Trusting God’s Design for Birth: Pain Relief
- Jun 9
- 5 min read
By: Christine Russell, CPM
Pain Relief
Movement/Position Changes – As your baby moves through your pelvis, you will find different positions soothing at different times throughout labor. It’s helpful for the progression of labor to change positions at least every 30 minutes and to empty your bladder every hour or so to help baby’s descent into and through the pelvis. Find a position that feels good (or at least better) to help you cope with the pain of the contractions.
Relaxation techniques – Some women find relaxation techniques like Progressive Relaxation or the Jiggle or Visualization helpful in coping with labor. Progressive relaxation involves starting with your head/face and tightening that momentarily then releasing all of the tension by focusing on relaxing all of the head/face muscles. Next you move to your neck/shoulders and tighten those then relax all of them. Then, you repeat the process for your arms/hands, then chest, then abdomen, then legs/feet. Once finished, focus on letting your body be completely relaxed, even as a contraction washes over you. The Jiggle is a Spinning Babies technique, which uses light pressure on a particular area of the body (thighs and buttocks tend to be favorite spots, but anywhere that feels good is possible and feel free to move around to several areas). You’d need a support person to be able to do this to you where they put their hands on the area they are going to work on and apply gentle pressure then “jiggle” that muscle group back and forth as you let everything else relax. Visualization is the process of thinking/seeing something that is pleasant/soothing/relaxing while working through a contraction. You can choose a happy place like the beach or waterfalls or meadow, or anything else that you feel relaxed in. You’d focus on the sights/sounds/feels of being in that place as a way to distract you from the pain of the contraction. Some women just like to visualize what their body and baby is doing through the contraction so that you are focused on the results rather than the pain.
Water – As mentioned in previous posts, warm water is a great way to find relief from pain. Tub soaks or showers can be really helpful in reducing pain. If you are in early labor, there is a chance that getting in the water too soon can slow down labor progress, so it’s best to wait until you are in active labor (contractions have been 5 minutes apart lasting at least 1 min for 1 hour and are painful enough to stop you in your tracks when they come). Some women still find that water even in active labor can slow things down, so if you are one of those women, use it as a tool to help you rest/relax as needed, but if you want labor to progress, don’t stay there too long.
Hot pad/water bottle – A hot pad or hot water bottle placed over the lower back or the abdomen can be really soothing for labor pains as well as lower back pains caused by baby’s head pushing on your sacrum. Hip squeezes or counter pressure with or without the heat can also be helpful.
Herbs/Essential Oils/Homeopathics – there are many herbs, essential oils, and homeopathics that can be really helpful in addressing pain in labor. Some of my favorites include the following:
Herbs: Serious Relaxer (Wishgarden)
Essential Oils: Black Pepper, Basil, Copiaba (Lavender if you need a break/rest), Deep Blue (doTERRA blend in oil form as well as a Rub form)
Homeopathics – Arnica oil or cream or lotion or gel; Arnica, Sepia
TENS unit – A TENS unit provides electrical stimulation to the area of pain to help distract you from the pain. Many machines allow you to choose a pulsing setting that feels good and adjust how high the electrical stimulation goes. This can be placed on your lower back.
Sterile Water Injections – Some providers offer sterile water injections in which the sterile water gets injected by a needle into your lower back.
Nitrous Oxide – This is a gas that has been around for a long time and more recently has been increasing again in popularity as a way to help you cope with the labor pains. It is inhaled as a contraction comes on to help lessen the pain of the contraction and relax the mom.
IV Pain medication – Fentanyl, Morphine, or Demerol can be used, but if birth is imminent, it’s not an option. These drugs reduce your baby’s respiratory drive, so it’s more likely that your baby will need breathing assistance when he or she is born. Other options that have decreased risk on baby’s respiratory drive include Stadol or Nubain.
Epidural – As discussed in a previous post, an epidural is where an IV catheter is placed in the epidural space through the spine so that anesthesia can be place through the catheter to numb the body from the waist down. The amount of anesthesia placed determines how much or how little a woman feels. Sometimes they will put in minimal medication for what is called a standing epidural, where the pain of labor is lessened, but a mom could potentially stand with assistance or squat because she can feel her legs enough to do so. Sometimes the amount of medication is lessened with 2nd stage (pushing) so that a mom can feel enough pressure to know how to effectively push her baby. Often with an epidural, a woman is left to “labor down” her baby because she doesn’t feel the urge to push, allowing the contractions to get baby lower before the mom is told to push, so she doesn’t have to actively push so long. The medication used is typically a combination of a local anesthetic and an opioid (fentanyl). The opioid can cause the baby’s respiratory drive to be suppressed and both mom and baby would test positive in a drug test for narcotics. Epidurals don’t always work, or depending on how they are placed in the spine, they may only provide numbing relief on one side or certain areas. There is also a risk of an epidural going into the wrong area of the spine or leaking causing spinal headaches that can last for months or years.
Epidurals can cause mom’s blood pressure to plummet, putting baby in distress and leading to a C-section. Babies are also more sleepy after birth due to the drugs in their system, making it harder to nurse them.
Links to all posts in the Trusting God's Design for Birth series:
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