you tune in to the positive, the anxiety will go away. Only you and no one else control your thinking. Try meditation to get rid of fears:
Use your fear constructively. Think through all sorts of non-standard situations and ways to get out of them. Follow the rule: hope for the best, prepare for the worst. If you are afraid of premature birth, prepare all the necessary things and documents in advance. Having an “emergency” bag at the ready and telephone numbers of an obstetrician, taxi, and ambulance on speed dial, you will feel much more confident.
Are you afraid that something will not go according to plan during childbirth? Will they give you strange injections, give you IVs, or perform an emergency caesarean section? Talk to the gynecologist who is seeing you. Feel free to ask any questions that concern you. Knowing the purpose of medical procedures, realizing that you are in good hands, you can prepare yourself to think that everything that the medical staff will do during childbirth is an ordinary and controlled process.
Special courses for pregnant women
In the early stages, women may not be fully aware of their condition. But over time, when significant changes occur in the figure and physical condition, thoughts about the upcoming birth become more and more frequent. That is why, starting from about 25 weeks, it is recommended to attend courses for pregnant women.
This time is optimal to have time to absorb all the necessary information, as well as acquire certain skills. Special attention is paid to working with a psychologist. A qualified specialist will help you cope with all fears and doubts. It will teach you positive thinking. Special attention is paid to teaching breathing techniques, because this is one of the main points during childbirth. You will learn how this process occurs and how to behave correctly. Another important question is how to recognize the onset of labor and what to do in this situation. Maternity courses also include classes that take place together with men. They help future dads understand the woman’s condition during this difficult period, and also teach them how to help her cope with difficulties. You can also learn about the peculiarities of handling a child in the first days of his life. Of course, you can always meet skeptics who will say that such courses will not bring any results. But this only depends on how responsibly you approach your studies. Specialists will tell you how to prepare for childbirth, how to behave during contractions and introduce you to other important details.
What are you preparing for?
You will feel much calmer if you immediately psychologically prepare yourself that some unpleasant consequences of labor cannot be avoided.
Be prepared for the fact that the passage of the baby through the birth canal will cause pressure on the intestines and bladder. Involuntary urination or bowel movements may occur. There is no need to feel guilty about this or embarrassed in front of obstetricians. A similar process occurs with most women during childbirth and does not surprise any of the specialists. The discharge will be immediately removed, so the baby will not have contact with it.
An indicator that the uterus is recovering normally after childbirth is lochia - postpartum discharge. They can vary in intensity, color, smell, and duration. Insufficient or excessive discharge may indicate postpartum complications, so your obstetrician-gynecologist may ask to see a pad to check if everything is okay. In general, the perineum can bleed for up to eight weeks.
After childbirth, pain in the perineum is inevitable due to abrasions, tears, or the use of episiotomy (surgical dissection of the perineum during difficult childbirth). If hygiene is maintained, the wound will heal within a few days or weeks (if stitches were applied).
The arrival of milk 2-3 days after the baby is born is accompanied by breast swelling and pain. When the process of milk production is regulated, all unpleasant symptoms will disappear.
Hormonal changes and simple fatigue can cause headaches and decreased emotional levels. If you experience postpartum depression or constant mood swings even 1-2 months after giving birth, you should seek help from a psychologist.
Preparing for a partner birth
Recently, partner births have become increasingly popular. Preparing for this process requires effort not only from the expectant mother, but also from the father. The following medical certificates will be required from him:
- certificate of absence of AIDS, syphilis, and hepatitis;
- fluorography done no earlier than 6 months before birth;
- corresponding conclusion of the therapist.
A father who wishes to be present at the birth, in addition to certificates, must have clean cotton clothes, shoe covers, and a gauze bandage (you can purchase a special surgical suit at a pharmacy). You can also take with you a bottle of water and, of course, a camera to film the first seconds of your baby’s life.
In order to be present in the delivery room, a man will need an appropriate permit, to obtain which the following conditions must be met:
- consent of the woman in labor;
- consent of medical personnel;
- availability of a complete package of certificates;
- conclusion about the absence of contraindications;
- availability of necessary conditions in a medical institution.
How to give birth without pain and fear: advice from a psychologist
How calm and painless childbirth will be largely depends on the correct psychological mood of the woman.
Childbirth is natural
Attitudes towards the process of childbirth are formed throughout a woman’s life. If the expectant mother has learned from childhood that work is a test for the body, inevitable pain and suffering, then it is not surprising that she will have a negative attitude towards pregnancy and psychologically resist childbirth. And this despite the fact that childbirth is a completely natural physiological process. By and large, medical care is required only if there is some kind of pathology in the body.
Nature has provided for everything: contractions occur spontaneously. Uterine contractions are not controlled by a woman's consciousness. She does not need to monitor this process in the same way as she does not need to check whether the heart continues to beat and the liver continues to cleanse the blood. During childbirth, a huge amount of endorphin hormones are produced, which reduce sensitivity to pain and bring the woman into a special joyful psycho-emotional state, reminiscent of mild intoxication. However, anxious thoughts before childbirth can suppress the production of endorphins, and then natural anesthesia will not work sufficiently.
Try to learn to trust your body. It itself knows what needs to be done. Learn to perceive your body as the miracle of nature that it truly is. The body grows and heals itself. And it brings not only pain, but also gives the opportunity to experience delightful physical sensations: the aroma of flowers, the taste of food, the touch of a loved one.
The body is your friend. Learn to correctly understand his signals. Move and eat when it asks, and give it timely rest. By learning to listen to yourself, you will understand, without the instructions of obstetricians, when during the birth process you need to move, when to relax, and when to start pushing. By gaining trust in your body, you stop trying to control the birth process and suppress pain. Tension goes away, muscles relax, and childbirth is easier.
Childbirth is a joy
The idea that childbirth is a joy, and not a punishment for the female family, helps to give birth safely. The ability to conceive, carry and bring a new person into this world, hope for the future, is a great gift. Women with problems with the reproductive system are willing to pay any money and undergo painful medical procedures for years just to be able to give birth to a child.
It is interesting that women of African and Polynesian tribes give birth very easily, practically without interrupting their regular work. The researchers came to the conclusion that childbirth is painless for those who are not only accustomed to physical activity, but also with great joy await the birth of the baby. After all, with the appearance of a son or daughter, a woman’s status in the tribe changes dramatically. She becomes a respected woman and receives more privileges.
Positive attitude
The process of childbirth, however, like other events in life, almost always occurs in accordance with the image that has developed in a woman’s subconscious. If you are afraid of childbirth, change the script!
The task is to free yourself from attitudes associated with the experiences of strangers. Even if all the women in your family had difficult births, this does not mean anything. Your body is unique, as are the conditions in which your pregnancy occurs. Even for the same woman, each new birth is different from the previous one.
Visualize regularly before going to bed giving birth without fear and pain. Scroll through your head pleasant pictures of how comfortable and quickly the whole process goes, and now you are holding a healthy baby in your hands. Think how great it would be if everything really happened the way you pictured it in your imagination. When meditation begins to bring you joy and pleasure, this will mean that the subconscious has accepted new attitudes. If you feel that you cannot cope with the fear of childbirth on your own, seek professional psychological help.
Dick Reed's book "Childbirth Without Fear" as a reference guide for women in labor
If no courses for pregnant women and video materials help you to tune in to a positive mood and the fact that your childbirth will take place without fear and pain, a real discovery for you may be Dick Reed’s book “Childbirth without Fear,” which has become a bestseller and a real anthology for pregnant women who want to give birth without fear.
In this book, the author clearly explains what exactly the natural process of childbirth is, what you need to do to relieve tension and stress before and during it, what the role of your assistants and the birth team is , how each stage of labor is characterized and when it ends. Relaxation at the time of childbirth is given a special role in the book, in addition, you will learn how to behave in any environment and how to act in an emergency situation, how to relieve pain impulses and achieve neuromuscular harmony. The book will help you understand and realize the very philosophy and essence of the process of childbirth, and, accordingly, overcome all fears and give birth without pain.
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