I know on the surface that sounds like a dumb question.
I've been studying, as I'm sure many others on this site have, health, mind/body, naturopathy, nutrition and birth for a while. Based on my research about pregnancy and childbirth, I've got an idea (and not a very original one) about labor and I'd like to know what other folks think.
The problem with my thought, and therefore I ask you to be open minded about it, is that it smacks fully in the face of current modern, mainstream, western, middle class thinking about what labor means and what pain is involved. And I realize this forum isn't exactly mainstream.
Based on my reading of various sources, and in particular, Dr. Grantly Dick Read (this is the UK spelling of his name, the US adds a dash between Dick and Read, so a search should bring up either.) His book is entitled, Childbirth Without Fear. He attributes the pain of childbirth to fear instilled by technology, etc.
Extrapolating on this information, the woman who originally conceived Hypnobirthing(.com), Marie Mongan, stated that due to the fear instilled by the church attributed to "eve's curse" and certain laws making it illegal for anyone to help a birthing mother, because if she dies in childbirth, or shortly thereafter, it's god's will. And of course most women of the time weren't in control of their reproduction, anyway, so they lived in fear of childbirth.
Reading further Fredrick LeBoyer and Michael Odent, two more recent pioneers of natural childbirth, and the techniques they describe.
Donna Fahri's book on breathing includes breathing techniques for all sorts of occasions, including childbirth. One breath in particular was the moaning breath, in which you take air into your nose and breath it out with a low moan through your mouth during contractions.
Dr Dick Read suggests muscle relaxation, in which you totally release all your muscle resistance before and during labor to allow your uterus to do it's work. Like, if someone picks up your arm, you don't resist, and it flopps back on the bed, but with all your muscles.
Anyway, this into consideration, and the fact that the uterus is a large, multilayer bundle, not sack, of muscles whose job is to 1) pull open the cervix (which is very tough to do because it's been clamped shut for 9 months and it's a huge clamp) and 2) during the 2nd phase of labor constrict to move the baby into the birth canal.
My thought is that with all this muscle activity, labor is more like running a marathon than like the excrutiating ripping and pushing that we've been generally sold it is. For this reason I believe that normal pain killers aren't that effective at relieving the muscle strain, but epidurals are because they cut off all feelings.
Do you think if we weren't afraid and if we used proper relaxation and breathing (not the hyperventalation of lamaze, but deep breathing as utilized by a marathoner or yogi) that perhaps birthing wouldn't be as demonized as it is?
I can acknowledge that my research may be lacking, but so far, it seems right on, and the evidence from the mass media and allopathic institutions seems to differ. And it feels true to me, intuitively.
Personal experience bears me out. But I wanna know if anyone else feels this way or has any thoughts or experiences that would add to this theory?
Sorry it's so long, could have been longer, I left a lot of resources out to cut down on space...
thanks.
I've been studying, as I'm sure many others on this site have, health, mind/body, naturopathy, nutrition and birth for a while. Based on my research about pregnancy and childbirth, I've got an idea (and not a very original one) about labor and I'd like to know what other folks think.
The problem with my thought, and therefore I ask you to be open minded about it, is that it smacks fully in the face of current modern, mainstream, western, middle class thinking about what labor means and what pain is involved. And I realize this forum isn't exactly mainstream.
Based on my reading of various sources, and in particular, Dr. Grantly Dick Read (this is the UK spelling of his name, the US adds a dash between Dick and Read, so a search should bring up either.) His book is entitled, Childbirth Without Fear. He attributes the pain of childbirth to fear instilled by technology, etc.
Extrapolating on this information, the woman who originally conceived Hypnobirthing(.com), Marie Mongan, stated that due to the fear instilled by the church attributed to "eve's curse" and certain laws making it illegal for anyone to help a birthing mother, because if she dies in childbirth, or shortly thereafter, it's god's will. And of course most women of the time weren't in control of their reproduction, anyway, so they lived in fear of childbirth.
Reading further Fredrick LeBoyer and Michael Odent, two more recent pioneers of natural childbirth, and the techniques they describe.
Donna Fahri's book on breathing includes breathing techniques for all sorts of occasions, including childbirth. One breath in particular was the moaning breath, in which you take air into your nose and breath it out with a low moan through your mouth during contractions.
Dr Dick Read suggests muscle relaxation, in which you totally release all your muscle resistance before and during labor to allow your uterus to do it's work. Like, if someone picks up your arm, you don't resist, and it flopps back on the bed, but with all your muscles.
Anyway, this into consideration, and the fact that the uterus is a large, multilayer bundle, not sack, of muscles whose job is to 1) pull open the cervix (which is very tough to do because it's been clamped shut for 9 months and it's a huge clamp) and 2) during the 2nd phase of labor constrict to move the baby into the birth canal.
My thought is that with all this muscle activity, labor is more like running a marathon than like the excrutiating ripping and pushing that we've been generally sold it is. For this reason I believe that normal pain killers aren't that effective at relieving the muscle strain, but epidurals are because they cut off all feelings.
Do you think if we weren't afraid and if we used proper relaxation and breathing (not the hyperventalation of lamaze, but deep breathing as utilized by a marathoner or yogi) that perhaps birthing wouldn't be as demonized as it is?
I can acknowledge that my research may be lacking, but so far, it seems right on, and the evidence from the mass media and allopathic institutions seems to differ. And it feels true to me, intuitively.
Personal experience bears me out. But I wanna know if anyone else feels this way or has any thoughts or experiences that would add to this theory?
Sorry it's so long, could have been longer, I left a lot of resources out to cut down on space...
thanks.
:
Normal physiological birth is of course *not* like a marathon in that a marathon is an athletic event that requires much training, extreme physical exertion, and will to start, maintain, and finish the action.
