I’m due in November and while I’m open to the idea of drugs during labour (delivering in a hospital with shared midwife/OB care), I would like to have a few other options to help manage pain during the process. I’ve heard about 2 such programmes here in Oz - hypnobirth and calmbirth, which both seem to offer a combination of breathing and visualisation techniques. Both sound a little lentil-burger, but I’m open to them if I can get behind the idea that they may help.
Previously-preg Dopers, did you use either of these methods (or an alternative), and how helpful did you find it?
I did Hypnobabies, and while I only experienced 4.5 hours of labor before my emergency c-section, I dilated from nothing to 4 cm with very little pain.
It takes a LOT of work, though–I listened to my mp3s 30 minutes a night almost every night from about 26 weeks to my delivery day.
Congratulations! You must be excited and anxious at the same time!
The thing that bothers me about Hypnobirthing, from what I have read, is that it’s kind of like The Secret for labor - they insist that your labor doesn’t need to involve any pain, and if it does, it’s your fault for doing it wrong. I also found their euphemisms laughable - you can’t call it a contraction, it’s a “rush.” Please.
We used Bradley, which encourages husbands’/partners’ participation and lots of knowledge about the process. They teach lots of different approaches to pain management through relaxation, massage, position changes, and so forth. I was pleased with it.
Honestly though, here are the things that really inspired me to go through my labors without medications:
[ul]
[li]knowing that epidurals and other pain medications can complicate and slow labor, and lead to c-section[/li][li]knowing that these drugs do get to the baby and can affect them for days afterward[/li][li]knowing that the pain is not an indication of injury, but part of the normal function of my body[/li][li]knowing that, no matter what, the pain was finite[/li][/ul]These things gave me the dedication to avoid drugs and to use the tools I learned in Bradley instead.
I think way too many women (at least in the U.S.) think the only reason to do natural childbirth is “to earn a medal” or something - anesthesiologists are infamous for telling patients that epidurals are “safe” and “don’t get to the baby,” and basically the old-fashioned medical establishment tells women that drugged birth is just as safe, if not safer, than natural birth. Of course you’re going to choose drugs if that’s what you’ve been told!
I also think everyone should learn about the normal course of labor and practice some pain management techniques, because even if you plan for an epidural, there are lots of scenarios where you might not be able to get one anyway!
I haven’t done either, but after watching the documentary The Business of Being Born this week, I kinda wish I had. The film reinforces the fact that childbirth is a natural process, not a medical emergency. It was enlightening, and I got to watch several babies being born. “Mom, it’s time to catch your baby!” Fascinating!
The purpose of the movie was to take some of the fear out of childbirth. It promoted home birth (including water birth) and midwives. The down side of the film was that if you need drugs or a C-section, it might make you leery of those things.
But it was educational and worth seeing. It’s available for rental on-line and there’s a book here.
I used a home-study course of Hypnobabies - the Marie Mongan method (there are a couple of different ones) - and it worked wonderfully for me. I also read the Bradley book and learned everything I could about the L&D process. It worked wonders for me. I still had to push for 90 minutes, but I did it!
Also, don’t listen when people want to tell you their horror stories! A good place for positive natural labor stories is the messageboards at mothering.com. It’s a very lentil-burger hippie granola website, but the birth stories forum is great.
AuntiePam, I really enjoyed that movie too, although I’ll confess I did not expect to see Ricki Lake naked, ever. I was rolling my eyes a little at the “oh, you’ll be fine” tone, where everybody just happily has their babies naturally, until they showed that hilarious video of the midwife having her baby, where she tried to escape and walk to the hospital for a big fat needle full of drugs halfway through. That was more keeping it real.
I’m not pregnant or planning to be pregnant or anything of the sort, but after I saw that documentary I did look up natural birth options here in town, just to find out.
I don’t have any personal experience, but FWIW I have a very good friend who is a doula and a childbirth educator, with Lamaze certification. She just recently told me that when she’s ready to have her next baby, she’s going to use hypnobirth. She’s been very impressed with the births she attended where that was the method used.
Never been pregnant, maybe some day, but let me just interject that I absolutely love your use of the term “lentil-burger” and may adopt in in my own vocabulary as a replacement for my current favorite: “crunchy”.
I think it’s also strongly reliant on your instructor. I used the Bradley method as well, but we had a very militant instructor who all but told us that if we felt anything other than joy and bliss during childbirth, we were doing it wrong.
I felt like a failure when, after 28 or 30 hours of labor, I agreed to an epidural because my body was shutting down from the lack of sleep. I think the Bradley method and alternative birthing methods as theory are great ideas, but you have to find someone who is flexible to teach you about it and make sure you’re flexible, too, or you may find yourself feeling guilty if things don’t go exactly according to plan. Also, make sure that the hospital staff where you’re giving birth is aware of your wants because they may have certain nurses who are more supportive of alternative birth than others.
I do feel that pregnancy and childbirth are treated too much like illnesses. And both are so controversial when they really shouldn’t be. Whatever you decide, do what works for you - if you decide to get an epidural, that doesn’t make you a bad mother.
I can’t say I had experience with either, but in prep for our first child we took some classes on relaxation, breathing etc. which were helpful for both births - even though I had an epidural with both. First my water broke and the pain from the pitocin was so much that I opted for the epi, and with the second one I was having some pretty fierce contractions before we got to the hospital (trying to manage w/o freaking out our 2yo). I got an epidural as soon as I could with the 2nd, but for whatever reason it stopped* (hot spot) working and I pretty much felt everything.
I’ve heard most women opt for the epidural when the pain is at its peak anyways, so if you can handle that you can handle the rest. I can pretty much say the 10 min break I did get with epi, that the pain came back as if I hadn’t even got one (geeze that was quickest couple thousand dollars I spent!). In the throws of agony and just telling myself it will be over soon, and go to your happy place it was amazing to have that feeling of…‘OMG I MUST PUSH NOW’ and wow it was time. As long as you know the the pain doesn’t last forever, and that your reward is a beautiful baby you really can do it!
My hubby did try to hold my hand and keep me calm, but the way I was feeling I just wanted to crawl into my own little cave and handle it on my own. It’s hard to communicate your wants and needs to someone that is trying to help you, but all your focused on is controlling your needs until well obviously you need someone to go tell the nurses ‘SHE WANTS TO PUSH!’
Thanks all for your helpful comments - it sounds like something to consider (although the classes here are pretty pricy - up to $600), so perhaps looking into the CDs may be more of an option?
I hope also I haven’t been too down on the new-agey aspect of it! I do see how alternative therapies can be complimentary to the other treatment I may get (for example, I did accupuncture during my IVF). I know that drugs can have side-effects of their own for me and the bub, and I’d like to delay these as long as I can.
Will look to the Bradley and Lamaze as well, thanks for the recommendations.
I trained both Lamaze (for the first) and Bradley (for the second). I found that Bradley was more like what I did instinctively. Lamaze teaches you to focus on something else (distraction) while Bradley teaches you to pay attention and stay out of your own way. I had both babies with no drugs, although that was partly due to a very supportive atmosphere in a birthing clinic and my pathological fear of needles! They were both big babies, number 1 weighed 9.5 pounds and number 2 weighed in at 11 pounds!
I have to wonder if a great deal of the pain of labor/childbirth could be decreased if the woman was allowed to move/change position as needed/wanted. While I don’t believe (or at least I really, really hope not!) that hospitals are continuing to buy into the ‘flat on the back throughout’ line of thinking, I also believe that women need to be more comfortable saying “know what, I want to lay on my side for a while, or get on my knees to push, or walk around for a bit…”
The birth chair in my stepdaughter’s hospital room, though she didn’t use it, was one of the most comfortable things I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in. I think she missed out on something by not at least giving it a try.
I haven’t tried Hypnobabies, although I have heard good things about it from those who have. I took Bradley classes, though, and really got a lot out of them. The pain management/relaxation techniques they teach are helpful outside childbirth as well. I’ve found myself using Bradley stuff when having a particularly uncomfortable procedure at the dentist’s office, for example.
The other nice benefit of Bradley is that it focuses a lot on teaching you what your body does during labor and delivery. I found that to be really helpful.
I had an epidural, followed by a C-section for my first baby, who had a lot of positioning issues and was likely destined for a C-section no matter what. I did get through about 14 hours of back labor before the epidural, though. The second baby, I had an epidural but no C-section. Third baby was all natural – mostly because I was in denial about actually being in labor and showed up at the hospital less than 30 minutes before delivering. I will say that for my natural birth, I went through active labor at home and therefore was able to move around, get in and out of the shower, get into and out of different positions, etc., and that’s why it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it should (and, consequently, why I didn’t believe I was actually in full labor until it was almost too late). So if you can find a birthing location – hospital, birthing center, wherever – that lets you move around as much as you want, I’d definitely go for that.
Anyway, no matter which route you decide on, good luck and congratulations!
What can I tell you, that’s what she says. She’s currently leading me 1-0 in the “Pushing A Baby Out The Vagina” category, so she knows better than I. I do know that the alternative pain management techniques were, to say the least, ineffective.
The film reinforces the fact that childbirth is a natural process, not a medical emergency. It was enlightening, and I got to watch several babies being born. “Mom, it’s time to catch your baby!” Fascinating!