(If you have already had a baby, maybe a little bit before this). When you feel like closing your eyes and focusing intensely on the process and you feel that you want to change your location. Consider leaving for your birth place of choosing when you have your "serious" face on.Instead of timing every contraction, glance at a clock every so often just to see if they are regular, until you're sure that they are.Find a comfy, happy spot, or continue doing light activities that relax you. When contractions begin, remember the cat.LOOK FOR THE SERIOUS FACE, not the clock face. She also may become more opinionated and "bossy". Once transition gets close, a woman's facial expression will usually change to one of intense concentration and focus. This is okay! Often in this circumstance women will have to focus quite a bit during contractions, but will not have on their "serious face". However, it's also possible to be having strong, frequent contractions, and for labor to be progressing slowly. A few minutes later my contractions were 2 minutes apart, and 1.5 hours later, after some pushing, a lot of belligerent refusals to get in the car, and barely making it to the hospital, my daughter was born! My books assured me that I was still in early labor, especially since I had only been having them for a few hours. It might be all of those things, but then again, maybe not! There are NO RULES in labor, because we are all unique.įor instance, in my own first labor I was having contractions every 6 minutes, but with a very mild one in between. After all, the most "effective" labor contraction is ONE THAT IS WORKING to make the birth process progress. Focusing on making sure the contraction timer is being stopped and started and tracked just brings the focus to the mechanical and not the physiological processes of labor. Although the contraction timer might seem like a fun way to "track" labor progress, it might do more harm that good. And labor doesn't work well under those circumstances. Maybe if you could just forget about the whole thing it would just go away. Have you ever had a paper to turn in, or a work assignment due in just a few hours, and you KNOW that it will be completed, but you just don't know HOW by the deadline? Maybe you start sweating, feel shaky, nervous, your mouth feels dry, and you feel "flighty". This is why waiting until labor is very well-established can help to keep labor from stalling once you actually leave your home if you are planning on giving birth somewhere else.īecause before transition and pushing, a mother desiring a birth with minimal interventions should focus on minimizing the feelings of being "watched", on a clock, meeting a deadline, or having to be on someone else's schedule, to optimize production of oxytocin. Known as the "fight-or-flight" hormone, adrenaline basically works in opposition to oxytocin, although levels DO increase during the second stage of labor, during pushing. This is a VERY IMPORTANT difference.Įspecially in early labor, the body's production of oxytocin is a delicate operation that can easily be reduced or even halted by adrenaline. In contrast, pitocin is pumped into the mother at a constant and steady pace, with no possible feedback based on how the baby is doing, or how the mother is feeling. It is chemically the same, however oxytocin is produced by the mother's body, along with other hormones in an amazing feedback system between the baby and the mother. They may also be told that Pitocin is exactly the same as oxytocin. Many women learn in childbirth education classes or from friends that oxytocin is the "love hormone", at least partially responsible for beginning the birth process and helping contractions to progressively dilate the cervix and help to move the baby down. But first a little bit of background information. In fact, the cat knows how to give birth instinctively with the hormonal processes that she is designed with.ĪND SO DO HUMAN MOTHERS. Usually she does not have her babies until she is undisturbed, sometimes frustrating the would-be "helpers". While the human mother packs a bag and anxiously waits for contractions, the cat searches for a comfortable, peaceful, often dark, place to have her babies. In, " Your Hormones Are Your Helpers", Sarah Buckley draws a comparison between the labor of a cat and that of her human companion. You might have an idea where I'm going with this. As soon as the first contraction hits, they excitedly pull out the iPad, or smartphone, and.wait for the next one. (Or, call the midwife, even drive to the birth center.)īirth partners are prepared for the big day by downloading the best contraction timing app. Contractions every 5 (4, 3) minutes, one minute long, for at least one hour. 5-1-1, 4-1-1, 3-1-1.Could be a secret code, but most pregnant women towards the end of their pregnancies know exactly what those numbers mean.
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