My daughter is now 3 months old and my wife has found some time in her baby care schedule to write a little bit about her experience of labour.
Like most women during their first pregnancy I looked forward to the birth of my daughter with a mixture of happy anticipation mingled with fear. Labour is difficult to describe and no amount of reading can prepare you for your own experience. Coping with the pain is one of the things women worry about when they approach their due date; conventional pain relief options offered in most labour wards basically boil down to Entonox (gas and air), pethidene and an epidural, as needed. Some wards have a birth pool as well, and many women rent or buy a TENS machine to help them cope. Complementary therapies can also offer pain relief during labour, and obviously, with Bevan being a shiatsu therapist, I was in a perfect position to have him help out and test the effectiveness of shiatsu and acupressure for pain relief during labour.
I found regular shiatsu through early to mid-pregnancy was very helpful in reducing the constant nausea and weariness I felt. After that, once I became less mobile, shiatsu was great for stretching me out and reducing tension. I suffered a bit from pain in my symphysis pubis, and acupuncture was helpful in relieving that. But on the whole I had a problem-free pregnancy.
Finally my due date was approaching (we were also due to move house on the same day…which was also my birthday!)…so we used acupuncture points to prepare for labour every week from 36 weeks: Spleen 6 to ripen the cervix, Stomach 36 for stamina and Gall Bladder 34 to soften my ligaments. I was pretty annoyed to be overdue – I really wanted to give birth in a Birth Centre or even at home, rather than in hospital. But in fact on the eighth day after my due date, when I was given a ’stretch and sweep’ of the cervix, the midwife said my cervix was already soft and very slightly open. Of course there’s no way to tell whether it would’ve been ripe anyway, and it could well have been the sweep that got things moving!
Later the same day I had period-like cramps from about 3pm, which faded away in the evening. I assumed it was nothing and we had a normal evening of eating dinner and watching TV, and went to sleep at about 11:30pm (if we’d only known, we’d have turned in a lot earlier!) About 1:30am I started feeling mild contractions about 10 minutes apart, and after the sixth figured I should get up and see if the TENS machine worked. I can really vouch for it; I did not think it would work but it really helped a lot. My contractions then became 5 minutes apart, so we phoned the Birth Centre I was booked into. To our horror, the midwife on duty was off sick, so we were rerouted to a nearby Hospital, which luckily also has a Birth Centre. By the time we arrived there, at about 3:30 am, they were coming 3 minutes or so apart, and that’s more-or-less how they stayed for the next 15 hours (after about 10 hours the rate dropped gradually to every 5 mins as I started to tire, and Bevan used Stomach 36 which helped increase the rate to every 3 mins again).
During labour, I found that a combination of TENS machine, Entonox and strong accurate pressure on either Liver 3 (on the foot) or Bladder 32 (on the sacrum) was necessary to alleviate pain during each contraction. There was a very noticeable (50%) decrease in pain on application of the pressure, which Bevan tirelessly applied. (I think most dads probably get to take a break or two during their partner’s labour…but not Bevan! He also missed three meals, though he fed me mini chocolates and apple juice through a straw.) I used the birth pool for four hours while I dilated from 5 to 8 cm, which was great – I obviously could not use the TENS machine while in the water, but the effect of the water was equivalent to that of the TENS machine, and Bevan continued to apply various pain relief points while I was in the pool.
I didn’t notice the transition from first to second stage, possibly because I also had pethidine around then. It didn’t make me feel queasy luckily, just a bit spaced out, which did help. I think that’s also when my waters broke naturally, with a strange popping sound in the middle of a contraction. I had insisted they not be broken artificially.
By the time I was fully dilated I was too tired to push effectively, sadly. My baby daughter Samantha Ruth was finally born with the help of a kiwi (ventouse) suction cup as she was still positioned rather high after 2 hours of pushing - sadly with a small episiotomy. Incidentally I accidentally left the TENS machine on full blast all through the stitching, and I’m sure it helped a lot!
I used most of the pain relief options available to me, with the exception of having an epidural, and my impression and memory is that my pain was very well managed; all the methods we used were useful - and needed - and I never felt that I couldn’t cope with the pain. I must say, I was a little surprised at how effective the acupressure was for pain relief; the only downside is that the pressure needs to be applied fairly strongly and the analgesic effect is only effective while pressure is being applied (so birth partners need to have strong thumbs).
I think shiatsu and acupressure offer women a valuable additional source of pain relief that can be effectively applied in combination with conventional methods. Incidentally the points are relatively easy to learn and it is well worth considering learning a few of them with your birth partner. It can also help dads to feel more involved in the birth of their child, knowing that they are able to help their partners actively!
Tags:acupressure, labour, pain relief, Shiatsu
