Attitude to birth

By Jacky Bloemraad-de Boer

This never-ending discussion in our birth world about home birth versus

hospital birth sometimes misses the point entirely. In shifting the

emphasis from where to birth, to informing and preparing women and

their partners about how the mechanisms of labour work, often

enables then to make a more informed choice as to where would be

the best place for them to labour.

To start with it is essential for couples to understand that giving birth

should happen in a similar situation to that of making love – the

common factor here being privacy. In the same way a couple will seek

out a warm, private place to make love, a labouring woman will most

effectively maintain the flow of hormones needed to encourage

contractions in her body if she is in a place where she feels safe and

secluded. Unfortunately couples are not sufficiently informed to

understand that this ‘safe-haven’ does not necessarily mean a hospital,

where staff are often unable to give the time and attention a labouring

couple needs. This lack of time often leads to managed labours and

interventions to ensure a quick turn over of patients. Resulting in

unhappy women who are denied the most empowering and lifechanging

event of their lives.

It is essential to raise awareness and encourage the feeling of

confidence in parents about the capabilities of women’s bodies and

their own inbuilt knowledge about labour and birth. By simply informing

them about how labour actually works they will automatically choose

what is right for them.

Understanding the hormones of childbirth is a simple and helpful tool

for parents. Especially when they hear about the ‘love hormone’,

oxytocin and how they can best encourage its production.

It is important to explain that the cervix, the mouth of the uterus, which

needs to open up during labour in order for the baby to be born, is a

sphincter, like the rectum; its action is to soften and open up so as to

allow its contents to pass out of the body. Interestingly, sphincters are

involuntary muscles, which inherently function poorly within an

environment of fear or force. She should understand that in the same

way that it would be difficult for her to spontaneously have a bowel

movement in an unsafe situation while being observed and judged she

will find it difficult to give birth surrounded by these same unfavourable

elements.

Another import reminder for parents-to-be is that a labouring woman is

vulnerable and highly impressionable during labour, so the attitudes

and expectations (both positive and negative) of the people present

in the birthing room can have a significant influence on labour. In fact

the less people the labouring woman encounters the better. In

hospitals couples will often be subjected to any number of staff

especially if they happen to be there for a while, they will most likely

experience a shift change with a whole set of new, foreign faces.

Lastly the issue of the relentless fear of pain.

Explaining that labour pain is different from any other pain; it is

purposeful pain because it warns the woman and her surroundings that

a baby is going to be born. The pain is an intermittent pain lasting up to

only one to one and a half minutes and helps ‘switch off’ the thinking

(large) brain and stimulates the animal (small) brain needed for labour.

If she understands that the pain ensures that her body makes

endorphins and encourages her to take on various positions to find

more comfort for herself and thereby aiding the baby’s passage

though the pelvis she may well observe it differently.

To conclude, if couples understand that by setting up a birth space

that embraces privacy, surrounding ones self with likeminded people,

feeling confident and having a united, positive attitude to pain, labour

is more likely to progress efficiently. Additionally couples experiencing

sustained support with respect from all the birth professionals present

will improve their chances of a positive and empowering birth

experience.