When you sit with a woman in labour, allow yourself to become soft…
Notice yourself. Your own breathing. Allow it to become deep. Allow it to become soft. When you sit with a woman in labour notice yourself. Your body. Your breathing. Sit quietly in a corner. Or lie down. Avert your gaze. Droop your head as though in prayer. Close your eyes as though in meditation or sleep. Or make your eyes soft soft soft and look at nothing on the ground. Allow your breath to become deep and expansive; fill your lungs, your rib cage, your entire being. Allow your breath to become deep and expansive like the waves of the ocean. In and out. In and out. Become so huge that your arms embrace the room, the world, the universe. Hold the woman in labour in an unseen embrace. Become so huge and expansive that you disappear into nothingness. Stay with your breath. Your softness. And the soft sighs and moans of the woman in...
Read MoreThe Good ol’ Thinking Brain
One of the most essential things in meeting the basic needs of a woman in labour is to ensure that her thinking brain or her neocortex is well and truly switched off and understimulated. What is the neocortex? Simply put, it is our ‘thinking brain’ and is the most newly developed part of the brain. In humans, it is very developed and makes it possible for us to do all the wonderful things that make us human. Unfortunately, it also makes it much harder for us (as opposed to other mammals) to allow labour to just happen…our thinking brain tends to stand in the way of oxytocin (the love hormone and the hormone that makes that uterus contract) flowing freely. The thinking brain needs to switch off One of the prime ingredients for shy oxytocin to take effect is that the thinking brain needs to switch off. We need to make sure that the labouring woman’s thinking brain is not stimulated. We stimulate the neocortex during labour by talking to the labouring woman about logical things, such as telling her how many centimetres dilated she is, or asking her to remember when her waters broke. We stimulate her neocortex with these observations and questions, and as a result, we slow down her release of oxytocin. A woman needs to be able to slowly fall into her labour (like falling asleep) and not be ‘woken up’ by the outside world. If she can be given the space to switch off her neocortex, oxytocin will be able to do its job. No observers Feeling observed also stimulates the neocortex, so it is important that the mother does not feel watched. Observers and unnecessary people make the mother feel observed. Cameras can also slow labour down because they can make a mother feel observed which will “wake her up.” Darkness It is important that there are no bright lights around a labouring woman. Drawn curtains, candles and other forms of dim lighting, will help to suppress the thinking brain and aid in the stimulation of oxytocin. Warmth The labouring woman needs to be warm. A fire or a heater or warm water is helpful in relaxing her body and her neocortex. In fact, immersing herself in warm water at the right time (when she is in established active labour) can relax the mother so much that her cervix will dilate completely. The ideal birth attendant The ideal birth attendant understands that talking and asking questions will stimulate the labouring mother’s neocortex. Therefore, she keeps talking to a minimum and will try to answer as many questions as possible on behalf of the labouring mother. This way the mother doesn’t need to be ‘woken up’ from her labour. The ideal birth attendant knows that bright lights stimulate the neocortex and so she makes sure that the lights are dimmed or off or that the curtains are drawn during the day. The ideal birth attendant knows that the labouring mother needs to be warm in order to relax and for her oxytocin to release and flow. She makes sure that the room is sufficiently heated and knows that a warm shower or bath can work very well as a form of pain...
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