Confusion in Childbirth 2
Way back last post, we were talking about this article
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/hana-pauls/we-need-to-talk-about-giv_b_15918322.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
Today we’re going to discuss 4. from this article:
4. Mind-Body the Dynamic Duo: Don’t let your body drag your mind kicking and screaming through birth, you’ll only be left traumatized. Synergise the two. Use your mind to journey into the body to feel what is happening inside, for a few minutes each day, close your eyes, slow the breath and focus your mind on your feet, moving slowly to your legs, abdomen, and chest. What sensations do you feel? Stay with them, what happens next? You will come to see that sensations are transient -nothing is permanent. This is a great tool to use with your surges. Practice your affirmations, whatever you tell your mind, your body will do!
The author is asking you to couple your Mind/Body. This is very good. For too long authors encouraged Women to ‘get out of their thinking brain and let their primal brain take over’. Michel Odent became famous in that statement. When Women lack skills they can’t find them inside. When Women HAVE skills then they use their Mind’s Eye to ‘choose’ which skill/s is best at any moment of their birth experience. This is the profound shift Birthing Better skills make from what either Odent or the author above is saying.
Odent encourages Women to not use our amazing human brain. This author merely suggests we use it to observe and go Zen … ‘nothing is permanent’. Birthing Better skills give you another option. Learn skills, practice them a wee bit so you feel them in your body then use whichever skill/s are appropriate at any moment throughout your baby’s birth.
Why is this approach different? Women have a very, very active Mind throughout birth. We are hard-wired throughout our Human history to pay attention during dynamic and fluid situations. Giving birth is both! Humans thrive on being and feeling skilled. We use skills all the Time. Giving birth must be elevated to a highly skilled activity with a comprehensive set of diversified skills that we know well enough to pick and choose in response to both the internal sensations and external situations.
For example. We need
- skills for breathing with the pain (surges, rushes).
- internal relaxation skills so we create space for our baby.
- to know if the position we are in is helping or hindering our baby’s ability to come down, through and out.
- to understand we can have horrible thoughts yet choose positive skilled behaviors
Every Woman is birthing alone even if she is surrounded by others. Every Woman needs skills so she can birth within her own dignity. If she is fortunate to have a partner/others who will help her. They need a set of skills that are complimentary.
For example. A birth-coach needs
- to help the birthing woman stay on top of and in control of all her internal sensations and how she responses to external circumstances
- to see and hear whether she needs help or is coping well
- to read contractions so the woman doesn’t spend hours in positions that cause flat and ineffective contractions thus delaying the birth
- skills to create space inside the woman’s pelvis so the baby doesn’t get stuck.
Remember … This conversation is not against midwives or even this author. We are discussing the importance of shifting our childbirth conversation away from the ‘ideal’ birth to how all births can be empowered. Our societies cannot separate one birth from another or imply in any way that one birth is better than the other. Birthing Better skills were developed by hundreds of fathers and mothers so each family could use effective skills to birth their baby no matter where, with whom or what happens to or around them during their baby’s birth.
Birthing Better skills were developed by moms and dads in the early 1970s in the US and used by many thousands globally in all types of birth. Birthing Better online birthing classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust.
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