hey there guys it's Alice here back with another spin of the big wheel of birth so every day we
spend the wheel figure out what topic we're going to talk about let's spit it out okay let's do it
oh I like this one today I have on here denial and sleep okay denial and sleep is what I say
are my two secret strategies for early labor now when I am talking about denial and sleep my big
disclaimer on this is that I mean for first-time birthing people so if you have had a baby before
once twice three times how many times if you have gone into labor and birth to baby
then this strategy is not what I am suggesting this is for our first-timers out there okay so
that's the important that's the important piece of information with this now let's dive into denial
and sleep early labor can be very long it can be the vast majority of your labor so if you if
you took a labor your labor as a string and say this is how long your labor is gonna be right
for most people the vast majority of it is going to be considered early labor now I have a video
on early labor I'll link to but the technical definition of early labor is when your cervix
is zero centimeters dilated until it reaches six centimeters dilated and that is your early labor
now this part is usually fairly long and what I mean by fairly long is it can be hours upon hours
it can be days that would be the extreme but it can be so it is a long amount of time and in order
to successfully cope during that long amount of time especially if you are laboring at home
for that which a lot of providers recommend that you labor at home for your early labor phase and
obviously talk to your providers about when they want you to come in and when they want you to if
your birthing at a hospital or at birth center but it's usually pretty long and so my favorite
strategy my first go-to strategy that I recommend as a doula and a childbirth educator is to first
of all denial be in denial that you're in labor okay and after you are in denial in labor then
you're gonna sleep now this is obviously you're not going to deny any warning signs so any of
the warning signs that your your provider might tell you about like if you're experiencing a lot
of bleeding if you're experiencing spots ahead of in front of your eyes if you're experiencing
anything that feels really abnormal we are not denying that ever we are going to seek medical
assistance but if you are having some cramping us and say it's like 10:00 p.m. you've got a long day
at work you're kind of thinking about going to bed maybe you're thinking about watching
some Netflix and you have cram penis and you're thinking this is it I think this is it I think
this might be labor instead of trying to time contractions or call everyone you know and tell
them that you're in labor or try all these other different positions and stuff my favorite thing
for you to do especially if it's towards the end of your evening is to say I don't really think
I'm in labor could be could not be I don't I don't really think it is that's the denial part and then
step 2 is to get yourself in bed and go to sleep because sleeping through that early labor where
they're still maybe kind of mild enough that you can snooze and in the rest phases or before they
get really organized into a solid labor pattern sleeping is really what you want to do and I like
to compare labor to let's say a long car ride now my family we do lots of car rides we actually just
moved from Atlanta to Seattle's and we drove the whole way not all at once we didn't stop
but imagine you have a long car ride ahead of you right and you're not responsible for anything of
it you're the passenger you're not responsible for the map or the directions or the driving or
anything if you fell asleep and say you slept for like three four hours straight and you missed that
much of the long car ride and your car ride went from 18 hours down to 14 hours because you just
slept through all of all those four hours that's a good thing right you missed nothing you didn't
have to experience the four hours of boredom and a car ride with nothing to look at it was that's
a win so in early labor before things get super strong now sometimes people's labor does start
super strong but the vast majority of the time it starts out mild where you can actually sleep
so denial that you're in labor so don't start timing things don't start doing any of the working
yourself up to say you know you're in labor deny that you're in labor and just rest your body
should allow you to rest if you can rest because if it was real labor like you're not gonna wake up
from a nap and the baby is going to be ready to be pushed out that's not how it works that's that's
not that doesn't happen with first timers remember that this strategy is for first timers only that
we're going to deny and sleep so what I like to do especially if you have a doula is to give your
doula ëthe heads up and say hey I'm experiencing some labor I'm going to go to bed and I guarantee
that they're going to support that decision because getting Reston is so key just think your
your body does so much work and labor it's almost like you're running a marathon even though you may
not be actually even moving even if you get an epidural your body is still working so hard and
it needs rest rest is so key to be to be able to be effective in dilating and effacing and pushing
and everything so getting in that rest getting in that sleep is so key I actually as I teach Lamaze
classes I usually give people a lot of strategies again first time there's a lot of strategies
on how to deal with labor so we talked about positions we talked about breathing visualization
vocalization and a lot of these strategies you can find that we talked about on the wheel also
but I say that if there's anything you can remember just one strategy you can remember
it's this one denial and sleep and as the early phase of labor it's so important gosh you guys
can probably tell by the way I'm talking about it how important I think it is okay so I want to hear
your thoughts about it there's a comment section under this YouTube video and it's usually really
empty and sad and lonely put a comment in there let me know what you think about this sleep in
denial is it is it possible can you imagine doing it are you a doula also that's watching this that
recommends it too let me know don't leave that comment section lonely and empty for me and hit
the like button if you found this particular spin of the wheel helpful now as I was talking about
the other coping techniques and the other videos they are all organized they're all in YouTube but
they're also organized in a free course you're not in it yet birthatoz I'm sure some of you watching
you're already in because we have a really growing number of students over there which is awesome
okay guys great talking to you today today thanks for hanging out with me and talking about my
favorite early labor strategy for first-timers denial and sleep okay see you next time