Friday, May 31, 2013

Belly Dancing Through Labor

This is a very interesting method of coping with labor that I had not learned about previously. Lately I’ve been studying up on pain management techniques so that during this labor there may be less:

1. Profanity
2. Vulgarity
3. Frustration
4. Screaming

I’d like this birth to be much more peaceful than my last. The one single regret I have about Noah’s birth is that I told my midwife I didn’t think I was really in labor. This was true, I thought that since the last two times I went into labor were because of the snow storms, this was the same thing. I was wrong.
With Noah I yelled at the EMTs who were only trying to help me, threatened a police officer, screamed and cursed (a lot) and I feel like much of it could have been avoided had I used pain management techniques. I had been supplied with some too, but never bothered really delving into them or practicing. 
This time around I’ve looked briefly into hypnobirthing, breathing techniques, etc. but I think I’m pretty set on laboring and possibly birthing in the water, but I’ve really been considering belly dancing as well. The movements in your hips are supposed to help you through contractions and give you something to focus on rather than the pain of the contraction. The swaying and crescent and figure eight movements are what are supposed to do the trick. According to anthropologist Sheila Kitzinger, belly dancing originated as a childbirth ritual.
I’m off to do some more research, I’ll get back to you guys on Wednesday :)

No comments:

Post a Comment