Natural Pain Relief Option #7: Environment
The environment in which a woman gives birth can help with relaxation, hence pain relief and comfort.
• Turn the lights off or down. Help her instinctive brain kick in and her thinking brain turn off. Darkness helps with this.
• Bring familiar objects from home if in hospital, like pillows, blankets and other things that have her smell on it – the smells of familiarity, safety and home.
• Music – favorite CD’s for different moods are great, from uplifting to soothing sounds, music can groove some pain away!
• Keep it quiet. Avoid talking unnecessarily when things get serious and asking her lots of questions – her thinking brain is trying to shut down to let the instinctive part of her brain take control, hence why women can appear vague and unable to know what they want in labor. Humour can be great when appropriate, for example, early labor, but it’s important not to keep engaging her thinking brain when she’s in strong labor. Encourage others to keep voices down and increase touch and encouraging words when needed.
Natural Pain Relief Option #8: Heat Pack
Another option for sore backs – a wheat pack or another form of heat pack is a great non-pharmaceutical alternative. If you are giving birth in a hospital, be sure to check the policy on heat packs, because some no longer allow you to heat up wheat packs in microwaves due to potential fires (yes it has happened before!). So you may need to choose a non-wheat heat pack, for example the gel ones which heat up in hot water, or you could find out what the hospital suggests.
Heat packs are also great post-natally for after birth pains, while the uterus contracts down to it’s normal size – which happens in only a few days – so it works hard!
Natural Pain Relief Option #9: Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy in labour has many great uses. If you are giving birth in hospital, it can provide a nice smell to mask the smell of the hospital, enabling you to relax a little more. While some essential oils are not advised during pregnancy and labour, it is perfectly safe to burn any oil in your burner. You might like to choose some oils suggested in the massage section above.
A point about oil burners – check to see if your hospital has one, as they will not allow you to bring in your own in case of an electrical fault and you blow up the electrical system! Naked flames are also not allowed, so you can’t bring your own oil burners that evaporate with a candle. Your options are usually a battery operated one, which I am yet to find, or a hospital one. You could always ask if it will be okay to use your own if you get your unit electrical tested.
Natural Pain Relief Option #10: Sterile Water Injections
For some women, back pain in labour (usually caused by a posterior positioned baby – where the baby’s back is against your back) is much more challenging to manage. Intradermal injections of sterile water provides a non-pharmacological pain relief option.
A small amount of sterile water is injected in four places just under the skin that covers the sacrum, the lower part of the back. Its thought that the sterile water injections stimulate the nerves which quickly send messages to the brain and interrupt the slower messages from inside the body – this has been called the ‘gate control’ theory of pain management.
Intradermal injections of sterile water have been found to stop backache for over 90% of women. For those women it works for, the relief has been immediate. The catch is that it is quite painful. It has a sharp, wasp like sting, which lasts about 20 seconds, however the vast majority of women who experienced severe backpain reported that it’s worth the sting and likely prevented them for opting for an epidural.
Sterile water injections is still fairly new and midwives need to be specially trained to use it – so you will need to check before the birth if this option is available to you. You might even suggest that they look into it if they don’t have that option. For more information, check out our article on sterile water injections.
Natural Pain Relief Option #11: TENS
A TENS machine works by attaching two strips of electrodes on your lower back – one on either side of your spine. These connect to a hand-held battery powered unit, which allows you to control the strength of the electrical impulses. The way it apparently works is that the impulses send a signal to the brain where they compete with pain impulses from the uterus, helping to block the pain.
TENS machines do help some women to cope with early contractions, but it’s effectiveness really does vary greatly from woman to woman. Feedback from both studies and by consensus from women give mixed results. Some women find TENS to be no help at all, and some swear by them. The few clients I have supported who have chosen to use TENS gave it a go until they got into water, then took it off and didn’t bother putting it back. Yet on the other hand some women I have heard from say they couldn’t have coped without it.
It is important to get some instruction on how to use TENS before labour – often places who hire out the machines do have TENS classes so if you choose to use TENS in labour, make sure you book yourself in for some lessons.
Pros Using A TENS Machine:
• You can use it from the very start of labour
• It can be used anywhere – at home, in the car or in hospital
• You can remain mobile
• Can be used with other forms of pain relief except back massage or water (shower, bath)
• Self administered and controlled
• Some women find it particularly helpful with back labour (posterior babies)
• Can be used post-birth
Cons Using A TENS Machine:
• It’s not as effective for strong labour as massage or loving care from a doula or privately-hired midwife
• You need to start using it very early in your labour to get the most out of it
• It makes you focus on the early stages of labour when it’s better to play it down and ignore it
• You cannot use it and need to take it off while being monitored, in the shower or in the bath
• You need to press the button to turn it on before each contraction, so you are effectively sitting there waiting for a contraction coming on
• It doesn’t work for all women
• Some women feel that the wires are distracting in labour
• Not to be used on broken or irritated skin
Natural Pain Relief Option #12: Keep Hydrated and Eat If Hungry
Midwife, Brenda Manning, suggests: “If you don’t think you will remember, ask your partner to remind you to drink at least 300mls of water every couple of hours to avoid dehydration. Dehydration can result in fatigue and a poorly functioning uterus. Eating and drinking during labour has been shown to reduce the total length of labour by as much as 90 minutes. Eat light, easily digested food.”
Natural Pain Relief Option #13: Acupuncture
Studies have shown that acupuncture is effective for all sorts of pain relief. In China, acupuncturists work in hospitals and provide acupuncture for patients. However in Australia (and many other western countries) no such thing exists. Some hospitals are receptive to Chinese medicine professionals treating patients (as long as you hire your own) but if you’re giving birth at home this obviously isn’t an issue.
During my client’s labours, I have worked with a good friend of mine who has helped my clients with lower back pain, labours which were slow to establish and doctors were pushing for pharmaceutical inductions, back labour (posterior babies), post birth cramping, post birth bleeding and more. My clients have been very happy with the results.
If you have a trusted acupuncturist or can locate one (make sure they specialise in fertility/pregnancy/birth, some of which have done extra training courses) then you might like to ask them if they’d be open to coming to your birth, making sure that the hospital would allow it.