Hello and welcome to today's video where I'll be teaching you some top tips to
dilate faster in labour. My name is Anja from www.hypnobirthingwithanja.com and my channel's
here to support you through pregnancy, birth and motherhood! Don't forget to click the subscribe
button and the bell icon so you don't miss any of my weekly videos, there's a new one every single
Tuesday :) The average labour time for a first-time mum is between 12 and 18 hours but sometimes labour
can go on for longer. Some women find that they're in early labour for days on end and this can lead
to exhaustion so it's really important that you know how to speed up cervical dilation to avoid
burnout. Here are my top tips to dilate faster during labour. My first tip is to walk around
during labour. Now, that might sound pretty trivial but just bear with me... When you're walking, the
gravitational pull of the ground encourages your baby to drop lower down into your pelvis
and it helps to optimally position your baby's head bang on top of your cervical opening.
So, every contraction that you have during labour your baby's head will actually be able to help
with the cervical dilation process and that makes for much shorter and easier labour. Another great
tip is to sit upright on a birth ball and to do 10 to 15 minutes of gentle bounces up and down.
When you're seated comfortably, ensure that your feet are securely planted on
the ground on a non-slip surface and that your feet are pointed out at the numbers ten
and two. Just think of a clock face to help you with your feet's positioning.
Then, as I said, just bounce up and down on it for about 10 to 15 minutes at a time.
If you haven't got a decent birth ball yet please see the link in the video description below
for a really good quality birth ball. My third tip is to make sure that you drink plenty of
water during labour and that's because dehydration can cause your body to be really sluggish, it can
make your contractions far less efficient and that can drag out the cervical dilation process.
Good hydration means a shorter labour and faster cervical dilation so you should really aim to
drink a small glass of water every hour. Your birth partner needs to remind you to drink because it
can be easy for you to forget when you're in labour and dealing with lots of contractions.
If you're drinking plenty of water in labour, it's really important that you sit on the toilet
at least every hour or so to empty your bladder. Sometimes, in labour, your baby can be pressing
on the nerve that sends a signal to your brain telling you that you need to pee so it's really
important that your birth partner reminds you to sit on the toilet so that you can go for a wee. If
your bladder gets too full it can go into spasm and it can be harder for your bladder to empty.
Also, a full bladder can take up a lot of space in your pelvis and that can make your contractions
more uncomfortable and it can interfere with the smooth workings of the cervical dilation
process. It's really important that you do sit on the toilet every hour to do a wee, even if only a
little bit of wee comes out, it's still important that you do try to pee. Please don't avoid
drinking water simply because you want to prevent frequent toilet visits. It's really important that
you're doing both things; drinking plenty of water and sitting on the toilet regularly.
Sitting back-to-front on your toilet seat rather than facing forwards can also be really beneficial
for cervical dilation and that's because sitting back-to-front on a toilet seat positions your
hips above the level of your knees and that encourages your pelvis to open up fully.
It also encourages your baby to press down more firmly on top of your cervical opening
which can help your cervix to dilate faster. When you go for a wee you might want to
kill two birds with one stone: go for a pee but also sit back to front on the toilet
when you're doing your wee and then you can just rest your upper body and your head
on the cistern. My next tip is to learn how to use hypnobirthing breathing techniques during labour.
Hypnobirthing breathing techniques encourage deep relaxation and tension release in your body.
When you're deeply relaxed in labour that makes for a much smoother and shorter
stage of cervical dilation. That's because, when you're deeply relaxed, your body releases
more oxytocin and oxytocin is the hormone responsible for kick-starting your labour
and helping your contractions to progress in length, strength and frequency so that your cervix
can open up smoothly and comfortably. To learn how to do hypnobirthing breathing techniques correctly
please see this video on the screen right now. It's already uploaded on my YouTube channel so you just
need to watch it learn and practice the breathing techniques in preparation for your baby's birth.
My next tip is to listen to hypnobirthing relaxation audios during your labour.
As you know already, being relaxed in labour allows Oxytocin to flow around your body
and this allows you to dilate faster and reduce your labour time. Hypnobirthing audios help you
to switch off from any external distractions and keep you calm through the use of visualization
exercises, breathing practice and the use of encouraging words which can comfort and reassure
you. In the video description below, I'll post some links to hypnobirthing relaxation audios that you
can listen to during labour. My next tip is to stay warm. It's imperative that you're warm
enough during labour! If you feel too cold that can actually create tension in your body that
can restrict the space in your pelvis and make your contractions longer, harder and it also
restricts blood flow to your uterus and your baby where it's needed the most. If there's
restricted blood flow to that area that can make cervical dilation last a lot longer. To help you
stay warm during labour, take a warm bath or shower or get into a birth pool if you have access to one
of those. If you can't access warm water at least try to keep your feet warm. This may sound strange
but cold feet are said to be linked to a longer labour. It is an old wives tale but many women swear
that by keeping their feet warm during labour helped them to dilate much faster. My next tip
is to do nipple stimulation during labour to make your contractions stronger and more effective and
help you to dilate faster. To do nipple stimulation successfully, focus on one breast at a time. First,
roll your nipple in-between your thumb and index finger or gently tweak your nipple. You can then
use four fingers to rub over your areola and the wider area of your breast. Do this for five minutes
then switch to your other breast. Doing this every hour can help you to dilate much faster.
My next tip is to make sure that you're labouring in a dimly lit or dark room
because when you're labouring in a dimly lit room your body automatically releases more
of the hormone Melatonin. Melatonin normally promotes sleep but in labour Melatonin helps you to
relax more deeply so that you produce more of the hormone Oxytocin which, as I mentioned earlier, is
the hormone responsible for helping your cervix to dilate more quickly and easily during contractions.
My final tip is to use acupressure. There's an acupressure point that you can stimulate during
labour to help you to dilate faster and it's in between your thumb and your first finger
right at the top of this webbed piece of skin here. Just take your thumb on your
other hand and firmly press on that webbed piece of skin there for five minutes. Sometimes
you just do a circular motion, other times you can press down on the top of that webbed piece of skin.
You're feeling for the muscle tissue at the top of the webbed piece of skin, not the floppy piece of
skin but further up in that kind of triangular piece there right at the top, so you're doing a
circular motion and then you can press down for a little bit. Do that for five minutes and then
switch to your other hand and do it for five minutes on your other hand. You can do this
acupressure stimulation every hour for up to five to ten minutes. If you're struggling to stimulate
that acupressure point by yourself, please ask a member of your care team to do it for you!
Thank you so much for watching this video today :) I hope that you found it useful and informative!
If you've got any questions about speeding up cervical dilation during labour
please let me know by leaving me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can.
Don't forget to check out the links in the video description below because I have posted links to
my breathing technique videos and my hypnobirthing relaxation audios which you can listen to during
labour. If you're ready to delve deeper into hypnobirthing and do a full course,
please check out my online hypnobirthing course in the video description below.
This course is self-paced and self-study and you can work it flexibly around your home
life and work life. Your birth partner can access the video and audio modules as well
and it's just a great way of learning hypnobirthing from the comfort of your own home
at a low cost :) Take care, sending you and your baby lots of love and see you in my next video!