Ep 24. Comfort During Labor

In this episode, Doula Rachael shares tips and resources for comfort during labor and she includes helpful tips on comfort during pregnancy to help prepare for labor. You will learn about different methods and techniques to cope during each stage of labor from early labor through transition. You will want to be sure to have a pen and paper handy to take notes.

Birth is unpredictable and non-linear and Doula Rachael believes that with education, support, and some tools in your tool bag, you will feel more confident and at ease as you navigate your unique path to giving birth. 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

The Birth Ball

Expectful App

Miles Circuit

Effective Breathing Techniques (video)

TENS Unit (Evidence)

Comfort Strategy Reference List

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Transcript

0:08

Hi there, Rachel here your co host of the aligned birth podcast today I am bringing you a solo episode all about comfort techniques for pregnancy and labor. So I hope you enjoy this episode it is full of tips and resources and things to do, highlighting movement and being active during labor, so that you can facilitate labor progress and find more comfort and have confidence to do it. I hope you enjoy the show. So we will begin talking about comfort during pregnancy or things you can do during pregnancy, to help encourage optimal fetal position to help you feel less pain, right. So those things include the yoga ball. I love the yoga ball. So sitting on the yoga ball. Some people refer to it as a birth ball, but um, yeah, if you don't have one, I recommend purchasing one. The I'll link the one I recommend in the show notes, but you can find them anywhere. Just be sure to get the right size based on your height, and you can use it to, if you work at a desk all day you can sit on the, on the yoga ball it supports the pelvis really well and and encourages a posture of upright and leaning a little bit forward which is really great for encouraging optimal fetal position as well as comfort for your hips and pelvis, but also some other things you can do with the yoga ball is when you sit on the yoga ball you want your knees to be at 90 degrees, or a little bit above. And you can do circles. So imagine drawing circles with your hips, and you go both directions so counterclockwise and then clockwise, and you can do figure eights, so draw in one direction and then draw in the other direction. You can also use the yoga ball to sit on while you're watching TV or playing a board game with your family. It has many benefits and you can also use it during labor. We'll get in to that a little bit later. This is all about what you can do now, during pregnancy. Walking daily is very beneficial to prepare your body for birth and gentle stretching and prenatal yoga, all really helpful to stretch and relax and open things up and be present with your body in your breath. And so, stretching and yoga facilitate that as well. Doing labor squats daily, like some people do a lot, and some people just do a few so just squatting daily also doing the deep squat, two minutes a day, I used to do this with my, I did it with my second and I gotten that deep squat, where my your toes are sort of pointed out in your heels or and in your bum is all the way down but your, your chest is still kind of up and this might be hard to do without holding on to something, but I did it while I brush my teeth, so that'd be like two minutes and I would just stay down there the whole time. And this helps strengthen the the muscles that you need for labor, and it's also a great position to help baby engage. So during the squats is really beneficial. Also during pregnancy chiropractic care. We know Dr. Shannon is an amazing prenatal chiropractor and all the benefits of seeking chiropractic care from a Webster certified chiropractor during pregnancy has many benefits to help keep the pelvis in the hips and the uterus and alignment, loosening that round ligament allowing room for baby to settle down into the uterus in that optimal position, and also reducing overall aches and pains from pregnancy. So lots of benefits from seeing the chiropractor during pregnancy, also massage for similar reasons like just releasing tension, working out that the tension in your muscles, relaxation, really, really beneficial. And then acupressure and acupuncture if that sounds good to you, there are benefits to those as well. Also helpful during pregnancy to do guided visualizations and meditations so you can do an audio, where you can hopefully ideally go into a space where it's quiet and maybe dimly lit close your eyes and listen to the meditations and it's a great opportunity to focus on your breath. Focus on your baby, and, and set the mindset for a positive pregnancy and a positive birth, a great app to use is expectable, they have meditations for pregnancy, birth and motherhood movement is so important for labor and for labor and comfort

4:53

is one of the key components for labor progress and to cope with contractions, the sensations and pain and discomfort, are intentionally there to guide you and to help you know what you need to do. So, when we are able to move around during labor. The sensations and the pain and the discomfort that you feel will guide you, and they usually guide you in in movements so maybe it's swaying or rocking or or kneeling or or squatting or whatever it is, it. Your body knows what to do, and the pain serves a purpose in guiding you through that. A great acronym that can help you when it comes to movement during labor is B, L T, so that is be open, lean forward and trust gravity, so keeping this in mind during pregnancy and as Labor's beginning and throughout the course of labor is really important no matter what position you choose if you keep the BLT method in mind, you're always going to be in a good position right so that's be open, lean forward, and trust gravity, and you want to keep that in mind, through the entire process.

6:10

So now we're going to walk through each stage of labor and comfort techniques or methods that are great at each stage. So first I want to talk about early labor. So, during this time, you really want to conserve energy. This is a marathon, if not an ultra marathon early labor is one of the more unpredictable stages of labor, and it can be the longest. So really conserving energy during this time it's easy to feel excited and anxious and like ready to go or ready to do something, or a lot of people get real active and they want to go walk or SWAT or, you know, do all the things to try and get things going and they wear themselves out so by the time the end of labor comes they're just exhausted. And so, just keeping that in mind during that that early labor phases is important and knowing that it can it can stop and start it can last for a very long time as your body is warming up and ramping up especially for first time moms. You really want to keep yourself distracted during this time like continue on as normal so like it's, you know labor starting you have some signs, maybe you're having some contractions. I say carry on as normal. If it's taking care of your kids or cooking dinner, or doing things around the house or whatever plans you had if you had plans on the books just carry on with things as long as you can until it's like taking all your attention. During this time you do want to think about releasing tension. So things that help release tension include massage, a warm, relaxing bath with Epsom salts and lavender focused breathing can also help release tension guided meditation movement helps release tension, dancing, laughing, and sex are all great ways to release tension. I also want you to think about oxytocin inducing activities. So oxytocin is the love hormone and it's the hormone of labor and it is what helps your uterus to effectively contract and oxytocin is, like I said the love hormone so it or the joy hormone it is released when we are happy. So, some people think the love hormone is just connecting sexually or something like that and it's there are other ways you can release oxytocin, as well. So some oxytocin inducing activities include watching a funny movie, like a belly laughing movie or stand up comedy. Also baking something like cinnamon rolls, I don't know about you but when I walk into a kitchen and I smell cinnamon rolls it is like instantly, happiness and joy, and I know that oxytocin is flowing. Maybe it's cooking a big meal that you can freeze for after the birth. Maybe it's going on a hike outdoors or a walk around your neighborhood just being outdoors in the sun, fresh air. Seeing the trees feeling the wind blow walking on the grass barefoot being outdoors is tremendously grounding and joyful. Also, by going out to dinner with your family or friends, slow dancing with your partner, these are all oxytocin inducing activities, then if you want to do the oxytocin boost. There's cuddling with your partner, having sex, making out and nipple stimulation and as Anna Mae Gaskin says what gets the baby in gets the baby out. So we release oxytocin when we have an orgasm. And so, you can do that as Labor's beginning or, you know those days before it can really help get things going. And again, it doesn't have to be sex it can be those other things cuddling making out nipple stimulation all releases oxytocin as well. I want you to alternate rest with activity with things you enjoy in this early labor stage. So, walking, swimming, floating gentle stretching, yoga, there's a technique called the mile circuit, and I'll be linking that in the notes you could try that out using the yoga ball for rest and deep squats.

10:33

Rest, smart, so when you're resting, you want to rest on your left side with your hips stacked and with your knees stacked as well with a big stack of pillows between them. That's how you want to rest in that early stage of labor and if the left side is uncomfortable or you've been on your left side for too long, you can switch to your right side but just being on your side with the knees stacked with pillows is best. So alternating those activities with rest, mixing in a warm bath with Epsom salts and lavender can be wonderful, restorative relaxing, and sometimes our body instead of gogogo or doo doo doo and in that early stage of labor, it just needs to release tension and let it all go. So when you're in that warm bath. I want you to be mentally thinking about releasing it, letting it all go talking to your baby, trusting your body truly relaxing, every spot on your body and this is where like guided meditations or, or visualizations can be helpful, where they kind of go head to toe and walk you through, letting it go so it's like relaxing your jaw, letting your mouth hanging open, relaxing the space between your eyebrows, letting your shoulders hang letting your pelvic floor go like relaxing your knees and your feet, and we might feel relaxed but until we actually think about the actual spot on our body that we want to relax and then feel it let go, sometimes we're not able to let it go so kind of walking through that and doing that in a warm bath is a great place to do that. Also, side note, if your water has broken you don't want to take that warm bath. You don't want to be fully submerged in water but a shower is great as a great alternative. So other things you can do alternating rest with activity is the deep breathing for relaxation. So it is proven that deep breathing practices help us feel relaxed, they actually can create a very like sedated feeling. If you practice them and it doesn't take that you can do it for like five minutes or less and get a sense of relaxation from deep breathing so we're talking about like deep belly breathing, and I have a great video that I will also link in the notes for, like, a guide on how to do that deep belly breathing also guided meditation and visualization so I kind of referenced it earlier when I was talking about the bath but there's an app called expectable. There are also other other places to get like meditations, or visualizations for pregnancy, but putting something in your ears and kind of closing your eyes and letting those words sort of wash over you can be really helpful during that early stage of labor when you're really needing to just slow down and relax. So the next thing I would say for this early labor is to ignore it, until you can't. That is easier said than done, especially if you've never had birth given birth before. As soon as labor begins you might feel very excited and ready to go and kind of like hard to slow down, but simpleton just ignore it, until you can't so just have a list of things that you can go do consider some of the things I've shared here to do, and do those things until you can't ignore anymore and then at that point you would move on to the next set of things. I also want to share here another great. Another great tool for comfort during early labor is what's called a 10s unit and attend unit is a sense, small electrical impulses through electrodes that have adhesive pads and they attach to your skin so usually for labor on your like lower back or your upper back. They flood the nervous system, reducing its ability to transmit pain signals to the brain so it's interfering that fear tension pain cycle, or it's also considered like a gait theory where it's disrupting the signals to the brain so you feel less pain. It also stimulates your brain to produce pain relieving hormones called endorphins which is our natural pain reliever. It is important to begin with the 10s machine and early labor for it to have like the most benefit and to be most effective. So if you're interested in attending that you can buy one on Amazon or there are some medical websites where you can buy one. And you, I would advise, having it on hand and practicing with it during pregnancy, before Labor begins and then once you're in that early labor stage you want to start with it there so that you can increase it as labor progresses, and it's really a great tool to use for coping with pain during, during labor. The next thing I want to talk about or the next stage of labor, we're going to talk about is active labor.

15:26

So for comfort and active labor a great thing to try is the shower, swaying your hips so slow dancing with your partner, or doula. You can hang on your partner during a contraction and do hip dip so think about like back and forth but going deep like down low, but you know as you're going beside the side that's great for during a contraction, and then you can sway with your partner, between contractions and leaning over a yoga ball. Like, imagine a yoga ball placed on a bed, and then you're draped over it with your headline on it and your arms are crossed over and you're swaying. So, swaying your hips, a great way to find comfort during active labor and swaying in the shower. So the shower is a great tool for finding pain relief. It's the warmth, the steadiness of the water coming out of the shower on your back or on your belly and you can alternate back and forth. A lot of people who decide to get in the shower at this point tend to find a rhythm in the shower, whether it's the swaying of the hips or the letting it be on their back during a contraction in their belly in between contractions. You can sit down in the shower. So finding a rhythm in the shower is really beneficial to to coping with pain during labor, another position you can try for comfort his hands and knees and hands and knees is usually not one as a doula that I have to tell people to take. I remind them of it sometimes but usually that's the position that if your body is guiding you and sending you into hands and knees, it's because you're probably feeling a lot of back pain, and the only way you get out of that back pain is by being on your hands and knees, which takes that pressure off of the lower back. So hands and knees is a great it's a gravity still a gravity friendly position, but with a little bit less pressure. Another comfort technique is counter pressure I love this one so you can do counter pressure on the lower back or on the hips, lower back when you can simply just press one hand or two hands to the center of the back very very firmly. I usually lean all my way into the lower back. And this is usually most effective during a contraction. And then there's the hip squeeze, so you're grabbing that upper rim of the pelt not grabbing but pushing the upper rim of the pelvis sort of up and then opening it, to give relief to the pelvis and the hips. During a contraction. Some people love it some people don't. Sometimes you like it in early labor. Sometimes you like it in later labor, It's one of those you got to kind of have your partner or doula try it and if it feels good, you just keep doing it, and then if it doesn't, you move on to something else, but any kind of counter pressure, even taking like tennis balls and putting them in a sack, a sock and tying that sock, like off, and then taking those tennis balls in the sock and pressing them on the lower back on the sacrum real hard, it just helps give more pressure during a contraction. So some people like it very very hard, and some people will argue with just the hand but having that option is really nice. You can also do a warm compress on the lower back so you can do a heating pad or warm rice up. You can do a cold rag on the forehead or on the neck, doing massage on the arms, hands, legs and feet. Having doula support is a great way to have comfort during the active stage of labor. They can do all of these things they can guide your partner to do all these things that can help you try different positions. They are a source of emotional comfort and confidence because they're a trained professional who, who can help you be at ease with what's happening with your body and kinda help you understand what's going on so doula support all by itself is a great way to have comfort during labor. Deep breathing techniques talked about that for earlier in labor. They are great for the entire duration of labor so active labor tends to be a time when we are shifting things kind of make another shift where they were they pick up an intensity and you might have moments of feeling a little bit shaky or out of control or just more intense and re centering with the breath is a great way to, to ground center focus and get back on top of the contractions. So having someone that reminds you to take those deep breaths, is really important. Finding rhythm is great, so having it in your mind that as things pick up being open to any sort of rhythm that you're drawn to and this looks different for people like I mentioned in the shower. Some people find rhythm with swaying, or alternating belly to back. And it really is rhythm has this magic way of helping us cope. Other ways to find rhythm is counting.

20:13

So, with counting like with a contraction, we don't know how long it's going to be so you don't try and count down and say oh it's only going to be 40 seconds so I'm going to count down from 40 Because it could be longer and a bit longer and we get down to the end and it's still going. That creates stress, so that counting up is helpful, and just counting, 12345, and so you get to the peak and then you can either count down or let it wash away from there but just, just the act of counting is a rhythm that helps tapping, so you might tap your partner shoulder, you might cap someone's hand, you might tap the wall in the shower, but during a contraction that tapping is it's like a beat. You might, there might be music playing and you find that beat and you tap with it, and again this is just this rhythmic motion helps cope. Also phrases during the contraction like saying things like the two I have, for examples is down and out. So during a contraction, like as a doula I sometimes start the phrase and then the birthing person picks up on it, and I go down and down and down and out, and that's, it's a beat, you hear the rhythm there, and then it's a reminder, they're sending their energy down and out trying to open everything up release everything down for their baby to make their way out and into their arms the other phrase is, I can do this. And these work because they're short and you can do them in like a resonant pattern. So this one goes, I can do this. I can do this. I can do this, and might feel silly now. But in the moment, having some of these phrases tools or things that you've already thought about, you're going to be so much easier to tap into them and find that rhythm than if you didn't consider them at all. And you might come up with your own phrase, right. So rhythm is a great way to cope during active labor, using essential oils is also very helpful so as a doula I bring very simple ones, lavender, citrus, usually orange and peppermint, but if you're into oils and you have ones that you really love like I was just at a birth where the mother loved the scent of rose and so she brought that and we use that and all the things and it made her feel more relaxed and safe and that was used she was what she was used to using at home. So if you have sense you like, use them at home when you're practicing some of your relaxation techniques and then when you're in the first setting, and you smell it, it's gonna help you tap into those relaxation techniques easier or into that relaxation space easier. So bringing in essential oils and you can bring a diffuser or not, you can easily just wave a bottle in front of a nose I sometimes put some drops on a cold rag and fan it in front of the birthing person, so they're getting cool air plus a fresh scent that they love. Other ways for comfort during active labor is deep vocalization, so you want to vibrate your throat. So moaning humming groaning. All are great ways to help the cervix to relax and dilate, and to help you relieve tension and help you relax. So, if you need to rest which there might come a time. If you need to give your legs a break or you just want to lie down, definitely do that take the breaks where you need them and where you can get them, just remember to lie on your side with a peanut ball or a large stack of pillow so peanut ball is really really great can use in a lot of different ways. It's similar to a yoga ball but it's shaped like a peanut and you use it like usually in the hospital bed, you can use it in a number of ways but it's simply used if you lie on your side and you wedge it between your knees, it helps keep your, keep your hips open while you are still lying down so when we lie on our back. That closes at which pressure on the sacrum and closes the pelvis by 30% so, wind on the side with a peanut ball helps everything stay open. You can also do Child's Pose for rest, so Child's Pose is where you're like kind of hands and knees, and then you sit back on your feet, and kind of keep your knees pointed out and your toes touching. So you kind of get your knees open and then you're set back and you can kind of lay your head down on a soft pillow, and just sort of let it all go. This helps with back labor, but it's also a restful pose.

24:49

So next we're going to talk about transition so this is the last part of the first stage of labor and this is when you're dilating from eight to 10 centimeters. And this can be a time of great intensity, a time of some self doubt might creep in some feelings of not wanting to continue or being able to continue. You might feel real shaky, you might vomit. You might get real real hot. So, finding comfort during this time is important, so that you can make it through and stay, stay on top of things right, it doesn't mean we're not going to have pain, but how we cope with that pain, we want to avoid suffering, the stage of labor is usually the shortest and goes pretty quickly but it is very intense. Some things to help during this time is using a cold washcloth on your forehead or on your neck. And like I mentioned earlier, putting drops of citrus, or lavender or peppermint or whatever scent is the to you on that rag and having someone wave it in front of your face or even just drape it on your neck is really wonderful. Having a fan on hand, like a little, you know battery eyes fan that someone could like hold in front of your face, or you could attach it to the bed or something and have it like blowing on your face. A fan can be really nice moving air feels really good at this stage, especially if you're feeling nauseous. Also using the shower, just like I mentioned earlier is very beneficial at the stage, or a tub so fully submerged if you're able, if it's available to for your birth to fully submerge in a tub of warm water. Some people call it the Aqua Dural. It can really help take some of the pressure off and help you feel comfortable as comfortable as possible during this very intense stage of labor, then also doing the vocalization, so like I said earlier deep sounds guttural sounds that down sending everything down and out so I want you to visualize that breath going down and outs if you're feeling like short breaths in your chest. If you're feeling high pitched in your sounds, do what you need to do. I don't want to say don't do those things because I think we've kind of got to listen to our bodies and do what is best, but if it's feeling like you're feeling more anxious, or more fearful or it's getting like out of control, you really want to take those high pitch sounds and those short breaths, and do long slow deep breaths and think and visualize everything down and out. And welcome, those, those primal sounds as guttural sounds, and if you've watched any YouTube video or childbirth education class video where someone's giving birth. They are making these very primal sounds that if you've not given birth before, or if you've not had an unmedicated birth before they will sound like whoa that's intense. But when you're in it, it's it feels so right. First time everyone does it differently, but I do encourage you, if you haven't listened, or watched a birth, that is unmedicated so that you can, can you, so you can get a good idea for what it sounds like. We'll help you feel more confident as it's happening with you and you can be more confident in tapping into that and leaning into that so making like deep sound and guttural sounds is perfectly normal and actually beneficial and helps our body do what it needs to do to, to get the baby out, and also great for the partner whoever's gonna be present with you to participate in some of these videos as well so they have a healthy perception of what a normal birth looks like.

28:33

The next thing I want to share with you is rhythm again. Okay, so we talked about rhythm in active labor but it continues here So counting tapping those phrases down and now I can do this. So finding that rhythm, massaging the legs, I find that in transition a lot of mamas really want the legs massage counter pressure on the sacrum so at this point the sacrum might be bulging, and you really can put the counter pressure on the sacrum to take some of that pressure off and help with the contractions also cool tip is to hold a fine tooth comb. So, you can buy them very inexpensively from the store. I bring them in my doula bag and you squeeze so they're kind of sharp, if you are not sharp but like if you hold a fine tooth comb down and squeeze it as hard as you can, it's uncomfortable. So doing that during labor disrupts the pain signal to the brain is that gait theory again, and it can help cope with contractions as well so having that in, in your bag to try is something you could consider as well. Doing a supported squat with your partner doula or using a rebozo that's like secured to adore can help during transition as well. Using focal point so pictures or phrases hanging on a wall that take you to your happy place or that you can stare at. I don't know if you've ever done yoga, but like, having that like soft focus on something can help you stay centered. When you're not staring intently at it but it's like you see it, but you're not focused on it. You can do that in labor as well and it can help you stay centered and grounded during contractions. Also hands on knees is great during this point if you are being like, guided to be on your hands and knees, it's usually for a reason so just listen to your body can help take pressure off. Some people push their babies out that way. It's a great position for labor. And then the last thing I would want to share for comfort during transition is focusing on letting it all go between contractions. So during a contraction it's normal and natural for things to feel intense for your body to tense up, do what you got to do during the contraction and then between contractions, I want you to focus on letting it all go. So I want you to visualize your shoulders dropping down your face, relaxing your jaw, relaxing maybe your mouth drops open your the space between your eyebrows relaxes your pelvic floor releases, you just let it all go. And it's a something that either your partner or your doula or if you yourself, if you can remind yourself of this after every contraction. It'll help you to really relax and take the break you need so we can do labor because we get breaks. So pain and labor is intermittent, we get these breaks because it allows us, even a brief moment of rest and it allows us to keep going. So keeping that in mind some people even fall asleep at this stage, and you get a little bit longer breaks, and the in this final stage of labor before you're ready to push your baby out and that so you can conserve energy so you can push a baby out. So the quicker you can get into a relaxed state by doing those things I just said is very helpful and will help you keep going, so that when that next contraction comes you can do it, and then take that break again and with those breaks you are able to get energy again so that you can keep going and meet your baby sooner than later. I want you to think about things that help you feel good when you are sick or tired or stressed or anxious, do these things, like, it's different for everybody. I want you to be able to kind of tap into what really helps you feel good when you're not feeling great, and that's what I want you to try and bring into your labor space, and that will help you feel more at ease and comfortable and safe and be able to labor freely and smoothly and in a in a in an effective way. Something else you could try to do is the IceCube test. If you're not familiar with that. It's a way to sort of, quote unquote practice contractions, and it's, it's pretty simple. It is not meant to cause pain or significant discomfort. So, if you try this and you hate it or find it just miserable, please stop. It is not not intended to do that.

33:11

But it is pretty simple. You take an ice cube, and you hold it in your hand and you could start with 20 or 30 seconds and see how that feels and try to build up to 60 seconds. And what I want you to do is you're holding that ice cube, I want you to like at the beginning when you first put it in your hand, you might be chatty, like if you're sitting there with your partner or friend, or even doing this with your doula. As you're holding that ice cube in the beginning, you're probably going to be like oh I can do this, this isn't that bad. And then 10 seconds into it you're going to be like, Huh, that's more intense than I thought it was going to be, and then you start focusing on it more. And then, as each second goes on it gets way more uncomfortable, probably than you would expect. What I want you to do the very first time is to not really have a plan of what how you're going to cope with it. I just want you to pay attention to your body, and I want you to think like, notice, does your breath change. Do you do you move your body in a way that you weren't moving your body before, do you become more quiet. Do you like, what are you experiencing inside your body for that 30 to 60 seconds that you're holding this ice cube and then I want you to put the ice cube down. And remember, contractions are about 60 seconds, some shorter some longer. Towards the end, they can definitely be a little bit longer, but this is a good just practice. And then I want you to think, Okay, think about how you felt why you held that ice cube and then I want you to try again. And I want you to practice some deep breathing, maybe get up and walk around. It'll be incredible like just simply walking around while doing it can help you cope, try some of these things we've talked about here, hold the comb in your hand. Do tapping do vocalize breathing, think about. Another really helpful thing is to think about your body, what is tense. So when you're feeling that pain is you're holding the ice cube is your jaw tense is your belly tense is are you furrowing your eyebrows, or your shoulder, you know what is happening with your body and I want you to consciously release, each of those areas as you're feeling the intensity of the ice in your hand, and then put it down. And then also, you can have your partner, try it too, just to sort of have that experience and see how it makes them feel. And then you can also invite them to support you while you're holding your ice, and maybe see if they could rub your back or give you some positive words of affirmation or just be with you and sit and hold space while while you are feeling those uncomfortable sensations, because sometimes that's good practice when the partner can witness you feeling uncomfortable for a full minute. And it's good practice for them because that's going to be labor, and you want them to be as competent as possible to support you and to know what's normal during that time. So that is it for the information I'm sharing today. I do want to let you know I'm including a comfort strategies reference list that you can print off and use to, you know, remember these things I've shared here you can take it with you to your birth location as a reference your partner can use it. It's free. I will put that in the show notes. I hope you have found this information on comfort during labor helpful. If you have any questions about anything I shared here please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you for listening and have a beautiful day.

Keywords:

Labor, contraction, birth, pregnancy, comfort, oxytocin, hips, doula, rhythm, helpful, feel, partner, pain, release, squats, hands, tension, find, pelvis, tap