Natural therapies are fast growing in their use and acceptance by women for pain relief during labour. This has happened as more parents seek to find out information about available alternatives to help the woman deal with her labour pain. For some women the objective is to avoid, or lessen, their use of medical pain relief.
So too, are more caregivers learning to incorporate various natural therapies into their care, (or at least accept them as more mainstream). A few midwives and doctors (as well as professional support people, known as 'Doulas'), have recognised qualifications in the use of various natural therapies. This, then, enables them to use these methods to complement the more traditional medical approaches, with the aim of meeting the woman's individual pain relief needs.
We do know that the labour pain itself is not the all-encompassing component of labour. It is part of the 'whole picture', which includes the woman's mind, body, beliefs and emotions. All these components combine, to go beyond the physiological process of the labouring and birthing body. Being able to incorporate various methods for pain relief, goes towards supporting the woman as a complete person, not just her physical sensations.
Conditioning her mind, as well as modifying how a woman responds to her labour pain, can increase the inhibitory messages to her brain and her body's responses to the pain. These can be achieved by using various psychological and physical distraction methods, such as breath awareness, visualisations and hypnosis or pelvic rocking, hand drumming and stomping.
Our thoughts....
Habits are formed and laid down as a memory by repetition. Some natural techniques work better, and become second nature, when they are practised throughout the pregnancy. When these methods move from new exercises to being ones of habit, they are more likely to work, without giving them too much thought.