Healthy Birth Practice # 4

 Avoid interventions that aren't medically necessary.

The topic of interventions during labor and at birth can be controversial. Everyone has an opinion to share, and as an expecting mum those opinions can be overwhelming.

Birth is a natural process. We want to limit interfering with the vital hormones that regulate pregnancy, labour, birth, breastfeeding and attachment. Our bodies are amazing, and we are gifted with several hormones that help the birthing process move along to eventually give us a baby.

While it can be critical to use the available interventions to improve an outcome during labour, Certain medical interventions (medical procedures) are performed routinely on women in labour and in birth, but unfortunately, are not always necessary, and in fact, can cause unnecessary harm.

It is important to have a healthy understanding of interventions, and Birthability Childbirth education classes can help you become more informed, confident and supported at your birth.

Healthy Birth Practices # 2

Walk, Move Around and Change Positions Throughout Labour.

Movement in labour serves two very important purposes. First, it helps you cope with you increasingly strong and powerful contractions, Second, it helps wiggle your baby into your pelvis and through the birth canal.

When allowed to move freely during labour, women instinctively respond to their powerful contractions. Walking, swaying, squatting, rocking, rubbing and changing positions during labour. 

Research supports that movement may help shorten labour, can provide effective pain relief and can decrease the likelihood of having a cesarean (Storton.S (2007) "the coalition for improving maternity services")

It's a Date

It's a Date!

The humble Medjool date it seems may just have some hidden superpowers!

A study conducted in 2011 and published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has some really interesting results from comparing two groups of women: those who consumed six dates per day in the last four weeks of labour and those who did not.

Here are a few interesting results from the study:

- Spontaneous labour occurred in 96% of those who consumed dates, compared with 79% women in the non-date consumers.

- Use of prostin/oxytocin was significantly lower in women who consumed dates (28%), compared with the non-date consumers (47%).

- The mean latent phase of the first stage of labour was shorter in women who consumed dates compared with the non-date consumers. (Those who consumed dates had an average 8.5 hours of first stage labor while those who didn’t had an average 15.1 hours of first stage labor.)

- The women who consumed dates had significantly higher mean cervical dilatation upon admission compared with the non-date consumers.

The study concluded that the consumption of dates in the last 4 weeks before labour, significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labour, and produced a more favorable, delivery outcome.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21280989

The effect of late pregnancy consumption of date fruit on labour and delivery. - PubMed - NCBI

J Obstet Gynaecol. 2011;31(1):29-31. doi: 10.3109/01443615.2010.522267.

NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV|BY AL-KURAN O , ET AL.