Natural pain relief during childbirth

Most women feel anxious about the pain of labour and delivery.  Many women prepare for this arduous process of labour and delivery beforehand.  But childbirth is different for everyone and however prepared you might be, no one can predict how much pain you will feel. You need techniques and medicines to manage this pain.

Many women choose to deliver their babies “naturally” without using medicines for pain relief.

Here are some tips for natural pain relief:

• “Tune in” to your body and your baby inside you.  Yoga (the milder exercises) and meditation in the last few months, and staying calm and focused helps. These practices help you connect with your body and learn to read the signs.
• Remember that billions of mothers have gone through this. Your body knows what it is doing and things will turn out well in the end.
• Get a good labour coach. These days it is common to have your spouse be your labour coach, help you stay calm and be there for you. Enlist the help of your spouse or a person who is close to you, like your mother.
• Tell your support person beforehand about what you would like them to do. Some mothers may want people who talk a lot, while some mothers may want quieter companions who only respond if you speak. Pick your support person carefully.
• Learn and use breathing and relaxation techniques. Breathing the right way during contractions can maximize oxygen flow to your baby and help in the childbirth process. These can also help in staying calm and focused and not panicking.  There are many different techniques and these can be very useful for both you and your spouse/labour coach. Ask your doctor or hospital for childbirth classes and breathing techniques or ask Parentree parents
• Take childbirth classes to learn these breathing techniques like Lamaze.
• Take a warm bath especially in the very early labour.
• Get massages around tight areas like your neck.
• Try different positions during labour – sitting, kneeling, standing – and find the most comfortable one
• Walk around during labour to get distracted
• Try and walk around or stay in an upright position for as long as possible. This speeds up the process.  Lying down can delay the process.  But if the doctor wants to monitor you, you might not have a choice but to lie down.
• If music relaxes you, get your favourite music uploaded into your cell phone and listen to it during labour. Or find any other activity that can entertain and distract you like playing sudoku or reading a book or watching TV.