It was only after the twentieth century that electronic interventions were introduced in childbirth procedures. However, many women today still prefer to give birth to their babies via natural means. It is usually due to traditional reasons, but the fact is that a lot of women want to experience the ultimate joy and labor of motherhood. Natural birth involves more control in the labor process and women who prefer natural birth are more likely to experience considerable pain and discomfort in general. With the right guidance and proper understanding of natural birth, you can make the childbirth experience as one of the most rewarding and wonderful experience of your life.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Natural Birth?
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Disadvantages |
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Mothers who give birth naturally are more like to feel less pain next time they give birth. Giving birth naturally leaves a mother with a sense of accomplishment by the end of the process, and impacts positively on the mother-child relationship. |
Some women do not prefer going through the episode of pain during child birth and labor. |
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Mothers can explore and experience stronger bond with your partner, since they too are involved in helping you with your experience. This brings appreciation and closeness from the partners’ side given the nature of experience they witness. |
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This method does not involve any invasive procedures that may lead to complications during or after childbirth. |
Mind relaxing techniques are less effective at decreasing the intensity of shear pain when compared to epidurals. Therefore, a woman should be mentally prepared to go through tremendous amount of pain while giving spontaneous vaginal birth. |
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Women can find the most natural position they feel comfortable in while giving birth. As opposed to being drugged with anesthetics or pain killers, where movement is restricted because of loss of sensation. |
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Natural birth is spontaneous and does not require spinal or epidural injections. It has been reported that if epidural is performed in the hands of an inexperienced anesthesiologist, the chances of complications are very high. |
Sometimes prolonged labor can result in still birth or other less severe but life threatening complications; however, chances are minimal if labor process is tightly monitored. |
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Using soothing techniques such as paced breathing and self-hypnosis can help in maintaining uneventful childbirth, since these exercises not only improve mental alertness, but also help in relaxing the uterus during labor pain. |
How to Prepare for Natural Birth
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Make a birth plan |
Try and educate yourself as much as possible about birth and all related aspects. Device a birth plan that suits your preferences and conveys it to your team. The professionals will counter advice you and will help you conduct your plan with full expertise. |
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Practitioner support |
Choose the right practitioner for the birth experience, ask your friends or other mothers who experienced natural birth to learn more about the qualities to look for in a mid-wife. Also check the experience they have and talk to them about your expectations. |
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Labor couch |
Use a labor couch or doula to assist with the pain and position while giving birth. An effective labor couch can reduce the requirement of anesthesia and epidural use in child births. |
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Birth place |
Selecting a proper birth place will help in improving your comfort level. Natural births can be conducted in a hospital setup or birth setups, depending on your preference and comfort. |
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Managing pain |
Managing pain is perhaps the most scary part of giving birth, but many clichés can be broken if proper support groups are joined and professional help is sought regularly. Read books and watch videos to help yourself understand the different techniques that can reduce pain and relax your body during child birth. |
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Birth ball |
These balls are specifically designed to help you maintain birth positions, which are most comfortable and least painful. These can be used with relaxing sessions such as using aromatherapy or breathing exercises. |
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Books |
Read good books, books help you with issues which you cannot discuss with others or maybe embarrassed to ask if you’re a first time mother. |
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Get support |
Get psychological support by talking to friends and relatives who are experienced. This can help a great deal in controlling fear and getting rid of misconceptions about natural birth. |
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Labor positions |
Watching different videos and consulting your mid wife for most effective and productive positions also help a great deal. |
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Focusing |
Keep your primary focus on your body positions and the birth of your child. This also reduces stress associated with labor and birth. |
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Stay hydrated |
Labor can be a very energy consuming process, not only is it necessary that mothers consume healthy and high-energy diet during the course of pregnancy, but they should also keep themselves hydrated over the entire tiresome experience of natural childbirth. |
Want to know more about how can you prepare for a natural birth? Check out the video below:
How Does Natural Birth Feel Like?
The sensation of pain varies from person to person. First time mothers may describe the pain intensity similar to severe menstrual cramps or abdominal pain due to extreme diarrhea. First birth experiences are more painful than later experiences. Pain varies from mother to mother mainly because some mothers have a higher pain threshold than others. The labor pain may last from a few hours to days, depending on the health conditions of the mother.
Here’s a video of how natural birth is carried out:
What Techniques Can Help Natural Birth?
Here is a list of techniques which can help mothers in giving birth to babies.
1. Alexander Technique
The developer of this technique, Alexander, had issues with his vocal abilities. To help himself, he developed a series of breathing and relaxing exercises that reduces body’s tension and helps with sitting and standing positions. These were later found to be very useful for pregnant women in reducing stress while giving birth. This method helps in improving shortness of breath, digestion issues and lower back pain, typically associated with labor.
2. Hypnosis
This technique was devised by Dr. Grantely Dick, who suggested that a state of total relaxation can be induced by using hypnosis techniques. As a result of hypnosis, patients develop a dreamy state that allows the nature to take its course and spontaneous vaginal delivery follows with minimal subjective sensation of pain and discomfort.
3. Bradley Method
This method was designed by Dr. Bradley, who prepared a nutrition course for the entire period of pregnancy. Bradley believed that intake of optimal nutrition helped significantly in preparing the maternal body to bear the pain of child birth. Other essentials of this course are: proper positioning during child birth, methods of breastfeeding and ways to avoid a Caesarian section.
4. Water Delivery
Immersing in water gives you the feeling of being weightless, the sole purpose of this technique. Mother’s lower body is immersed in warm water that helps in reducing pain sensation and soothes the tense/ tender muscles. Such deliveries should be performed with experience and supervision and are not recommended for high risk pregnancies.
5. Lamaze
This method deals with your concentration and focus while giving birth. It has been observed that avoiding the pain can help a lot in reducing the subjective sensation of pain It is introduced by Dr. Lamaze, who taught the mothers to focus on distractions instead of the pain. He coupled this practice with breathing exercises to help soothe the experience of child birth.
For more understanding, check out the video below: