THINKING THAT A LABOR CAN BE PLEASANT WITHOUT USING ANESTHESIA SEEMS MADNESS, BUT DIVERSE STUDIES SHOW THAT IT IS POSSIBLE
Edition Jessica López Cervantes Consulting Laura G. Carrascosa, doctor in Biochemistry
According to experts, just assuming that the baby is painful is enough to make it run in pain. The explanation is simple: when labor begins, the first contractions feel like almost painless pinches. It is then when you must disconnect from the world and start the inner journey to the “birth planet”. If you get carried away by fear and shrink, the next contractions will be more painful. The more pain, the greater the withdrawal, and the more shrinkage, the more pain.
BECAUSE IT HURTS?
The muscles of the uterus do not work well.
• Fear causes the muscles of the cervix to constrict and offer resistance to the movement of the muscles that lower the baby. Since they have to pull harder to dilate, then the feeling is even more painful.
Blood goes bad uterus.
• Fear activates your alert mechanism; When this happens the uterus is not considered an essential organ, so it receives less blood and, with it, less oxygen. Then you must work in more difficult conditions, under stress and tension, which generates a lot of pain and other problems in the body.
Contractions are less effective.
• For contractions to occur spontaneously, the tissue of the uterus must have a non-acid pH, but the lack of oxygen increases the production of lactic acid in the muscles and the acidification of the uterus produces less effective pain and contractions that cause the deliveries lengthen.
Adrenaline slows down the effect of oxytocin.
• Oxytocin is a hormone in labor that facilitates the birth and delivery of the placenta, but with fear, you secrete adrenaline, which slows its action.
HOW TO OVERCOME FEARS
BEFORE DELIVERY
• GET INFORMATION. It is one of the best weapons against fear. You must know the birth process thoroughly and know what will happen, but not only from the physiological point of view: also physically know the place where you will give birth, the way of proceeding of the professionals, their protocols … The dialogue with other women, a doula or your partner also helps to drive away fears.
• GET READY. The woman who does not know what she is facing is scared and fear creates an imbalance that causes pain. On the contrary, preparing for childbirth and knowing what to do at each stage reassures, helps to have faith in the process and collaborates with the organism to give birth. So subsequent deliveries are often viewed with less fear unless the first experience was traumatic.
DURING THE DELIVERY
• JUST RELAX. Any technique that helps you disconnect is convenient: dancing gently, listening to music, positive thoughts (“I am capable”, “I will have an easy delivery”). Take a hot bath, do relaxing exercises, change your position and move freely, think of something else to de-focus your contractions … This helps to move pain away from the mind.
• LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. The proper course of labor does not depend on whether “as a woman, you know how to give birth or not” or whether someone assists you. Your body is naturally prepared for it. The problem is that all this falls apart if, as a consequence of fear, the alert and flight mechanism arises. So it is important that you forget all the stories they have told you and trust yourself, you can do it!