More labor ...

                In our Lamaze class we learned that laboring while lying on your back is unproductive; we learned that more productive and gravity friendly positions were: on hands and knees, squatting, standing, etc.  But hospitals have women labor on their backs.  The first problem with this is a 9 pound baby is now lying on my internal organs, reducing blood flow to my heart and kidneys and crushing my spine, and this causes pain for the mother.  And the baby could possibly be lying on its own umbilical cord or placenta, cutting off its own blood and oxygen supply, which is not good.  Doctors are always telling you to stay off your back and now they have you laboring there?   The second problem; when a woman is lying on her back, her pelvic opening is as small as it can possibly be.  However, when a woman is standing or squatting or on her hands and knees her pelvic opening is as large as it can possibly be.  A large opening is what we are shooting for here.  The third problem is you, and your uterus, are pushing against gravity.  Your back is simply the most uncomfortable and unproductive way to labor.  (Dr. Bradley, who is an OBGYN, has some comments about this in his book, Husband- Coached Childbirth.)

Why am I on my back?  Sorry, I am not cute.

                Back to my story: I was absolutely MISERABLE on my back and wanted so badly to be in any other position, but I couldn’t because of the IV and monitors.  I forgot to mention, not long after 1:30 they inserted an internal monitor, which attached to Samuel’s head.  This gave them a more accurate reading of Samuel’s heart rate and the strength of my contractions.  But because of the internal monitor I HAD to remain in the bed.  With just the belly monitors I could have stood next to the bed.  After my water broke my contractions became much more intense because I didn’t have any water cushion.  Samuel’s head was pushing directly against my cervix.  I now had to focus on my breathing and keeping ALL the muscles in my body completely relaxed.  I also started to experience intense back labor, which was caused by Samuel’s head pushing against my tailbone because he was posterior.  Posterior means that your baby’s face is looking up towards your belly button, when they should be looking toward your spine, anterior.  This is a problem because as your baby is engaging into the birth canal the hard, back portion of their head is hitting your spine; which causes severe back pain and can cause a longer labor.

                Just a quick side note: you can control, to a degree, whether your baby is posterior of anterior.  You can do this by NOT reclining the last few months of pregnancy.  I was reclining all the time, somehow I missed that it could be a problem.  Encourage your baby to face the correct direction by scrubbing the kitchen floor on your hands and knees, or do some weeding in the garden.  Keep your knees lower than your hips, while sitting up straight, to keep your pelvis tilted forward. 

                Even though I was in the most painful labor position possible and experiencing severe back labor, I honestly don’t remember much pain.  The back labor was the most painful portion of my birthing experience.  You hear women describe contractions as painful, but I wouldn’t.  I would describe contractions as overpowering.  Now let me explain, contractions can be a little “scary” because you aren’t “controlling” them.  During labor your body takes over, and this is a good thing because it knows what it is doing, and you don’t.  But it can feel a little frightening because your body doesn’t “take over” like that at any other time.  My suggestion is, go with it.  Do not tense up and fight the contractions.  That hurts!  Relax, breathe, and allow your body to work.  It is truly amazing.  And this is why you take a childbirth class- it really makes a difference.

(And the story continues HERE.)