one of the factors that really impacts the speed of our labor is how quickly
the baby can make their way through our pelvis and just like this model
that I'm fumbling with just like this model it's not super it's not a straight path they have to
make a lot of tiny little movements in order to make their way through and I have this awesome
game it's like old-fashioned kids game where you have to get the marble all the way through
it's just like that where you're not making one movement but you're making a series of little
movements trying to get the marble to the end it's just like that the flavor and if we can do
something one simple strategy to help baby descend through the pelvis we're gonna speed up labor so
this one simple strategy to speed up labor is to use movement and labor I'm going to share some
details about the types of movements to do and how often to change your movements now this is a great
video to share with your partner who's going to be supporting you in Labor so that they can help
implement this simple awesome strategy now I'm going to include specific ideas for partners in
the video so stay tuned now if we haven't met a quick intro my name is Alice Turner I'm a
birth Doula a Lamaze certified childbirth educator with over 17 years of experience
it's weird to say that out loud being right there in the labor and delivery room I teach childbirth
classes online and I'm going to drop some links and some coupon codes in the description if you
find this video helpful you're going to love those classes for more great information so
we've got this marble maze getting through this maze is a lot like our baby traveling
through the pelvis because achieving both goals it's not one of just one movement strategy I
can't just tell you to do one movement and that that's going to make a difference and
that's going to get your baby through the pelvis so this is really about a series of
different positions changing it up on a regular basis now unlike this marble maze we can't see
what's happening inside so we're kind of blind here but that's totally okay because if you
follow these strategies that I'm going to share it will make a difference and really should make
a difference in the speeding up of your labor so using movement on a regular basis to help
move your baby through the pelvis can help lead to that increased speed so I recommend trying a
series of positions where your body looks different okay here's what I mean by that
if you're sitting on a chair and then you change positions and you change to sitting
on a couch and then you change to sitting on a birth ball probably not that different
right when you think about what's going on with your pelvis and your baby what I
want to encourage you to do is change positions where it's there's a clear dis difference where
you're sitting on a chair and then you switch to standing and then after standing you switch
to maybe kneeling and leaning on the birth ball those are three very different positions
they just look very different so moving between different looking positions I think is something
really important and kind of an easy rule when you think about the series of how to change position
so then if you throw in some asymmetrical
positions where one leg is different from the other
then you're really changing it up so Partners I recommend
thinking about the next position that you're going to recommend while you're
in one position so have the suggestion ready when it's time to change position foreign
there isn't a magical amount of time to stay in each position so it's going to be like the
perfect one to speed up labor but I have a good rule of thumb and I think it's really easy to
remember especially like at 3am when you're sleep deprived it's going to be super easy so I suggest
changing positions every 30 minutes now it's an easy amount of time to remember and partners can
suggest that you change say at the hour mark and the half hour mark That's pretty easy to remember
I also recommend going to the bathroom every hour so that fits in nicely here you can leave one
position go to the bathroom come back start a new position at the same time now sometimes convincing
a person to change the position in labor can be a little bit tricky because what we're trying to
achieve changing positions can sometimes speed up labor that is totally our goal but to the person
experiencing labor where changing positions makes contractions get maybe longer stronger and closer
together it might be a little bit tricky to convince them to keep changing positions so
I teach a really excellent strategy for this and for verbal support in general in the supporting
her online course that's just for partners this course is a deep dive for partners that they can
be absolutely prepared for labor I will include a link down below and I'll also put in there a
special coupon code partners are raving about this course you are setting yourself up for
Success if you get your partner in there you have the assurance that they know how best to support
you in Labor trust me you're setting yourself up for success and I'll see you next time bye