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Comfort Measures for Labor
A Certified Doula Answers Questions on Comfort During Labor
By Kelly Camden, Certified Doula and Yoga Instructor
There are many ways to labor and give birth. It is helpful to learn many different ways to cope with labor, so that you'll have plenty of tools when the time comes. It can help to make a list of comfort measures you're interested in using. Ask your health care provider about them. Share your list with your partner and put it in your birth bag so you can refer to it during labor.
Here are some common questions:
Women who are laboring without medication can enjoy a full range of positions and movement during labor. When you don't feel like walking around the labor and delivery unit anymore, try raising the entire hospital bed and standing next to it. Leaning over with elbows on the bed can be very helpful. There are also handles at the foot of the bed, which may be used for squatting. Other options include birth ball, rocking chair, slow dancing with your partner, taking a bath, kneeling on the bed, rocking and circling the hips.
During early labor, it is wise to eat some light foods and drink regularly. As labor progresses, your appetite will naturally diminish; however, drinking fluids is still important. The reason that care providers tell women not to eat during labor is this: If complications arise and a woman needs to have an emergency Cesarean birth, it is best if she has an empty stomach, which would decrease the risk of aspirating (inhaling contents of the stomach) vomit.
Doctors and midwives and hospital or homebirth settings have such different rules about eating during labor because of medication and interventions. At home, women aren't planning to use medication. The midwife's approach is to support the woman's body in doing the job that she needs to do. Therefore, at home, women may eat as they please. In the hospital, midwives are more lenient than doctors, but once medication such as an epidural is administered, they also need to follow the protocol: ice chips only. This minimizes the amount of fluid in the stomach. Since using medication increases chances for surgery, they begin limiting food intake in advance "just in case."
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