Week 35: Pregnancy Week by Week

Week 35: Pain in labor

Rain, after all, is only rain; it is not bad weather.
So also, pain is only pain, unless we resist it, when it becomes torment. 

-I Ching

What's Happening in Your Body?

Sleeping becomes even more of a challenge for many women in the final weeks of pregnancy. It's hard to find a comfortable position when you are limited to sleeping on one side. As well, you may find yourself waking frequently during the night to urinate.

What's Happening with Your Baby?

The bones in your baby's head are fully formed, but still soft and flexible. She now responds to pain, light, and sound, and you may continue to notice that sudden moves on your part or loud noises cause her to move around.

Pain in Labor

Bring up the subject of pain in childbirth in a room full of women, and you'll start a conversation that could go on for hours. Everyone has something to say on this topic—even people who never experienced labor themselves have a story to tell about their sister's or friend's experience with pain. Find out the truth about Pain in Labor.

Nourish Yourself

Take some time to explore HarvestEating.com, and consider membership. Harvest Eating celebrates the enjoyment of seasonal, organic, and local foods. It's a healthy-eating lifestyle that provides long-term benefits, including sustained weight loss, increased energy, reduced chance of long-term illness, and so much more. Members enjoy a wealth of tools and recipes created by chef Keith Snow, Harvest Eating's founder. You'll have access to hundreds of easy-to-prepare recipes and you'll look like a star in the kitchen.

Body Wise

There are three kinds of breathing exercises that you will want to practice during the last weeks of pregnancy and use during the first stage of labor. These are variations on the classic Lamaze-prepared childbirth breathing.

Natural Soothers

Oil blends can be used to alleviate pain during labor. Mix up some of our Labor Oils ahead of time to use during your delivery.

Higher Ground

Sweet Dreams
The story of your birth will be as personal and individual as your dreams-and dreams during pregnancy can be particularly vivid. Pregnant women report nonsensical dreams of a baby as a loaf of French bread or the baby coming out in pieces that have to be put together. Some have prophetic dreams. Often women recount dreaming the correct sex of the baby.

Here are some ways to increase your receptivity to dreaming:

• Take at least 25 mg of vitamin B6 a day.

• Sleep on a regular schedule.

• Put a blank piece of paper or tablet and a pen near your bed. Look at the blank piece of paper before you turn off the light. Record your dreams as soon as you wake up.

• Allow yourself to awaken slowly. Don't jump out of bed right away.

• Ensure that your sleeping place is quiet and undisturbed.

• Write down whatever snatches of dream you can remember, and then read them back to yourself like a story. Some dream experts say that all of the characters in the dream are some aspect of you. The characters you don't recognize represent unknown parts of yourself. Tell yourself the dream as if it is a metaphor. Trust the first ideas that come into your mind. Don't force it. And don't be afraid of negative elements. Everything in the dream can be used for your growth, so try to understand it in that light.

Image by Durga Yael Bernhard

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