Posts Tagged ‘lamaze’

May 18th, 2010

Giving Birth with Confidence

I have kept this little secret under wraps for a bit, but since the project is finally up and running, I wanted to share my excitement with all of my readers!  As most of you know, I am working towards becoming a Lamaze childbirth educator.

I had spoke with Amy Romano, one of the authors of Science and Sensibility a while ago about documenting my experience through this for Lamaze. That is when I learned Lamaze was going to be launching the Giving Birth with Confidence site.  Blog posts, and tons of resources for new mothers, and pregnant women.

After e-mailing the woman in charge, I was in!  Talk about total excitement!  Writing right next to Judith Lothian, talk about a total dream come true!

I can’t wait for my first post to go up within the next couple days. It is a mini introduction to who I am, and why I decided to make the choice to become a childbirth educator, while incorporating my own birth experiences.  I really feel like this is going to be an awesome project to be working on, and it is a very positive resource for pregnant women, and new mothers.

May 8th, 2010

Positions You Should Be Birthing In (Part 2)

With my last post, I had a couple people commenting about positions I left out. I should have put the intent to continue the list of positions in a second post at the top of my post, instead of at the end. The other day I left off at Squatting, and I plan to pick back up with Side lying today.

To check out the first post of birthing positions, check the link out.

Side-Lying

Pros :

• The side lying position helps to increase the oxygen to the baby.
• It is also a great position for resting.
• It is a position in which you can use an epidural with.
• Side-lying can be very helpful in mothers who have increased blood pressure.
• It can help to make your contractions much more effective.
• The position offers good access to the perineus
• It lowers your change of tearing or needing an episiotomy.
• Easier to relax between contractions during the second stage of labor.
• Your partner can assist in your birth experience by holding your legs or supporting your legs.

Cons :

• It may be hard for your health-care provider to access fetal heart tones.
• You have feel too passive to push while in this position.
• You will have no help from gravity.
• If you do not have anyone to help by holding your legs, you will have to support them on your own.

Leaning or Kneeling Forward with Support :

Pros :

• This position helps to shift the baby if needed.
• Helps to use gravity.
• Less strain on your arms, and wrists by supporting yourself.
• A birth ball often helps in this position.
• Contractions are often less painful, but more helpful and productive in your labor.
• Helps greatly if you are experiencing back labor. (Believe me, I know!  I had it with my second child)
• Baby will be well aligned with your pelvis.
• Position is more restful than standing positions.
• Provides less strain for your arms and wrists.
• Easier for your partner to help relieve back pain, and help to support.

Cons :

• May be hard for your health-care provider to help with the birth.

Knees to Chest :

Pros :

• This position is helpful to those experiencing back labor.
• Helps to assist with the rotation of the baby, if it is needed.
• Helps to take the pressure off of hemorroids.
• Can be helpful if fetal heart tones are low.
• Good delivery position for a large baby.
• A great position to help preventing tearing or an episiotomy.

Cons :

• Hard for your support team to maintain eye contact with you in this position.
• This position may make it hard for you do see what is going on yourself.

The above video, provided by Gurgle shows why and how some of these positions are helpful to laboring mothers. Getting off of your back is very important during labor.

To look back on my childbirth education Journey thus far check out these posts :

My Journey to Becoming a Certified Childbirth Educator
Passion For Birth Training
Holy Expensive Books
Working on my Journey into Childbirth Education
Labor Day!  The Stages of Labor
Lamaze Isn’t Just About Breathing
Positions You Should be Birthing In

May 4th, 2010

Positions You Should be Birthing In

In my reading yesterday, I came across The World Organization Practices that Promote Healthy Birth, and the one practice in that list that stood out to me the most was : “Women should not give birth on their back”.  Something that high profile professionals like Michael Odent, Ina May Gaskin, and Marsden Wagner have been saying for decades, yet the practice of putting a woman on her back for birth has not changed.

Another part of this is that movement is instrumental in labor.  Staying in bed, on your back is not going to help labor progress or make labor manageable for most women.

Our whole pregnancies we are told to stay off of our backs, not sleep on our back for fear of harming the baby, or compressing blood flow to the baby, but the first thing they do when you check into the hospital is put you on your back. Doesn’t seem like a common sense thing to do. Unfortunately for women this is the most convenient position for your provider to deliver your baby in, and that is why it was been implemented.

So I wanted to talk about a couple alternative birthing positions, and their pros and cons.

Standing Supported Squatting :

Pros :

• This position helps to realign your pelvis which will increase it by up to 15 %.
• This position allows you to be supported by your standing or sitting partner, the wall, or a squatting bar allowing you several options.
• Standing supported squatting allows your body to take advantage of gravity.
• This may assist, or help your urge to push during the second stage of labor.
• Standing supported squatting helps make the contractions less painful, and more productive to your labor process.
• The movement and positions you can get into with this position will help cause changes in your pelvic joints which will in turn help your baby to come down into the birth canal easier.

Cons :

• This position requires the help of a strong partner.
• May become a tiring position for both you and your partner.

Sitting on the Toilet :

Pros :

• Sitting on the toilet during labor will help to relax your perineum.
• This position like the one above also utilizes gravity.
• You get used to an open-leg position and the pelvis pressure that comes with it.

Cons :

• The pressure from the toilet seat itself may be uncomfortable.

Sitting Position :

Pros :

• This position is good for helping Mom to rest.
• Like the other positions, this will help with the use of gravity.
• The sitting position can be used with continuous electronic fetal monitoring in mothers who have a need for that type of monitoring/intervention.

Cons :

• This position for laboring or birth may not be an option if you suffer from high blood pressure.

Squatting Position :

Pros :

• Squatting helps to encourage rapid descent by the baby.
• Again, like above, this position encourages the use of gravity in birth.
• Your thighs will help to keep the baby aligned.
• Descent is encouraged by the position.
• Squatting may increase the rotation of your baby.
• The Squatting position is helpful for fetal circulation.
• This allows freedom to shift your weight to stay comfortable without much movement.
• Requires less bearing down effort for giving birth.
• Squatting may increase your pelvis diameter by as much as 2 full centimeters.
• Squatting allows for extended perineal access.

Cons :

• This position can often be tiring.
• May be hard for you to assist in the birth yourself if you have the desire to.
• Sometimes hard for health-care providers to hear fetal heart tones.

Those are my first couple positions I plan to cover in the next week or so. I don’t want to make the post too long, or bombard you with too much information at once.

I am really enjoying the chance to share all I am learning my my journey to become a childbirth educator through my blog!  If you are a childbirth educator, or just interested, check out our Childbirth Educator party on Twitter tonight!  10pm EST and it will be under the hashtag #CBEParty   I hope you come join in!

April 28th, 2010

Labor Day! The Stages of Labor

During my journey to becoming a Lamaze childbirth educator, there are so many things I would like to document and share through the information and learning processes on my blog. I hope that others enjoy the information as I work through it and share what I feel so be some of the most important pieces of key information.

Today I am going to touch on the different Stages of Labor. Many who are active in the childbirth community may already be familiar with these, but what I have noticed through my work with pregnant women, and what is being shown in studies, run of the mill pregnant women are not familiar with most of the information provided in childbirth education courses. Stages of labor happen to be one of these.

Prodomal Labor

What is going on?

• The cervix is beginning to thin out, and soften, and move forward. During this process it also may start to open.
• The baby will settle into the pelvis.
• You may start to notice some contractions, but will remain irregular, slightly noticeable, and will not form a pattern.
• The contractions may be noticeable or identified as a pain in the lower stomach, or back.
• Normally this phase can last anywhere from a couple hours, to days.

This is your bodies way to gear up for the marathon of labor it will be running shortly.

What Helps?

• Don’t worry or over think what you are going through. You will not miss labor, and you will certainly know when you are in labor!
• Be patient!  Having confidence that your body truly knows what to do is key.
• Take care of yourself. Sleep, eat, stay active, and overall be healthy (but you should be doing that through your entire pregnancy to begin with)
• Be sure to only surround yourself with supportive and positive people. You only want those around who will make you feel not only safe, but comfortable.

Early Labor (Latent Phase)

Whats going on?

• Your cervix will start to dilating to about 3-4 centimeters, and the cervix continues to thin.
• Labor can tend to be slow, but most prefer to call it gradual. On average, the latent phase of labor makes up two-thirds of the total labor time in most mothers.
• Over time contractions will become longer, stronger, and more intense.
• Contractions will become more regular, and start to form a pattern.
• Contractions can be described as 5 minutes apart, and 25 to 45 seconds in length.
• You may have pinkish discharge that can be normally called a show that will increase as labor progresses.

What Helps?

• Be calm, relax, and don’t get too excited or worked up that labor has finally started.
• Alternate staying active with relaxation. A great example is chores, or taking walk, followed by taking a shower, and including snacks, and lots of fluids.
• Keep your environment pleasant and positive. Visitors or people who will not carry out this kind of environment should be asked to leave, or change their tune.
• Work on positive activities, you can do some light work in the new babies room, listen to music or even watch a favorite tv show.
• Stay at home as long as you can. Most women find that home is the most comfortable option for laboring in a positive environment.
• When contractions start to become more intense, or unbearable, be sure to have your support team helping you, and supporting you in the activities around the house.
• Use relaxation, as well as breathing to work through your contractions.

Active Labor

Whats going on?

• Contractions will become longer as well as stronger, and become about 3 minutes apart, and last about a minute at a time.
• Women in active labor will start to become very focused on their labor.
• During this phase which lasts between 2 to 6 hours on average, the cervix will completely efface, and dilate to 8 centimeters.

What Helps?

• Listen to your body!  It is meant to give birth to babies and now has you really rockin’ and rollin’ towards birth.
• Do something to stay active during contractions, walk, talk, breathe, or just move around, and take the time in between contractions to rest.
• Create a peaceful, and relaxed environment as your surroundings will impact your labor, and harsh feelings, comments, or actions can halt your labor.
• Personalize your surroundings. Use your own music, clothes, and comforts of home (especially in a hospital setting)
• Changing positions will help you stay more active and comfortable, and will also help you to progress.

Transition

Whats going on?

• The cervix will finish effacing and dilating.
• Contractions are powerful, efficient, and close together.
• Phase usually lasts about less than an hour.
• Some women will feel very sick to their stomach, or actually vomit during transition.
• Women may feel wreckless or increasingly emotional and irritable.

What Helps?

• Focus on your contractions, one at a time to help from getting overwhelmed with your experience. There is a lot going on, focus on the most important part, your contractions.
• Continue to focus on your breathing as well as visualization techniques.
• Those who are providing labor support should be giving you their undivided attention to help you through your contractions. Massage, talking you through, encouragement and praise.
• Continue to use your time between contractions for rest and to relax. The time spacing may be much smaller, but it is still very important.

Second Stage (Pushing)

Whats going on?

• Your body will now shift from dilating and effacing to pushing.
• The baby will make its way down through the pelvis and birth canal.
• This phase can last anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours.
• Some women may not feel the urge right away after full dilation, many will feel the urge to start to “bear down”. This urge will continue to get stronger as the baby descends.
• Many women will feel as though their head has been “cleared” and they have a renewed energy for pushing.
• Just before your baby will be born, many women will feel a burning , stinging, stretching at the open of the vagina. Many call this the famous “ring of fire” but not all experience it.
• The babies head will emerge, and it will turn to one side to allow the shoulders to pass through, and the rest of the baby will slip right out.

What Helps?

• Follow your instinct. Women normally feel the strongest urge to push at the peak of a contraction, follow what your body feels like it needs to do, or wants to do through the contractions.
• It may help some women to be vocal, but loud high pitched sounds will only use up all of your energy and breathe. Low, deep noises and moans are most helpful.
• Those supporting you in your labor should remain as quiet as possible, or provide low or quiet support and encouragement.
• Let go of any tension you may feel in your perineum. Applying a warm compress may help.
• If progress is slow, changing positions can be very helpful. The most efficient positions to push in tend to be squatting, laying on your side, or hands and knees. (The lithotomy position, or flat on your back with your legs in the air decreases the opening of your pelvis.)
• Rest in between contractions.

Third Stage (Recovery)

Whats going on?

• Your baby should be placed on your abdomen, and quickly dried.
• You will probably experience a boat load of feelings, excitement, joy, happiness, awe, and relief that it is finally over!
• The cord will be cut and the placenta will be delivered normally within 30 minutes.
• Many women get after pains of “the shakes” after birth.
• Cold compresses are often applied to the perineum to ease your discomfort as well as help with the swelling.

What Helps?

• Touch, caress, and cuddle your new little baby without time restrictions. (If there is no medical needs for mother and baby separation).
• Skin-to-skin contact with your baby is your best option.
• All routine infant procedures can be done without removing your baby from your side. Request that all measuring, weighing, and other procedures be delayed for the first few hours.
• Offering your baby the breast during this time will increase the likelihood of a successful breastfeeding relationship, and will also help to decrease the bleeding, and tightening of the uterus.

Lots of information, in a long post.
I hope you all enjoy and find it as educational and helpful as I do!

April 24th, 2010

Lamaze Isn’t Just About Breathing!

Working towards becoming a Childbirth Educator through Lamaze I have noticed one thing.  Everyone still thinks Lamaze is about all about breathing! I must admit, before I became familiar with modern day Lamaze, I would have thought the same exact things because of all the movies that still depict Lamaze as a woman in a taxi cab on the way to the hospital “whoooooo whooooooo heeeeeeeee”

In the 1950′s a man by the name of Fernand Lamaze, a French Obstetrician developed a method of breathing and relaxation to help women in labor, and coping with the pain of childbirth. Over the next decades Lamaze evolved into what it is today and has turned far away from the original breathing focused birth technique.  During this time, Lamaze has really changed from a method for giving birth to a philosophy that helps to educate women on what birth can and should be, while giving them confidence on birthing the way our bodies are intended to.

The Lamaze Philosophy of Birth includes :

• Birth is normal, natural, and healthy.
• The experience of birth profoundly affects women and their families.
• Women’s inner wisdom guides them through birth.
• Women’s confidence and ability to give birth is either enhanced or diminished by the care provider and place of birth.
• Women have the right to give birth free from routine medical interventions.
• Birth can safely take place in homes, birth centers, and hospitals.
• Childbirth education empowers women to make informed choices in healthcare, to assume responsibility for their health, and trust their inner wisdom.

That is a far cry from teaching women how to pant through birth through strange breathing techniques.

A great resource for learning more about birth and childbirth education is the Lamaze Magazine. There is a lot of great information on moving during labor to help with pain relief, and enhance your birth experience.

The words birth and experience are used a lot in the subject of childbirth education. Many feel as though the experience for mother and baby are not important as long as the end result is a healthy baby.  More and more modern day studies are showing this to be more and more inaccurate, as there are an increasing number of birth trauma cases that go hand in hand with the rising number of surgical births, and birth experiences that have a lot of medical interventions.

I look forward to discussing more, the more I learn in my journey to becoming a childbirth educator.
This should be a fun 6 months!

April 19th, 2010

Working on my Journey into Childbirth Education

I am currently working on ordering more books I am going to need for my certification, and the workshop I am taking in July, and it seems like time is flying till the Workshop!  I cannot wait, and I can’t believe it is nearly May already!

Right now I am reading The Official Lamaze Guide Giving Birth with Confidence. (Just on a side note, I will be writing for Lamaze coming up on their new blog project thanks to the wonderful Amy Romano!)

But the main reason for my post today is I am starting to fully realize the need for good childbirth education, as well as reasonable access, and prices for the education. In recent months between studies showing women thinking 36 weeks is full term, or a due date, and television shows like 16 & Pregnant and A Baby Story, the message rings clear. We need more access and education.

One of the main factors, especially in young parents or skipping things like childbirth classes, or having a doula is money. It always comes down to the almighty dollar, or just thinking everything will be ok. Sadly for many of these same girls, and even women the modern maternity care system is not on their side, and they often do not even realize this until they are actually in the hospital giving birth, or being induced, or even being in the operating room undergoing a cesarean delivery.

My newest revolution in my journey comes to me with help of my children’s pediatrician, and a local program in place by the hospital I had my original cesarean at. It is called the “Young Parents Program” and is geared towards teen parents from the age 13-19. They are always looking for donations, help, and projects to really help to not only educate these girls but also prepare them for the great challenge of being a parent.

My goal is to offer these young girls free childbirth education classes after I complete this workshop, and start writing my own class.
I eventually want to also put together a group of local doulas who would be available to these same girls for their births, if they have the desire for a birth doula. It will be a long road, but hey, I got all the time in the world.

March 25th, 2010

Holy Expensive Books!

Since I have been getting paid for some of the writing I have been doing lately, I decided I would start looking into the “recommended” reading for the Passion for Birth workshop I am planning to take in July. I want to be as prepared as I can be, on top of being able to closely work on my certification once completing the course. I know it is going to be a long road from here to actually teaching but the more time I put into it, or background information and education I can get, the easier it will be once the time comes.

So this morning I took a stroll over to the Passion for Birth website to see what they had listed for recommended reading, and head over to Amazon to order a couple of the books. A couple turned into ordering one, The Official Lamaze Guide : Giving Birth with Confidence by Judy Lothian.

I love amazon for the reason that they are decently priced. Except when it comes to some of the more rare books. Unfortunately for me, the other book I was looking for, Prepared Childbirth by Debby Amis is completely unavailable everywhere I look. The Lamaze site doesn’t have it, Amazon doesn’t have it. It is a ghost book!

I am going to try and talk to a couple local friends, as well as check out the local Thrift Store that has a kick ass book section, I have found all kinds of awesome books there from The Bradley Guide to Baby Sign Language. I am sure my husband isn’t happy about the growing collection, but when the books are only $1 and if you buy 4 books, you get the 5th free, you just cannot go wrong!

Now that I have ordered my first real book and taken the first step towards really becoming an official Lamaze educated childbirth educator, I am beyond excited!  Something I have always wanted to do is starting to really take form.

Now my next step is to find a local childbirth class to sit in on, and start working towards the goals I want to be finished with before the workshop in July :

1. Read The Official Lamaze Guide
2. Find and real Prepared Childbirth
3. Sit in on at least one childbirth education series.
4. Read The Birth Partner (again)
5. Save up some extra money for the more expensive books recommended to read like Evidence-based Care for Normal Labour and Birth, and Childbirth Education : Practice, Research, and Theory.

I have a long road ahead of me but in the end, it will totally be worth all the effort to do exactly what I want, and what I love!

February 26th, 2010

Passion for Birth Training

I want to thank everyone who chimed in on my Journey to Becoming a Certified Childbirth Educator post. Your comments and suggestions were very helpful, and helped me to make my choice.

In the end I made the decision to opt to bring a Passion for Birth Training Workshop to Connecticut in hopes of filling the class and being able to have the $395 fee for myself waived. And the best part of it all is I am going to have Robin Elise Weiss coming all the way to Connecticut to teach the workshop, so it is an even bigger score on top of it!

While I wish I could start the process much sooner, we have set the date for the workshop for late July. July 30th through August 1st to be exact.
It gives people a fair amount of time to sign up, and it gives me the hope of getting my 8 participants for the course in order to have my own fee waived!

If you live in Connecticut, or even in the tri-state area, and are interested in the course, you can e-mail me and I will be sure to pass along the full details of the class itself.

I am anxious for the summer now, as if all the snow we have been getting isn’t enough already.
I am looking forward to the new path this will take my life on, to become a Childbirth Educator, especially through Lamaze is something I have wanted to do, I just didn’t know if it would ever be something within reach.

On a side note, my first article was published in a major Connecticut new’s source yesterday, and on top of it, they asked me to continue writing for the same publication, as well as other offers from local media outlets for freelance work.  I am officially going from a SAHM to a WAHM. I am not sure how I feel about it yet, but I certainly know this will help to ease the money burden around our house, and take a good amount of stress off of my husband.
We are still playing catch up from when he was laid off, although right now we are “caught up” thanks to our tax return.

You can check out my article here : The Born Ultimatum

February 23rd, 2010

My Journey to Becoming a Certified Childbirth Educator

When the year started, I laid out a set of goals that I wanted to accomplish for 2010. Some were easy pleasey, and others were more difficult, or a process that may span longer than just 2010, but as long as I got some effort made towards them, I would feel comfortable checking them off as part of my 2010 goals.

My biggest goal that I included was starting the process of becoming a certified childbirth educator, and there are a ton of reasons this is the path I want to take at this point in time. One being time and availability. Because of my fail safe childcare plan crumbling mid summer last year, it kind of put my plan of going back to taking on doula clients on hold. Which for me is not completely heart breaking because it is enabling me to further my education during this time.
But there are so many reasons really why taking on this challenge is important to me :

• The lack of reasonably priced childbirth education classes.
• I am able to schedule classes around childcare availability.
• I already have a location in which I can teach.
• There is a HUGE need for childbirth education nationally, and recent studies on patient education on pregnancy and birth show this.

Ok, so it all sounds pretty cut and dry right?  WRONG! There are so many different programs with so many different options, approaches, and prices!  It almost makes my head spin when trying to narrow down which option I want to look into and commit to!  It is hard enough getting me to commit to spending a large sum of money (you would have seen my hysterics and buyers remorse over our recent sectional purchase, as well as my digital SLR.) but when I have a half dozen reasonable options to spend the money on, all within the same general price range, it is like watching a chicken with its head cut off in my decision making process.
And I don’t dare approach my husband about this before making a final decision on which program, path, and price!

So what am I looking into?

• Passion for Birth weekend Workshop – If I get 8 people to commit and take the workshop with me, it is free for me, which is a huge selling point, along with the fact that Lamaze training and teachers in my area is really numbered. I would love to work as a Lamaze teacher because I really like their approach. But the only worry I have is the 8 people. In this area, it doesn’t seem as though there is much interest in spending money to further training in things like the birth field.
• CAPPA Distance training – $600 and a do it myself course. I like the option of being able to do it myself, on my own time (two year period to complete the training) but two steps in the certification process are more out of reach than I would like to admit, and those happen to be the required birth hours (childcare issue again) and recording 2 hours of teaching time, which I do not have a way to record something like that (my digital camera cuts off at about 2 minutes making that a really long 2 hours).
• Birthing from Within – I was talking with a local midwife here about becoming a CBE and we really agreed that there is a serious lack of Birthing from Within teachers and that would probably the best route. The only problem is finding a workshop that I can actually drive to. It seems like the next year they are all booked on the other side of the country, or way too far for me to make a weekend trip.
• ICEA – Short for International Childbirth Education Association, problem?  The price.  My husband would probably keel over and have a heart attack if I told him I needed $1300 for my certification when the majority of these other programs are $600 or less.
• Birth Works International – The only hang up on this is actually having to make my way out of state to a workshop. It may be the cheapest option as far as the workshop itself, but in the long run it may end up being more work than I can put into it at this time.

So, you can see what a pickle I am in.

If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or input I would really appreciate it all. This is a choice I have been thinking about since the start of January, and I still have no idea what to do.
At this point, I am leaning towards the first option with Lamaze, mainly because I can easily book a date with the awesome Robin Elise Weiss to come out and teach, and be able to actually meet her since we have worked together for about 6 months now. She invited me to write for Birth Activist last year and she has been an awesome mentor.

But please, if you are a CBE, chime in!