Tag: fear-tension-pain cycle

15 Non-Pharmacological Pain Relief Options For You To Choose In Child Birth

For those that would prefer not to use medication, or want to try other options first, you might be wondering what on Earth is available to you. Well don’t worry, you have plenty of pain relief options!

Many of these are things that will naturally enable oxytocin and endorphins to work in your body, creating a hazy dazy birth bubble that protects you. All people respond differently to different things so it’s worth putting the work in to think about what might boost your oxytocin (the love hormone) and your endorphins (your pain relieving hormones).

The brilliant thing about these is that there are no negative side effects and you can layer them up like a little pain relieving onion, and take them away when they no longer serve you. In no particular order, I bring you 15 non-pharmacological methods of pain relief during childbirth:

Breaking the fear-tension-pain cycle: Fear leads to tension, tension leads to pain. By relieving the fear you can reduce the physical symptoms of tension, ie pain! So think about some of the things that help you reduce fear and anxiety – things like deep breathing and oxytocin boosters like aromatherapy can help, as can a big cuddle from your partner!

Concept of purposeful pain: Giving birth isn’t like breaking a bone. For a start, it usually comes on gradually and builds in intensity, unlike the sudden sharp shock of a break! It’s not a something’s wrong type of pain. Reframing the lens through which you look at labour pains and understanding that each contraction brings you one step closer to your baby can help transform the way you react to the pains. Instead of being something you fear (that fear-tension-pain cycle again!), they can become something you welcome.

Breathing: Deep breathing can help encourage your physical and emotional body into a relaxed state, promoting a healthy blood flow to the birthing muscles so they work effectively. A calm, relaxed body and mind reduces the pain you experience – yep, it’s that fear-tension-pain cycle again!

Visualisations: By creating images in your mind, especially when they’ve already been anchored in your brain to a time when you were relaxed and pain-free, can help reduce your experience of pain and give you a way to handle each contraction. Many people use the concept of a wave as your contraction during labour – the wave swells and with it so does the contraction in your body, and the wave washes away as the contraction releases; you can tie this in nicely with long deep breaths.

Hot water bottle: One of the oldest and cheapest methods of pain relief!

Laughter: Laughing produces endorphins, endorphins are your body’s pain killing hormones. Easy as that!

Bath/shower: Water promotes oxytocin and endorphins, helping that birth bubble be built around you. Being submerged in water can relieve stress hormones and muscle tension, while showers can be used to massage the sore bits.

TENS machine: These send tiny electrical impulses into your body, disrupting the pain signals that you’re experiencing from your contractions. You CANNOT use this with any pain relieving method that involves water.

Massage: Getting hands on can be a great way to reduce the pain your experiencing! Massage can relax painful muscles, relieve stress and promote oxytocin, especially if it’s someone you love doing it.

Music: Music isn’t just a good distraction in birth, it can actually disrupt your brain’s pain pathways meaning your pain is reduced! Also, when else can you listen to entirely your choice of music without someone moaning?!

Rebozo: Rebozo sifting is a really gentle way to move muscles and joints, bringing relief from any pain stored up in them. It’s not a very well known concept in the UK but one that people tend to love if they do use it.

Movement: Keeping mobile helps you move and sway into contractions, relieving your body of tension, stiffness and soreness as you go. Being able to choose which position you get into and move around helps reduce your experience of pain, as well as increasing the self-efficacy you have. Choosing upright positions can help wiggle your baby down into the cervix, helping trigger oxytocin to be released into your body and stimulating effective contractions. Win win!

Acupressure: Certain acupressure points can reduce pain intensity. One of the increasingly common ways of using acupressure is to hold a comb in your hand with the teeth pointing just below where your fingers meet your palm.

Aromatherapy: Olfactory stimulation can result in pain reduction. It can also be used to promote oxytocin and reduce stress. Some essential oils are contraindicated in pregnancy/birth so do check what you’re using with someone qualified.

Personalised oxytocin boosters: We’re all individuals and respond to different things in different ways. Have a think about what makes you feel loved up, joyful, ecstatic and on a natural high as they might be just the thing to help you in labour!

(And to finish off, if you do choose pharmacological pain relief then that’s perfectly ok! You can choose to do your birth any way you want! <3 )

How To Release The Fear Of Labour Before Birth

I wrote this blog post for The Daisy Foundation all about how releasing your fear in labour can help ease your pain. Fear, tension and pain are in a self-fulfilling cycle, find out how to break it.

So you’re pregnant – congratulations! Now you’ve started to share the good news, we’re willing to bet that you’ve started getting the horror stories – the failed inductions, the 3rd degree tears, the days long labour…right? In the words of Chandler Bing could that BE less helpful?

Think about your reaction when you got the last round of grim labour stories. You winced, you grimaced, you clenched your pelvic floor and tensed your knees together? Oh yes, that’s the good old fear factor – fight or flight – setting in. Fear makes your nervous system produce adrenaline, which increases your heart rate, makes your breathing shallower, blood diverts from your non-essential organs and your muscles tense. Perfectly understandable…but now think about where your baby’s going to come from. Uh huh. Your body being tense from your belly button to your knees isn’t going to help your baby on their way, is it? Your fear leads to tension, and tension leads to pain.

When adrenaline is produced in a labouring person, it inhibits the production of two other hormones; oxytocin and endorphins. It’s these two hormones that are responsible for stimulating the contractions of the uterus, and for blocking the feelings of pain. Without these present in sufficient quantities labour will be longer, more stressful, and more painful than if we allow our bodies to limit the production of adrenaline.

So what if you were told that you can help reduce the pain of labour? Hell YEAH. Let’s start by looking at the fear aspect of the cycle. Fear of the unknown is a well-established phenomenon and it holds true in labour too. Just as each birthing person and each pregnancy is different, so too is each birth experience. For a first-time mum with no point of reference, the thought of pushing a baby out of a hole that small can be pretty terrifying. Reduce the unknown, however, and you can reduce the fear. And that’s where antenatal education comes in. A knowledgeable, informed woman is one who no longer fears the unknown. Now – no woman can plan their birth experience entirely, otherwise we’d all be having two-hour labours with no tearing or pooing (am I right?) but by becoming knowledgeable about the birth process, about the options available to you and about how you can influence the birth to be the best possible outcome on the day by playing the hand that’s dealt, then you can make it all a lot less scary. What’s more, by being so well prepared, this knowledge becomes innate and you won’t have to rouse yourself too much from your birth bubble to give consideration to anything that might need a decision from you. Coming out of that internally focussed zone allows adrenaline to creep up – not good for your oxytocin levels.

We’ve looked at how you can reduce your fear by preparing your cortex (your ‘thinking brain’, responsible for knowledge and decision making) ahead of the big day, but you can also prepare your limbic system (or ‘emotional brain’) to release fear. Now your limbic system is responsible for many things, one of which is your fight or flight reflex…yep, that again. And where knowledge and information can affect your cortex, we need a different language to speak to the emotional brain. Something that will help you exercise the part of the brain which switches on – and off – that adrenaline switch. This is where relaxations and visualisations come in. Using guided visualisations such as seeing each contraction as a wave building up in intensity, peaking and gently rippling away while in a state of pain-free relaxation can encourage your body to return to that state when anchoring itself to those visualisations in labour. Your breathing becomes easier and floods the body with oxygen, your muscles are relaxed and free of tension which makes each contraction more effective, you’re disassociated from feelings of pain which keeps oxytocin and endorphin levels high. Pretty impressive, right?

There’s another way to keep adrenaline, fear and tension out of the birthing room with you, and that’s the room itself. Imagine a stark white, brightly lit room that smells slightly of Dettol that hums with the electric lights. Now picture a dimly lit, warm room filled with your favourite scent and music. It’s unlikely you’re going to be feeling very comfortable in room number one. And if you’re not comfortable, if you don’t feel safe and secure, then your adrenaline will rise and your labour might stall. So really think about preparing your birth space to be a place where you can feel comfortable in. Many hospitals and birth centres are really accommodating at letting you take in goodies from home.

Now, I’m not saying that birth can or should be pain free. But we do know that working with our emotional and physical selves, really understanding the physiology of how our bodies work, can reduce the experience of pain. And that’s a bloody good start to giving birth isn’t it?