Labor Pain Relief
Without a Needle or a Price Tag

A woman's environment, body, and mind all contribute to her perception of pain and decisions about medication in childbirth.

You can use this list to expand your options in several ways. Try a new suggestion from each category in your practice sessions. Check it before discussing options with your birth attendant. Pack you bag with it in mind. Hang it on the door of your birthing room for ideas in labor. Share it with your coach and doctor or midwife and ask for support in trying all the options available.

The Birthplace

• Familiarize yourself with the place of birth.
• Know what is available to you.
• Discuss your goals with caregivers or write a birth plan and discuss it with them.
• Participate actively in decision-making.
• Try water therapy such as a shower, bath, or Jacuzzi.
• If you are in bed, try a sponge or foot bath.
• Privacy within the limits of safety.
• Music -- soft and relaxing for the first stage, energizing for the second stage.
• Adjust lighting and temperature to your comfort.

Coping Techniques

• Relax, particularly where you tend to hold tension.
• Use breathing patterns that enhance relaxation.
• Use touch such as massage, heat, cold, pressure, tap a rhythm.
• Assume a variety of positions that use gravity to help your baby descend.
• Sway, rock, dance to keep your pelvis mobile.
• Urinate frequently.
• Eat and drink as you can to maintain strength and energy.
• Count, chant, hum, or moan.
• Make releasing, relaxing noises.
• Use acupressure for labor.

Emotional Well-Being

• Rely on companionship and support.
• Let those around you know what you want and need.
• Practice relaxation, focusing, and breathing together with your partner to build trust and confidence.
• Have confidence in your body's ability to cope with labor and the birth of your baby.
• Think of your baby.
• Figure out what your needs are and communicate them.
• Focus on something positive that you see, hear, feel, smell, taste, or imagine.
• Pray or meditate.
• Do affirmations and visualizations.
• Expect the unexpected.
• Concentrate only on the moment and responding appropriately to this contraction.

View pain in labor for what it is -- normal, healthy, productive, intermittent -- and ending with the ecstasy of your baby's birth.

Childbirth Instructor Magazine grants permission to reproduce this page for use in childbirth education classes. 

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