If you read my tips for a happier and healthier pregnancy, you are well on your way to having a happier and healthier birth! However, there are a few more things you can do to have your desired birth experience. (This is assuming that you want a vaginal birth.) So, here are my 12 tips for a happier and healthier birth!
1. Write a Birth Plan
Writing out a birth plan can be extremely helpful because it makes you think about each part of labor and how you’d like it to go. It requires you to learn about your options and consider what you’d prefer to happen throughout the process, which is empowering! It also gets everyone who’s supporting you on the same page.
Personally, I prefer to call a birth plan “birthing goals” because labor and birth don’t always go as planned. It’s still good to be flexible and remember that these are your goals, but being adaptable to change is important. Since this exercise educates you on your options, it can help you better handle those changes and ultimately have a more satisfying birth.
If you’re still unconvinced about writing out a birth plan, read these reasons why it’s a good idea!
2. Create a Support Team
Your husband/partner will likely be by your side throughout your labor (unless you or your partner are uncomfortable). Whoever is with you on your birthing day must understand your wants and desires. Ask your doctor or midwife all of your questions during your prenatal visits. Hearing their responses lets you know if they will support the birth you want. (Here’s a list of questions to ask your OB!)
*Tip: Unfortunately, if you have your baby at the hospital, you won’t know who your nurse is. However, if you feel the nurse assigned to your room doesn’t support your wants and needs, your husband/partner can always request a new one. They can go to the nurses’ station and speak with the charge nurse. This is your birth, and if you aren’t feeling supported or heard, you can absolutely request someone new.
Since labor can be a long process, it’s also nice to line up some additional support. For example, you might consider hiring a birth doula for extra physical, emotional, and informational support.5
3. Labor at Home
When you first start feeling contractions, it’s not encouraged to rush to the hospital. If you took a childbirth class, your instructor probably told you that the time to go to the hospital is when your contractions are 5-1-1. (Contractions are five minutes apart, each is one minute long in duration, and they’re in a consistent pattern for one hour straight.6) This is how we establish that you’re no longer in early labor but are now in active labor. However, many couples get turned away at the hospital even at this point and are told to go home. The reason is that they may not have much or any cervical dilation or their contractions slowed down. I always suggest that my clients go to the hospital when their contractions reach 4-1-1 or 3-1-1, especially if they want an unmedicated or minimal intervention birth.6
Remember, when you’re at home, you can eat and drink. You’re free to move around and be comfortable. I know it’s exciting when the process starts, and you may be nervous that the baby will come sooner than you think, but try to stay home until you’ve reached a little further in your labor (again, around 4-1-1 or 3-1-1). It can really help!6
*Tip: Download a contraction timer app on your smartphone so your husband or partner can keep track of the length of your contractions and the time between them. It does the math for you and keeps a record!
4. Snack Lightly
Eating light snacks during labor while at home will help you maintain your energy level.7,8 However, I recommend avoiding fatty or hard-to-digest foods since they can make you feel nauseous during labor and cause you to throw up. Having too full of a stomach can have the same effect.9 Whatever you decide to eat, be sure these are smaller, lighter snacks.7
5. Stay Hydrated
With your deep and rapid breathing and your uterus contracting every couple of minutes, you can quickly lose fluids. A study at the University of California, Irvine proved that doubling the rate at which IV fluids are given can shorten labor by more than an hour. How awesome is that?! “These women’s labors were also half as likely to last longer than 12 hours,” said Thomas Garite, MD, the study author. So, be sure to drink water between contractions and tell the nurse when you feel dehydrated.1,10
6. Don’t Lie Down
Lying down is the most uncomfortable position ever to be in during labor.11,12 Because of gravity, the baby’s head pushes on your back, causing your contractions to become more intense and painful.11,13,14 However, when standing upright and moving, you use gravity to your advantage because the baby’s head is pressing on your cervix, helping you dilate more and speeding up your labor.14,15,16 The movement also helps widen your pelvis, which allows your baby’s head to drop lower in your pelvis.14,15 So, get up out of that bed! This will feel so much better than lying down on it.
To help you find a good position, check out these articles:
- Best Positions To Do in Early Labor
- Best Positions To Do in Transition Labor
- Best Positions To Do in Active Labor
7. Get Massaged
You may love going to the spa and getting a massage. Or you may hate massages because you don’t like being touched. Whichever way you feel, you will likely appreciate supportive touch during labor. In a Touch Research Institute (Miami, FL) study, they learned that laboring women who received massages from their partner or doula reported feeling less depressed and had less labor pain and anxiety during childbirth than those who didn’t get massaged.2 When you stimulate an area of your body in pain, whether with pressure and/or heat, you soften the pain messages sent to the brain. So, let your partner touch or massage you. Tell them what feels best and whether it’s helping during that time of your labor.
8. Distract Yourself
When I first tell women how long labor typically lasts for first-time mothers, I know it’s not a fun answer. The average labor time for a first-time mother lasts between 12 and 24 hours.17 I have helped first-time mothers have a baby in less than three hours, up to 72 hours, and everything in between. Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell how long your labor will last.
When you start feeling contractions — which may feel like lower back pain or abdominal cramps — try to stay calm.18 You have a little while until baby shows up, so try to distract yourself with other activities. Try taking a walk, reading a book, watching your favorite TV show, cooking, or baking cookies, which you can give to your nurses. 😉 Basically, anything that relaxes you. The more relaxed and distracted you are, the more it will help speed things along and not allow you to focus on the clock.
9. Get in the Water
When we’re uncomfortable and feel pain, we tend to tense our muscles. Unfortunately, doing this in labor causes more discomfort and can slow down our labor progress.19 A warm shower or bath can help relax your muscles, relieve discomfort, and help you progress your labor.20,21,22 I call hydrotherapy the natural epidural. It truly makes things feel better!
*Tip: Don’t get into the tub too soon in labor because it can slow down and potentially stop your contractions.23 You want to wait until you’ve reached active or transition labor. A shower is fine at any stage of labor “if you have had no problems with your pregnancy and you do not have any complications during labor,” says the American College of Nurse-Midwives.23
10. Get a Hep-lock
An IV can get in the way and limit your mobility during labor.24 Yes, it’s hooked to wheels and can roll around with you, but do you or your partner really want to drag that thing around? It has to come with you whenever you want to move, walk the halls, or go to the bathroom. Hospitals prefer an IV because they’re concerned about having access to a vein if an emergency should arise. They also want to make sure that you’re hydrated. An IV allows them to administer fluids and/or medicine immediately should you or your baby need something.25 But a hep lock (also called a saline lock) is a great compromise.26 They will likely say “no” if you request to have neither, but it doesn’t hurt to ask!
So, what is a hep-lock? It’s a portal for the IV drip that’s threaded into a peripheral vein, flushed with saline, and then capped off for later use.3,26 It isn’t hooked to an IV pole, so you aren’t tethered to anything, but the hospital staff still has easy access to a vein if you need something later. As for dehydration, chew on some ice chips or drink water (or labor-aide) in between contractions.
*Tip: If you receive a hep-lock or an IV, request NOT to have it placed near a joint. It isn’t pleasant to feel like you can’t bend your elbow or wrist or move your hand during labor because your IV is in the way.
11. Let Your Baby Break Your Water
Breaking your water may help speed things up, but it’s not guaranteed.27 In my opinion, it’s one of the least effective ways of induction. If you must have your water artificially broken, I recommend waiting until you’re at least 6 cm dilated. Anything before that could cause no change and put you at risk of getting an infection.27,28
Also, your bag of water helps keep your contractions a bit more tolerable. It acts as a cushion when your uterus contracts, softening the blow to you and your baby. When you no longer have that “cushion,” the strength of your contractions is more intense for you.27 This can sometimes cause more stress on the baby. I’ve seen this happen to some of my doula clients. After the doctor breaks the bag of water, their baby no longer tolerates the contractions, and now they need an emergency cesarean. My advice? Wait until your baby breaks your water on its own. By doing this, the chances of these things happening will decrease.
Another thing: some babies can be born inside their bag of water, which is called being born en caul (but it’s very rare).4 It’s pretty awesome and, in my opinion, probably the coolest and most peaceful way to be born!
12. Keep Breathing
I see many women either hold their breath during contractions or breathe too quickly, which can cause them to hyperventilate.29 You want to avoid doing these things during labor. We always want to give plenty of oxygen to the baby, so taking slow, deep breaths will benefit you both. Also, slowing your breathing and finding a good breathing pattern can help you relax during your contractions and rest when each contraction ends.30,31 Controlled breathing is everything, and it will help you maintain your energy throughout.
Now that you know all my tips for a happier and healthier birth, I have one last thing to say. I tell all of my doula clients: remember that labor is temporary and eventually ends. Then, you will receive the best gift ever — your baby! Keep going. It will all be worth it. 🙂
