Various support strategies can also be used if the labour is long, slow or has stopped. These strategies can also help avoid medical augmentation.
They include:
Gravity and Mobility
Nourishment
Reducing Anxiety
Gravity and Mobility. Mobility means being upright and walking. Being upright allows gravity to help the baby move down through the pelvis and the vagina. If the baby's head is encouraged to sit snugly onto the cervix, (similar to an egg in an eggcup), this helps stimulate the cervix to open.
Using positions that help the woman lean slightly forward, assists her uterus to contract more efficiently, because it naturally tilts forward as it contracts. Women instinctively move around and change positions often during their labour, if there are comfortable mats and furniture available, and she is not specifically directed onto a high, narrow bed. (Often, once the woman climbs onto the normal hospital bed, she feels very disinclined to climb down). For women in birth centres (or at home), they will probably have a double-sized bed, low to the ground, making it easier for them to get on and off, and move around. If you are in the delivery suite, request pillows, mats, bean bags etc. to help achieve comfortable position changes.
If the contractions have slowed, and you are not too tired, go for a walk. Movement rocks the pelvis from side to side, encouraging your baby to descend further down. It also stimulates contractions. If you do need to rest, lean forward over a beanbag, or lie on the opposite side the baby is lying on (to encourage the baby to rotate around). If your baby is in a
posterior position, the woman can have constant back pain, and possibly a longer labour.
Pelvic rocking, leaning forward, being on all fours or crawling, can encourage your baby to rotate around using gravity. You may wish to read more on this in
posterior position.
Nourishment.