I have been thinking a lot about epidural anesthesia for childbirth. Among those who have experienced it, birth is almost universally described as painful. Who wouldn’t want a drug or procedure that takes away the pain? Clearly, most pregnant people in America want this. It is by far the mainstream way to give birth. Read more
This is part five of a six-part series. In part one, My Baby Dropped!, I explain why engagement is pathology. In part two, Why Did My Baby Get Stuck?, I explore the maternal factors that cause babies to get stuck. Part three is called Fetal Factors: How Babies Get Themselves Stuck. Last week I wrote Fetal Constraint: How Culture Immobilizes Babies. Today’s post is about the fetal constraint downsides for labor and birth. Next week I’ll write about how fetal constraint adversely affects the babies themselves — the things we notice after birth. Read more
This is the fourth installment of the stuck baby series. Last week I described the fetal factors (ways babies get themselves stuck). The week before I discussed maternal factors. Three weeks ago I covered engagement and explained why it’s pathology. Next week I’ll go over how fetal constraint affects labor and birth. Stay tuned!
Today I’m going to discuss cultural factors that reduce babies’ opportunities to move in utero and cause them to get stuck. This is the category we can actually do something about because the factors are under our conscious control — if we know enough and if we care care enough. Read more
There are many things that contribute to fetal constraint (stuck babies). Any one of them can operate independently, but usually there are multiple causes for less than optimal fetal positioning that have synergistic or additive effects. As I continue to explore the multiple causes, I will provide examples of how these things can work in concert to prevent babies from moving into more ideal positions for their continued gestation, birth and a comfortable, functional life in their bodies outside the womb. Read more
“My baby dropped!!” People usually say this with great enthusiasm when it happens. I’ve never really understood why people rejoice about their babies dropping. Read more
In my other life I’m a bodyworker and bodywork teacher. When I taught in-person prenatal yoga classes, my students often asked me about the benefits of bodywork during pregnancy. They wanted to know more about Craniosacral Therapy (CST) and how it can help. Today I’ll explain it. Read more
First a word or two about birth physiology: Labor is almost universally painful for birthing parents and sometimes painful for babies. One of the ways we cope with pain is to produce beta-endorphin. Beta-endorphin is an opiate-like brain chemical – the same one responsible for the so-called runner’s high. It reduces pain. Read more
The word “emergency” used to ONLY apply to childbirth. The baby emerges, get it?
Lately, I have been hearing an emergent theme in the stories people have been sharing with me about their cesarean births. They divide them into two categories – planned and emergency.Often a parent will say to me that their cesarean birth was not planned. It was an emergency. Yet, when I hear the details of the story it almost always falls into the third and largest category – the unplanned cesarean. It is really a story about a failed induction, a less-then-ideally positioned baby who fails to descend (and emerge), a baby who wasn’t coping well with labor contractions, but didn’t need to come out RIGHT NOW, etc. Read more