Hi! Today's video is all about natural labour pain relief so I'm going to be
sharing my six top tips for managing labour pain naturally
so that you can deal with your contractions effectively and have a calm
birth experience! My name's Anja and I'm a hypnobirthing antenatal teacher.
For more tips to support you through your pregnancy and your baby's birth,
hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any of my future videos.
My first labour pain relief tip is to use hypnobirthing breathing techniques
during your contractions. Hypnobirthing breathing techniques help your body to
relax and help you to release tension during labour. They also help you
to release more happy birth hormones into your
bloodstream like endorphins. Endorphins are also called endogenous
morphine and they're your body's natural pain relieving hormone and the more
endorphins you have flowing around your body in labour,
the more easily you'll be able to manage any discomfort or labour pain naturally.
To learn how to breathe correctly in labour, please check out my hypnobirthing
breathing technique videos on my youtube channel.
My second top tip for managing labour pain naturally is to immerse yourself in
warm water during the birth process if you can. If
you've got access to a birth pool that's great!
If not, if you can have a warm shower or warm bath during labour that's also going
to be beneficial. Warm water will instantly relax and
comfort you, alleviate contraction discomfort
and ease lower back ache during labour. My third tip is to take arnica tablets.
Arnica is a homeopathic remedy and if you take a few tablets and dissolve them
under your tongue in labour they can help to ease discomfort that
you might be feeling in your lower back, your hips and your thighs.
They help to manage contraction pain and if you take arnica tablets after you've
given birth, they can help with the healing process
so help to heal any vaginal tears more effectively
and also reduce swelling in your nether regions :)
I recommend nelson's arnica tablets and for more information about those
please see the link beneath this video. My fourth tip
is to move about during labour so get yourself into active
and upright labour and birth positions - ones that are working with gravity.
When you're working with gravity it not only helps your baby
to dilate your cervix more effectively and helps the muscles of your uterus
work properly, it also encourages your baby to get into
the best position to comfortably descend your birth canal and be born
more smoothly and comfortably. So getting into positions like
being on all fours on your hands and knees and swaying your hips from side to
side or back and forth, sitting on a birth ball and doing hip
circles, doing a squat or a supported squat,
walking about or standing up and leaning over
your birth partner with your hands over their shoulders - all of those positions
can help to manage and reduce labour pain and
also just to make the whole process a bit more straightforward and less
challenging for you. I'm going to create a video about labour
and birth positions so please look out for that on my
youtube channel :) My fifth tip is to make sure that you
turn down the lights in your birth room. We're what's known as 'diurnal mammals'
which means that we're awake in the day and we're
meant to sleep at night. We're also genetically designed to give
birth more comfortably and smoothly under the cover of darkness. If you've
ever had a pet cat or pet dog that's given birth to a litter of
puppies or kittens, you'll know that when they're in labour they find a dark,
secluded and private place in your house or your garden to give birth and they
emerge when their kittens and puppies have been born.
You're genetically designed to desire the same kind of setting when you give
birth to your baby, but unfortunately in the western world,
we give birth a lot of the time under the bright fluorescent lights of a
hospital room and that can just interrupt the natural flow of labour and
make it more uncomfortable and painful for you.
If you dim the lights in your birth room, or even turn them off completely,
you're going to feel more private protected and unobserved
and that makes for much more smooth birth experience!
Also, when you're in a dark room, you release the hormone Melatonin.
Melatonin is primarily responsible for helping us to unwind and fall asleep at
the end of the day but when you release melatonin in labour
because you're in a dark room, it helps to induce feelings of
restfulness and relaxation in your body. Whilst, when you release melatonin in
labour, you won't be able to fall asleep, unless for example you have an epidural
and you can't feel your contractions, releasing Melatonin into your body is
actually going to help your body to release
tension, it's going to help you to relax - and the more relaxed you are in your
mind and your body, the less pain and discomfort you're
going to feel. Releasing melatonin, by being in a dark birth room in labour,
is naturally going to help you to manage labour pain more effectively!
My sixth tip is to make sure that you stay hydrated and that you're eating
little and often during labour. If you don't eat or drink enough in
labour your body's not going to work as efficiently for you.
The muscles of your uterus need fluid, they need to be hydrated and they need
fuel to be able to dilate your cervix effectively and then push your baby down
your birth canal and out into the world. If you're low on
energy, or dehydrated during labour, your pain levels will go
up - so it's really important to be sipping regularly on water or
isotonic energy drinks and to be nibbling on
labour snacks little and often as well. There's a video about the best snacks to
eat in labour on my youtube channel so please check it out!
Thank you so much for watching this video today! I hope that you found the
information useful :) Please give me a thumbs up and leave me
a comment and let me know what tips you're going to be using to help manage
your labour pain naturally. For more information about my
hypnobirthing classes and online courses, please click the links below.
Thank you so much for subscribing, thank you so much for joining me today and see
you in the next video! Bye :)