Episode 27: Labor Positions Revisited

Welcome to Episode 27! This week we're revisiting labor the topic of labor positions. We discussed labor positions a few months ago, but this week I felt I need to revisit the topic to add a little bit more nuance & clarity.

In this week's video we discuss:

1. The importance of laboring in positions that make labor feel most manageable (and the importance of ensuring you have a birth team supportive of you laboring in lots of different positions).
2. How research has shown upright and active positions are linked with shorter labors.
3. And a quick tip to share with birth partners in particular: Change positions every 5 contractions or so.

Full Transcript:

Hello, and welcome to the next episode of the free weekly, Brave Journey Birth Preparation videos, where I pick a topic related to birth and postpartum and I talk about it.  Today we're talking about positions to labor in, we talked about this a few months ago, but I wanted to revisit it with giving a few additional tips and suggestions for how to think about positions during labor and the purpose of positions during labor.

I'm Cara Lee I'm a birth doula and a childbirth educator and let's get started.

So today we're going to talk about three main points related to positions to labor in. One is to remember to labor in positions that feel good and feel, uh, comfortable and make labor most manageable in your body. And to ensure that you have a birth team that supports you in laboring in positions, whatever feels good in your body, Two we're going to talk about how most of the most helpful positions for labor in terms of progressing labor and helping baby find an optimal position are positions where you're upright and moving around.

And three, I will give you a specific tip, which is to I'll give it to you here, and we'll talk about it more in just a second, which is to change positions about every five contractions or so.

So first laboring in positions that feel best for you. And this was the main point of the first video that I put out on this. The important thing is to not overthink your positions too much, because the best thing that you can do is find positions that feel good in your body.

So labor positions, we have two goals with them. One is to help you manage your labor as a birthing person. Positions, where you're lying down can feel awful for some people when they're in labor. There's some people it doesn't. Positions where you're upright generally feel better, but not always. Some people love to labor on a birth ball, and that feels fantastic for them. Other people, that position is awful and it is really not a position that they ever would choose to labor in. It really depends on you and, and it can change throughout your labor.

So you may find that in your early labor, when baby is high and in a different position, Here's my baby. Here's a pelvis. This is the front of the pelvis. And this is the tailbone. You may find that when your infant is in a high station, when they haven't dropped into the pelvis too much, that of certain position may feel really, really good and help you manage your labor very, very well.

You may find that as your baby lowers into your pelvis. And starts to really engage as they say that that position no longer serves you. And it feels awful and you have to find a different position and that is totally normal. And I'm oversimplifying this. This is the baby. Doesn't just drop their head is wiggling and they're moving and they're finding their rotation and they're making Wade their way down into your pelvis.

And so making sure that you're regularly ensuring that the position that you're in is the most comfortable for you and makes labor feel the most manageable is important. And that's a reminder too, that you may, your labor may start and it may feel awful in your body. And you may think that, oh my gosh, I can't handle this, but recognize that you maybe just haven't found the position that you need for that stage that you're in.

So find and try lots of different positions.

Second point. I'm gonna put the baby down. Actually, I'll keep it on my lap. Um, second point there is good evidence, and this is quality evidence, that staying upright and moving around can shorten your life. And make it more manageable.

So staying upright and moving around can shorten your labor and make it more manageable. Therefore, the positions that are probably best, that you may want to try to find in your body are positions that have you upright and moving around and moving around, relates to the next point, which is changing positions about every five contractions or so.

But we'll get to that in a sec, but staying upright can make a big difference. And there are probably a couple of reasons for this one is that pretend my hand is. And this is the baby's head when you're upright, gravity is generally inviting that infant's head, or even if there's a bag of waters, that to put more pressure on the cervix. And the more pressure there is on the cervix, two things happen. One is that if the baby's head is directly on the cervix, it may help the cervix soften and move out of that. And two, pressure on the cervix increases oxytocin. And we're going to talk about hormones of labor in a series that I'm starting next week, but oxytocin is sometimes called the labor of love or excuse me, the hormone of love, because it creates wonderful feel-good feelings in your brain, but oxytocin is also the hormone of contractions.

So the more oxytocin is flowing in your bloodstream, the stronger and more effective and frequent your contractions will be and strong, effective contractions bring your baby here. So you want strong, effective contractions. You don't want weak contractions spread out over days and days and days because you'll just get exhausted.

So the more upright you are, the more pressure that is on that cervix, the more effective your contractions will be. And the more your baby will, your cervix will open it. And then your baby can drop and find optimal position in your pelvis. The other thing is that oxytocin does bathe your brain in wonderful feel-good hormones.

That's why it's called the hormone of love. It's the hormone of sex. It's the hormone of it's involved in breastfeeding as well, and also in snuggling and cuddling that really good feeling that you can get from just a wonderful hug from a loved one. Um, those are oxytocin. And also watching comedy, like laughing at a funny, a funny show where that feeling of joy and levity, all of this is related to oxytocin.

Of course, this is an oversimplification. If there's an endocrinologist watching this right now, I'm sorry. This is an over-simplification. These are lay terms, but oxytocin is also is just going to bathe you in these wonderful feel good feelings.. Pitocin. If you've heard of Pitocin is synthetic oxytocin. So Pitocin is given via IV for a medical induction of labor. It's synthetic oxytocin. So it causes the contractions, but it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier and give you those feel-good feelings. A spontaneous oxytocin does give you those feel good feelings.

And then lastly, the little tip to change positions, every five contractions or so, and this is something that it doesn't have to be a huge change. So if you are laboring leaning forward on a bed for a few contractions, and you're sticking your tailbone behind you, like a cow equivalent, if you know, cat cow. Then just try curling your tailbone under you for a few contractions. That's all. So you can stay leaning forward against a bed or a wall or some, or if you're kneeling on the ground, leaning against a couch, you can stay there, but try changing the angle of your pelvis.

If you've been laboring on your left side for a while. With an epidural. This is still, this still absolutely fits with using an epidural. If you've been laying on your left side for a while with an epidural, and it's been five contractions switch to the other side. Change positions, every five contractions or so.

So in early labor, this is like 15, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, every 15, 20 minutes you're changing positions. In active labor if you're contracting. So really coming like every two to three minutes, it's every 10 to 15 minutes. So you, but just, this is really, this is a tip for birth partners. So at birthing person, if you're watching this, pass this along to your birth partner, they should be the ones paying attention to your contractions. Not you. We don't want you using your brain like that. We want you in your body, moving with your contractions finding positions that feel good and make labor feel more manageable for you.

So that's it. Those are the three main points that I wanted to add to some of our discussions around labor positions, positions to labor in.

One, labor in positions that feel good for you and ensure that you have a birth team that is going to support you in labor and positions that feel good for you too. Upright positions tend to upright positions and moving around frequently tend to shorten your labor. The research has shown. So try to find positions that have you in variations of upright, whether you're standing and swaying or leaning against a wall or leaning on your knees against a couch or leaning on the couch against the back of the couch, variations of somewhat upright position.

And then three changed positions, every five contractions or so. So you're just trying to find that variability you're inviting that baby to find that rotation and that movement down. Okay there, you have it. That's part two of positions for our free weekly break journey, birth preparation videos. I appreciate you watching this.

Please go to my website. If you'd like to learn more information and I've got all these free videos are on my website and also you can find the courses that I have available. So thank you. And I will see you next week.