How to deal with labour contractions: 5 pregnancy yoga / active birth techniques
The prospect of giving birth is very often a source of anxiety or worry for mums-to-be, (especially the first time round), because it is such a big unknown. A huge part of this worry often revolves around contractions and the sensations of labour and birth: how will it feel? will I cope with the pain? What if I can’t?
The thing about contractions (or surges) if that, like any other body sensations, the way they will feel to you is absolutely personal and unique to you. But while there is no knowing in advance how they will feel, there is much you can do to prepare and equip yourself with skills and tools to help you deal with them, and yoga during pregnancy has much to offer for that!
Here are my top 5 tips to prepare for and deal with contractions:
Use your breath
The breath is your number one tool for labour and birth, and so the number one skill you should aim to practice during pregnancy. Although you cannot control how birth will unfold, you can always control your breath. Doing so, with a focus on lengthening your exhalation if possible, will help you stay calm, focused and centred as you ride your contractions, boost oxytocin (making labour more effective and so shorter) and trigger the release of your natural pain-killers (endorphins). Breathing is also something your birth partner can practice and help you with on the big day, making them actively involved in your baby’s birth and a true support for you.
2. Use your voice
Like the breath, the voice is a powerful tool to let go of tension and stay calm and centred. Forget about the high-pitch screams so often pictured on TV: instead, try making low ahh, ooh and ughs sounds, or low roaring sounds, sending the sound and vibrations to the lower back. Keep your jaw soft, this will also relax your birthing muscles and let them work even better! If you feel self-conscious when practicing, go onto all fours where you will feel less exposed!
3. Build your strength and resilience
Labour and birth is a process that requires endurance and resilience. Learning to release and embrace intense feelings rather than fighting them, building up your inner (mental) strength in pregnancy in your ability to ride intense sensations, that you can then tap into during labour and birth is therefore a key asset. Pregnancy yoga practices such as more challenging standing and squatting poses firing up the legs (like chair pose or goddess pose) and ‘keep ups’ / contractions simulations where we practice releasing into the intensity are deeply effective ways to build up stamina and mental resilience, practice first-hand for what labour might require of you, and equip you with the confidence that you are strong and can do challenging things however things unfold.
4. Match them with a different sensation
This is a brilliant concept that Juju Sundin explores in great detail in her book Birth Skills: take your awareness away from the sensations of the contractions by matching them with a different sensation on which to focus your mind. This works brilliantly with movement or touch: for example, circle your hips while sitting on a birthing ball or standing at the wall, and focus your mind on the shape and sensation of the movement. Or walk or stomp on the spot and focus solely on the sensation on the soles of your feet. Just don’t overdo it to avoid unnecessary effort and exhaustion.
5. Let them go
A common misconception about labour is that it is a continuous experience without breaks. But contractions actually come and go like waves, building up, peaking then slowly fading away, with pauses in between each surge. To preserve energy and stamina, not ‘hanging on’ to your surges, letting each of them wash over you and then letting it go completely as they recede and stop, before the next one comes, is essential.
Knowing how to relax, shake off any tension and rest completely, is something my yoga during pregnancy classes focus a lot on, always following effort with rest, and practising a variety of ‘instant relaxers’, resting poses and building strong relaxation ‘body memories’.
We explore all these and many more tools, doula tipsm birth rehearsal and essential need-to-know - including positions movements, breathing techniques, release techniques, birth partner tools - in my Practical Birth Skills workshop, designed for anyone wanting to feel deeply equipped for, and increase their chances of a more effective/easier a vaginal/physiological birth.
The workshop runs on a regular basis in person in Richmond/Kew, and is also available as an online recorded course or as a bespoke private birth preparation session (redeemable against birth doula support packages).