Episode 42: Laborland (Sneak Peak from the Comprehensive Brave Journey Birth Preparation Course!)

When I attend births, I really focus on helping the birthing person descend very deeply into the altered mind-state of labor. Labor land, this altered mindstate of labor, can be really helpful and protective in helping the laboring person find and notice sensation in their body, move in ways that feel good, stop worrying about what they look like and what they sound like, and just really do what their body is asking them to do... and what their baby and their labor is asking them to do.

We've talked about  the altered mind-state of labor before, and today I'm sharing a clip from the Comprehensive Brave Journey Birth Preparation Course where I talk about Laborland. This is the second half of a lesson where the first half of the lesson is going through lots of different hormones in labor and their impact on labor. And then the second half, this clip here, is talking about Laborland is, what this blend of hormones can look like and feel like.

Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to your next episode of the free weekly, Brave Journey Birth preparation videos, where I pick a topic related to birth or postpartum and I talk about it. Today we're talking about labor land, the altered mind state of labor, and in particular, I'm going to be sharing with you a sneak peek from the Comprehensive Birth Preparation Course, available on my website www.bravejourney.com, where I talk about labor land, this altered my state. I'm Cara Lee. I'm a certified birth doula and a childbirth educator and a mother of two. And when I attend births, I really, really focus on helping the birthing person, the laboring person, descend very deeply into this altered mind, state of labor. Labor land, this altered mindstate of labor, it can be really, really helpful and protective in helping the laboring person find and notice sensation in their body. Move in ways that feel good, stop worrying about what they look like if they ever were, and what they sound like, and just really do what their body is asking them to do... and their baby and their [00:01:00] labor is asking them to do.

So what I do as a doula and what birth partners can do is really try to communicate non-verbally with the birthing person. So this means like trying to do things and suggest things as non-verbal as possible, trying to ask really, really simple questions, making simple suggestions and waiting for a yes or no in body language.

And you'll find that quite intuitively, when you're laboring, that you stop wanting to talk through things and you really just want to be very much in your body and less verbal and less in your mind.

So here is a clip from the full Comprehensive Brave Journey Birth Preparation Program, online course, where we talk about labor land. This is the second half of a lesson where the first half of the lesson is going through lots of different hormones in labor and their impact on labor. And then the second half talking about labor Land is, what this blend of hormones can look like and feel like.

[00:02:00]

Next let's talk about laborland. So labor land is the altered mind state of labor. The term laborland is a Birthing From Within term. Some people would just refer to it as the altered mind state of labor, but the combination of endorphins and oxytocin, and also there's a whole bunch of other hormones that are always present in our body that I'm not talking about here.

I'm only talking about these three specific hormones, but the combo of these beneficial hormones create an altered mind state. That frankly, for me personally, I felt high. It was fantastic. I just felt a sense of time ceased to have any meaning. I was just in the flow of working through contractions and resting in between contractions and working through contractions and resting in between contractions.

I felt awesome and powerful. Even when I was [00:03:00] in these super intense times where I was roaring and moaning and groaning, I'm not saying I was like quiet and peaceful and cute and polite, but I'm just saying the mind state that I was in was absolutely a fantastic one. And it's due to these hormones of labor. And so as a birth doula, I'm often trying to help people descend into their laborland mind state, because the more that they can stop worrying about what's going on around them, the more they can feel private and safe and comfortable, and that everything is taken care of. And all they have to do is work through their contractions and flow in the rhythm of their contractions as their labor progresses, then that's, that will just increase their oxytocin. It will just increase their endorphins, and will just increase the intensity of their labor which, intense contractions bring baby.

So the more efficient and intense the contractions are the better, but building up to that as those hormones build is really, really essential to make it manageable.

All right now, let's talk about some tips for increasing the helpful hormones of labor [00:04:00] and decreasing the less helpful hormones.

So one thing you can do to increase the healthy and helpful hormones of labor is to create a calm, peaceful, private, environment for you to labor in.

And I do not mean that you have to be calm or you have to be peaceful. You, like I said, you can be roaring. You can be moaning and groaning your baby out. There's no one right way to be in labor, but making your environment peaceful, ensuring that you're not being interrupted, making sure that people aren't constantly asking you questions and interrupting you and disrupting your flow. Lots of interruptions can decrease the positive hormones, increase the negative hormones. Lack of interruptions is going to just let you be in your flow. In addition include only safe people.

Now, we talked about this when we talked about building your birth team, the importance of ensuring that everybody on your birth team is there for a reason.

And that is people you are not self-conscious around. People who are there to serve you. And people who are not going to be freaked out by [00:05:00] any element of your labor. So building your birth team and your labor support team, it matters. And it matters because of these hormones of labor.

And we've also talked about the birth bag packing list.

So that was in module one, but I'm going to bring it up here. The packing list just includes simple things that you can bring with you to set an environment that helps increase these positive hormones. So twinkle lights that are battery operated and flameless candles that are battery operated. You just pull them out of your birth bag, set them on a few tables and surfaces and flip them on. And then that's your sole light source. That can be fantastic. Can help you just feel that sense of privacy and owning your space. Turning on the music that makes you feel like this is your space. Whether it's your work hard music or it's your chill out music. These simple things can really have a positive impact on your birth space and also change how people react to you.

And I know I'm repeating myself a little bit. Go watch the birth bag packing list video, if you haven't already, for some more specifics on this and that handout is over there in module one as well.

[00:06:00]