Make friends with
your ‘labour’ hormones
Last week’s post focused on physical preparation for labour. This
post is about making friends with your labour hormones.
The good news is that Mother Nature doesn’t leave you to cope with labour
and birth on your own – hormones help you to do this. These are mostly
oxytocin, relaxin and endorphins. Unfortunately, fear, stress and pain can
block these hormones. Pain can increase fear to the point of panic that can
quickly get out of control. That’s why it’s important to minimise fear so that
you can make the most of natural hormones.
How can you do this?
- Fear of the unknown – minimise this by reading, learning about childbirth (Lamaze, ante-natal classes) but please don’t google questions – rather ask your doctor/midwife
- Choose a birth-partner: Baby’s dad, mom, gran, best friend, doula
- Stay at home for as long as you can during ‘warm-up’ labour (or until contractions are 5 minutes apart) unless ….. you’re bleeding, your waters have broken or your gut tells you something is wrong
- Fear is made worse by hospital smells and by what we hear and see. To create your own ‘comfort-zone’ – take your own pillows and blanket
- Wear earphones and listen to your favourite music.
Keep comfortable:
- Wear an old pair of loose-fitting pants so that you can walk around for as long as possible in early labour
- Bring snacks and beverages
- Have your birth partner rub your back with ‘smelly’ cream
- Keep a wet face cloth handy and use it to keep feeling cool and fresh
- Bring lip-ice and hairbrush
- You don’t have to have a water-birth, but getting in and out of a warm bath helps
- Squat on a chair or soft exercise ball
- Humm, sing, chant your contractions away!
Something to remember about labour pain:
This type of pain is not destructive pain
caused by disease or injury. Labour pain is functional pain mostly
caused by resistance. Oxytocin, relaxin and endorphins helps to minimise this resistance and
ease the pain. Make sense?
Remember that there is no pain between
contractions (not like period pain that just goes on and on …)
How do hormones help?
Oxytocin – also called the ‘love’ or ‘bonding’ hormone activates the
‘reward centre’ of your brain. It also:
- Controls fear, helps you to trust
- Keeps you calm, controls your blood pressure
- Initiates bonding and mothering instincts
- Improves appetite (especially after the birth)
- Helps to make and release breast milk (after the birth)
- NB: Decreases fear
- Helps with healing.
Relaxin:
Besides improving blood flow, this hormone relaxes pelvic ligaments and softens
the pubic bone allowing the baby’s head through during the birth.
Endorphins:
This is a ‘natural morphine’ opiate or
pain-relieving hormone that comes from the brain. Providing that a woman is
relaxed, endorphins are released during contractions in bigger doses as she
nears the end of the first stage, goes through ‘transitional’ and ‘second’ or
‘birthing’ stage. Endorphins can even help to put a woman into a trance during
this difficult stage so that her only focus is to push her baby out –
irrespective of circumstances!
This ‘endorphin’ high also helps a woman cope
during the first few days after the birth or until breastfeeding hormones are
flowing. Women lucky enough to experience natural birth are often less likely
to struggle with the ‘baby blues’.
Picture source: ‘Everything you need to know about a birthing doula’ by
Genevieve Howland: https://www.mamanatural.com/birth-doula/
