Beth Roche, Certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner, teaching mothers
and birth companions techniques for safe and satisfying birthing through guided imagery, visualization,
and special breathing
"Birthing
is so integral with life - so common - that choices surrounding
it often get relegated to chance. We tend to go along with what
everyone else is doing, assuming that must be for the best.
Living in a technological society, we tend to think that the
best of everything is the most expensive kind available. This
is generally true... When it comes to birth, it ain't necessarily
so." Ina May Gaskin
The Power of
the Birthing Body, and the Birthing Baby
Somewhere along the way we have
lost sight of the fact that women were made to birth, and their
bodies are perfectly designed to do so as birthing is a natural
physiological function, it is just that we don't do it very often
in our lives! Following are some of the amazing ways a woman's body
is adapted for the birthing process, along with some wonderful things
the baby's body does too.
The hormone Relaxin, secreted
in the later stages of pregnancy, does the following things to help
make birthing easier:
Allows walls of vagina to be lubricated, expand and become smooth
(Mother)
Helps to soften the uterus and spread the pubic region (Mother)
Causes baby’s ligaments to relax and the body become more
flexible (Baby)
Weakens amniotic membrane causing it to release (Mother)
Loosens mother’s ligaments, allowing the front pubic bone
to move forward (Mother)
Protaglandins begin to be secreted which trigger the start of labour
by initiating oxytocin which causes uterine surges. (Mother)
During the surges, the muscles of the uterus work together with
the increased levels of blood in the blood vessels between the layers
of muscles, to move the baby down. (Mother)
The cervix thins and opens gently to allow the baby to move down
and be birthed. (Mother)
The baby’s skull is not fully formed at birth. This is to
allow for the bones to move around and fit the birth path beautifully.
The plates generally settle back and join up within the first 18-24
months of the baby’s life. (Baby)
Once the baby is born and put to the breast, hormones are released
in the mother which encourage the placenta to detach and be expelled
naturally with a few surges. (Mother and Baby)
