Pregnancy is such a beautiful phase in your life. From the time you took your pregnancy test kit to the time of your delivery, this nine-month period is filled with anxiety, stress, pain, fatigue and happiness. A lot of things go through your mind when you are expecting a baby. You have to make a lot of changes and adjustments to your lifestyle but the one thing you can be sure of is the pain you go through during labour and delivery.
Labour pain is inevitable but it also differs from person to person. The pain is caused by contractions of the muscles of the uterus and by pressure on the cervix. It's not the pain that is hardest but not getting time to relax between these contractions makes it unmanageable. Having support throughout your pregnancy planning till the delivery will enhance your birth experience and will provide emotional support to boost your morale.
Here are some pain management techniques that will minimize your labour pain and help you go through a comfortable delivery.
• Breathe and Relax- Being focused on your breathing and relaxing your mind is the best non-medical technique to forget about your contractions and ease your labour pain. Meditation also helps as it diverts your mind from the pain. Creating a mental image will help you focus on a relaxing image and will divert your mind from the pain you are going through.
• Moving Around and Changing Positions- Walking, moving around and changing positions during labour can help lessen the pain. Using a birthball also helps as rocking back and forth is soothing and helps in comfortable delivery. The swaying encourages the muscles to relax and the movements assist the baby downwards through pelvic canal. Check which position makes you comfortable whether it be squatting, leaning to the sides, swaying or using a birthball that will help ease the pain.
• Water Therapy and Massage- Warm water helps in reducing the pain and gives a soothing feeling. Showering in hot water will relax your muscles and is considered a natural pain relief. Massage helps in releasing the tension in your muscles. It has a calming effect and helps in stimulating delivery. Rubbing your feet and hands can cause distraction from the pain and is found to have a great effect to boost your morale.
• Combined Spinal Epidural- While epidurals may take time to kick in, combined spinal epidural anesthesia is given which takes less time and helps to relieve the pain. Combined spinal epidural is a one-time shot given in the lower back which will numb the pain and works for 45 minutes. It is used if you have been in labour for a long time and normally used for C- Section delivery. But using epidural also has some side effects. It can cause a drop in your blood pressure, makes it difficult to pee, headache, nausea, itching etc.
• Analgesics- Analgesics do not numb your pain completely but work in reducing it to some extent. Analgesics are either given through IV drip or shot in the muscle. These medicines can cause some side-effects like drowsiness and nausea and might also affect the baby.
These are some of the pain management techniques that will help in easing your labour pain and have a comfortable delivery. While medical techniques may have some side-effects it is advised to talk to your doctor first and go with the method you are comfortable with. You can calculate your due date by using the pregnancy calendar due date feature as it will give you an idea about your delivery date so that you can prepare yourself beforehand. Going through labour is already hard work so, ease the pain, make it comfortable for yourself and have a smooth delivery.