Best Labor Positions

The “best” labor position during childbirth can vary depending on individual preferences, comfort, and progress of labor. Different positions offer different advantages and may be more suitable for different stages of labor. Here are some commonly recommended positions.

Upright positions: Standing, walking, and leaning forward can help utilize gravity and encourage the descent of the baby. These positions can include leaning on a partner, using a birth ball, or standing and swaying.
Squatting positions: Sqatting opens the pelvis and widens the birth canal, aiding the progress of labor. This position can be done by squatting by holding on to a flat sheet tied and secured over a closed door, or with the support of a partner.
Hands and knees position: Being on all fours can help relieve back pain and encourage baby to rotate into the optimal position. It can provide some relief from pressure during contractions.
Side laying positions: Lying on the side can be useful for resting and relaxing between contractions. It can increase blood flow to the placenta and relieve pressure on the birthing person’s major blood vessels. Best position for multips, folks who have had babies. It slows the crowning and birth of the head, leading to less tears.
Supporting sitting or semi reclined positions: Sitting upright and reclined at the angle with the support of pillows, birth chair or partner during pushing.

The best positions for labor are ultimately the ones that feel the most comfortable and effective for the individual in labor. The support and guidance of midwives can be a valuable asset in assisting with position changes throughout the labor process.

Birth Locations

There are various birth locations where pregnant folks can give birth. Here are the options:

Homebirth: Some families choose to give birth to their babies in the comfort of their homes facilitated by Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) or sometimes Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs).
Birth Center: Birth Centers are designed to provide a homelike atmosphere compared to hospitals. They are staffed by midwives and minimize medical interventions.
Hospital: Hospitals provide a controlled environment with access to medical interventions. They have midwives, nurses, and support staff.
Birthing Unit: Some hospitals have birthing units that provide medical interventions with more homelike atmosphere. They can be led by midwives or OBGYNs.

Each birth location comes with its own considerations, advantages, and potential risks. It’s recommended to consult with a healthcare professional to discuss your preferences and individual circumstances to make an informed decision that works best for you.

Birth Affirmations

Birth affirmations are positive statements or phrases that you repeat to yourself with the intention of changing your mindset, reinforcing positive beliefs, or attracting desired outcomes. They are a powerful tool for self-empowerment and cultivating a positive mindset. By consistently repeating affirmations you can program your subconscious mind to focus on positive thoughts, beliefs, and possibilities.

Here are a few examples. Hope some of these resonate with you.

My body knows how to give birth to my baby. I trust its wisdom completely.
Each surge brings my baby closer to me, I embrace them with strength and patience.
I am calm, relaxed and at peace knowing I can give birth.
I am surrounded by love and support. My birth team believes in me and my ability to give birth to my baby.
I surrender to the power of my body and allow it to guide me through this journey.
My baby and I are working together in perfect harmony.
I am strong, capable, and resilient. I can handle anything that comes my way.
Each contraction brings me closer to meeting my precious baby. I welcome them with joy.
I am connected to the wisdom of generations of laboring people who were born before me.
I trust my instincts and listen to my body’s cues. I know what is best for me and my baby.

Affirmations are personal and unique to everyone. Please modify or create your own affirmations that resonate with you. Put them on your bathroom mirror, or in your birth space.

For more information call Raquel at Blissful Midwifery today!

Stages of Labor

The first stage of labor is the longest and involves three phases, early, active and transition. Early labor is the onset of labor until the cervix is dilated to 3 cm. Active labor continues from 3 cm until the cervix is dilated to 7 cm and transition continues from 7 cm until the cervix is fully dilated at 10 cm.

The second stage is often divided into a passive phase, an active phase, and the actual birth of the baby. The passive waiting phase of the second stage of labor is a period of rest, sometimes called “laboring down” when the baby rotates and descends toward the pelvic floor. The passive phase happens when the mother is fully dilated but waiting for the urge to push. It is important to wait for the active phase before starting to push or pushing can cause an anterior lip to develop.

The active pushing phase is when the baby’s head is on the pelvic floor and the mother pushes spontaneously. Essentially the mother cannot not push. A lot of mothers prefer active pushing over dilation because they feel like actively involved and they can feel their baby descend. It can take a lot of effort. Pushing can last two or three hours. If can be helpful to put chin to chest, curl around the abdomen, and grab legs behind the knees. Ultimately listen, your body knows what to do!

Once burning or the ring of fire is felt, avoid pushing and instead use horse lips and let the tissues expand. Waiting this short time protects the perineum and can prevent tearing. Sometimes extremely high levels of adrenaline can trigger the fetal ejection reflex. This surge triggers strong, rapid contractions which move the baby from the uterus and into the birth canal. The baby is born quickly and easily without voluntary pushing from the mother.

The third stage is the delivery of the placenta and is the shortest stage lasting about 20 minutes. Mothers wait until they feel some cramping, then push out the placenta. Having the baby play at the breast or squatting can help.

Movement in Labor

This blog post focuses on explaining the benefits of different birthing positions in labor. Labor is like a dance between you and your baby. Movement helps bring the baby down and through the pelvis.

First, let’s review the stages of labor. The first stage of labor is the longest and involves three phases: Early labor is the time of the onset of labor until the cervix is dilated to 3 cm. Active labor continues from 3 cm until the cervix is dilated to 7 cm and transition continues from 7 cm until the cervix is fully dilated to 10 cm. The second stage or pushing lasts until your baby is born. The third stage is the delivery of the placenta and is the shortest stage.

It is important to rest during early labor. As hard as it is napping is critical. Laboring people who do not rest, often deal with exhaustion during second stage or pushing.

In active labor, a rotation of movement, hydration, and urination is helpful, in addition to resting as needed. It is also beneficial to change positions every two or three contractions until you find what works best. That works best is generally what is the most intense.

For first-time moms’ upright positions are useful during second stage or pushing. Giving birth in an upright position can be physiologically beneficial to the mother and baby. In upright positions, gravity helps bring the baby down and out. Upright positioning also enables the uterus to effectively contract strongly and efficiently and supports the baby best position to pass through the pelvis. Research indicates that squatting, kneeling or hand and knees positions increase the dimensions of the pelvic outlet. Moms who had babies before or moms’ who birth fast may not need the upright positions. Sometimes these birthing people push side-lying position with a raised leg.

Most of the time the placenta is born within 20 minutes. Sometimes a supported squat is useful when delivering the placenta.

While it is good for pregnant women to review laboring positions prior to labor. It may be beneficial to google different labor positions. Midwives are experts in knowing the best positions for different stages of labor. I cannot stress the importance of listening to your own body. All mammals know how to birth their babies, so do you! Listen to your body.

Did you know WI Homebirth Midwives Accept BadgerCare?

Did you know Wisconsin homebirth midwives are Medicaid providers? That’s right, effective since January 1, 2017 ForwardHeath has covered services provided by homebirth midwives who are licensed under Wis. Stat. 440.982 and enrolled in Wisconsin Medicaid as licensed midwives. ForwardHealth covers maternity and newborn care provided by licensed midwifes including antepartum care, delivery, and postpartum care. Homebirth midwives provide all the traditional pregnancy screens in the comfort of your home. Prenatal and postpartum visits often last an hour or more. It’s important to be exempt from your HMO, your midwife can help you navigate this. Midwives may charge an out of pocket fee for expenses not covered Medicaid such as assistant fee, aqua therapy, blood draws, labor management, lactation support and VBAC’s. It is marvelous that Wisconsin is committed to offering birth options for all Wisconsin families.

Call Blissful Midwifery for more information today.

The Importance of Skin to Skin after Birth

There is significant evidence that newborns who receive skin to skin contact with their mothers immediately after birth have an easier transition. Skin to skin often called kangaroo care is when babies are held naked against their mother’s skin for a minimum of 1 to 2 hours after birth. Midwives would argue skin to skin contact is beneficial several hours a day for a least 2 weeks. There are many reasons to implement kangaroo care. Babies have great respiratory, temperature and glucose stability in addition to decreased stress. Skin to skin transfers biomes from mother to baby. These biomes protect the baby for life. After the umbilical cord has stopped pulsating and been cut, Dads can provide skin to skin contact until the mother is ready to breastfeed. Once breastfeeding babies lay naked or diapered between the mother’s breast. Initially, babies may play with the breast until ready to latch. Ideally, newborns breastfeed within the first hour after birth. Breast milk is made by your body specifically for your baby. Along with nutrition, breastmilk contains antibodies that protect your baby from illness. Babies tend to cry less, leading to less parental stress and anxiety. When the baby passes through the birth canal, the baby’s gut is colonized with bacteria from the mother’s vaginal. Skin to skin continues to expose the baby to the mother’s bacteria and microbes. This early exposure helps babies develop their own healthy bacteria. Exposure to microbes is associated with protection of inflammatory bowel disease and asthma. While mothers benefit from this practice by keeping the uterus firm which can decrease bleeding. Skin to skin also increases breastfeeding success and decreases postpartum depression. Studies suggest that benefits for babies can persist for years. Skin to skin improves maternal attachment behavior, reduced maternal anxiety, enhances child cognitive development and increases successful breastfeeding. Once this time is over you can’t get it back, so stay in bed, snuggle up and love your babe. Diapers are okay, and a blanket can be used for warmth.

Homebirth

For centuries giving birth at home was the norm. In the early 1900’s women started going to the hospital to give birth. Eventually, home birth declined from 50% in 1938 to fewer than 1% in 1955, with the interventions and the perceived ease of birth, women felt safer in hospitals.

A conflict between surgeons and midwives arose, as doctors began to assert that their modern scientific techniques were better for mothers and infants than midwifery. As doctors and medical associations pushed for a legal monopoly on obstetrical care, midwifery became outlawed or heavily regulated throughout the United States and Canada. An organized campaign accused midwives of being “incompetent and ignorant.”

Today midwives are recognized as highly trained, specialized birth professionals in “normal” birth. There are two kinds of midwives Certified Professional Midwives (CPM) and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM). CPM’s attend home births while most CNM’s work in hospitals, some also attend homebirths.

Homebirth Midwifery care is based on the idea the pregnancy and birth are normal physiological process and provides prenatal care with individualized education, counseling, and continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, in addition to, postpartum support while monitoring psychological and social wellbeing.

This type of care is contrast to the medical model that often promotes pregnancy and childbirth as potentially pathological and dangerous.

The midwifery model plays a significant role in Sweden and the Netherlands. In Sweden midwives administer 80 percent of prenatal care and more than 80 percent of family planning services. Swedish midwives attend all normal births in public hospitals and Swedish women have fewer interventions in hospitals than American women. The Dutch infant mortality rate in 1992 was the tenth-lowest rate in the world, at 6.3 deaths per thousand births, while the United States ranked twenty-second. Midwives in the Netherlands and Sweden owe a great deal of their success to supportive government policies.

In the USA, 27 states license or regulate direct-entry midwives, or certified professional midwife (CPM). In the other 23 states there are no licensing laws and practicing midwives can be arrested for practicing medicine without a license. Some of these states are in process of legalization. It is legal in all 50 states to hire a certified nurse midwife, or CNM, who are trained nurses, though most CNMs work in hospitals. Please see the chart listed below for further information.

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pushformidwives/pages/88/attachments/original/1498489194/The_Big_Push_for_Midwives_State_Regulation_PushChart_JUNE_2017.pdf?1498489194

Placenta encapsulation – Placenta perfectly made for you, by you!

Pregnancy and childbirth are unbelievably demanding on a woman’s system and scientific research has shown that the placenta is rich in the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that your body needs to recover. The placenta has been used by women after birth throughout history and around the world. The purpose of placenta encapsulation is to reintroduce the beneficial vitamins, minerals, hormones, proteins and other nutrients back into your body following labor and birth.

Placenta encapsulation is a vital part of postpartum recovery. Encapsulation ensures preservation, allowing the placenta to be utilized while mom’s postpartum hormones gradually regulate themselves. It is the most non-invasive form of placenta consumption, so it’s usually the most accepted as it comes in easy to take capsulesEncapsulation involves dehydrating the raw placenta. The dried placenta is then ground into a powder and filled into capsules. Each placenta makes 100 to 250 capsules depending on the size. Capsules can be stored in the freezer and what you don’t use during postpartum can be used when you start menopause.

The benefits of placenta encapsulation are listed below:

Increase in energy

Enhanced breast milk supply

Balance in hormones

Lessen the “baby blues”

Decrease in postpartum depression

Combats fatigue

Shortens postpartum bleeding

Assists the return of uterus to pre-pregnancy state

Replenish depleted iron

It’s important to remember that, taking placenta capsules is never a replacement for rest and nutrition. You just had a baby; your body needs time to rest. Current research suggests women need a year to recover from childbirth. Eating, sleeping, and nursing should be your routine! If you have any questions, contact Raquel at Raquel@BlissfulMidwifery.com.

Prenatal Care

Prenatal care is the care you receive from your midwife during pregnancy. During prenatal care visits, your midwife will make sure you and the developing fetus are healthy and strong. These meetings are your chance to monitor your pregnancy’s progress, learn how to manage the discomforts of pregnancy, have any testing done you may need, learn about warning signs, and ask any questions.

The first prenatal care visit is generally the longest. You will be asked questions about your medical history, your partner’s, and your family’s. A complete physical exam is done. Your midwife will measure your height, weight, blood pressure, breathing, and pulse. You will discuss your diet, lifestyle, and habits then, sometimes suggestions are made that may help ensure a healthy pregnancy. One of the most significant things a woman can do is take folic acid every day to prevent birth defects.

Many pregnant women have questions about diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes. Prenatal care visits are the perfect opportunity to discuss concerns with your midwife.

Many women choose to make lifestyle changes before they become pregnant. Eating a healthy diet consisting of lean proteins, fresh vegetables, and fruits with limited sugar and processed foods is valuable along with hydration and regular exercise. If you smoke, drink, or do drugs, quitting those activities, is important.

If you have a healthy, “low-risk” pregnancy you can expect the following prenatal care visits: every four to six week through the seventh month of pregnancy; every two to three weeks until the eight months; then every week from 36 weeks to birth.

Your midwife will monitor your pregnancy by testing your urine, checking your weight, blood pressure and swelling in the face, hands or feet. Your midwife will also examine the fundus to check the position of the fetus and measure the growth of uterus. Lastly, the midwife will listen to the fetal heartbeat.

Other assessments that are conducted include a prenatal panel, first and second-trimester screening, glucose screening and a Group B Streptococcus (GBS) swap. The prenatal panel is done early in pregnancy along with the first and second trimester screening. The glucose screening test is conducted between 24 and 28 to assess for gestational diabetes. GBS is a bacterium that can be carried in the genital, urinary, digestive and respiratory tract. The bacteria are normally found in 25% of all healthy adult women. The GBS swab is performed, between 35 and 37 weeks, by inserting a swab in the vagina and rectum. For more information, contact Raquel at http://www.BlissfulMidwifery.com.