Pain Relief in Labour That ISN'T an Epidural

Instead of writing an article about why medications as pain relief in labour are bad OR are good I have decided to write, with the help of some care providers, about ways to cope during labour. To be honest, right up front, I resent using the word “cope” because it suggests that labour is going to be a truly difficult experience. For many women this is simply not the case. Many, MANY women enjoy the process and love feeling the changes that take place in their bodies.

The goal I would like to achieve in this article is to remind you, the reader, of all of the ways to help yourself feel happy, well and capable while at the same time feeling comfortable during your labour and birth process.

The first and most significant place to start is a place of understanding. Understanding that you are fully capable of having this baby and understanding that your body will not make you experience something that you aren’t able to handle. (One need only look at all of the hormones associated with labour: oxytocin, endorphins, relaxin, etc. to know and truly appreciate this as fact.) Labour has been around as long as people have been. It is highly unlikely that we are now, for reasons beyond our knowledge, unable to withstand, physically, the “trauma” of transitioning to parenthood. That said we are also a society of people desperately afraid. Afraid of pain in labour. Afraid to learn something new about ourselves. Afraid that what we are feeling may make us stronger. And, once our children are born we are afraid of temperatures and drafts and spoiling and disappointing.

YOU CAN DO THIS!! Your body has brought you this far and it has got your back. Don’t start looking down the barrel of the worry gun. Think positively!

I once drove a client of mine to the hospital to have her baby. (Her partner was coming along after us but was making arrangements for their eldest child.) As we sped along mom expressed to me some of her worries about being able to manage her labour. I asked her to try to relax as best she could. I knew I was asking her to perform a feat that was almost impossible for her. As a professional dancer I knew that she was in the habit of telling her muscles how to tighten, not how to release.

I let her know that she had to relax to allow her baby the chance to come out. She asked me how I knew this and if there wasn’t a chance that perhaps she was the one person on the planet for whom relaxation didn’t work. What if it was more intense if she relaxed?

I promised her that this would not be the case and that she would, indeed, feel more comfortable and relief if she could find a way to try my method.

As the next contraction came she greeted it with a long, slow, deep breath in through her nose. She moved her shoulders to remind herself to let the tension flow away. She let her head hang down and she simply allowed the contraction to wash over her entire body.

This relaxation and our, her midwives and I, encouragement for her to listen to the positions her body wanted her to move into found her labouring in a much more serene, comfortable and positive way than she had before. Her biggest step was letting go of the fear and just letting the labour happen.

As a labour support provider (often called a “doula”) I spend more time helping moms and their partners find a way to listen to themselves then anything else. Sure, I can rub feet and I often rub backs but my faith in their abilities is the best tool I can bring into a labour room. The more convincing I am, the better the likelihood they will have the birth experience they would like.

What do I like to see them try? I want to see them sleeping away the first part of the labour process. There is no point in watching the hours tick by on the clock when precious time for sleep is passing. You can’t get those hours back.

Moms and their partners always worry that they will sleep through the labour and wake up when it is too late. It is hard not to laugh out loud when I remind them that a person will be exiting their body and it is unlikely that an event of such a monumental magnitude will go unnoticed.

I like to see the walk around, sit in the bath, eat foods they love, hold hand and slow dance. I like to see them create an atmosphere of celebration and excitement over the journey they are about to take together. Taking lots of pictures to document the passage into parenthood is a wonderful way to facilitate the right attitude and foster a peaceful environment.

I have spoken with Wendy Herod, Homeopathic Doctor (HD) and Noelle Byrne, Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) about ways their services can be helpful to pregnant and labouring moms. Both professionals have taken the time to outline, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the types of services they offer, just what kind of help they can give to the moms who seek them out. (The focus of this article surrounds the use of Registered Massage Therapy [RMT] and Homeopathic Medicine. I am waiting to speak further with a chiropractor and acupuncturist for use of those techniques for treatment of similar concerns.)

Herod’s office is in Toronto and she specializes in working with women of childbearing age, through their conception, pregnancy and birth as well as treating the whole, young family afterwards. Surrounding the use of homeopathic medicine as she does she wrote:

When dealing with issues surrounding labour and delivery, homeopathic remedies can be extremely useful. These remedies are subtle and absolutely safe to use during pregnancy (even with newborns once they are born). Like other systems of natural medicine, homeopathy works on a belief that your body knows how to deliver your baby, the remedy is merely a reminder to help your body go through it in the most balanced way possible.

In the case of inductions, the remedy inspires your body to move into action. At about the 40th week of pregnancy women begin to search for ways to coax their bodies into action so as to avoid unwanted medical interventions. Using homeopathy to induce labour means that you will be working with your body and with your baby to set the natural course of labour into action. In many cases it is not a physical or mechanical reason women go into postdates, but rather a fear (of pain, of losing control, of medical interventions, etc.). When a good homeopathic remedy is selected, usually only 1 or 2 doses are needed to aid the body and mind into action.

Homeopathic remedies can also be used effectively to help aid the body through difficult physical and emotional transitions during labour such as exhaustion, back labour pain, delayed or weak labour, anxiety, over-excitement etc. They are small, easy to administer and taste good!


When speaking with Noelle Byrne, a Calgary-based RMT, about the role she is able to play in both preparing a mom for labour as well as with relaxing during the entire birth experience, she wrote:

Registered Massage Therapists take a variety of courses, both in and out of school. We learn how certain spots on the body reflexively work on other areas. As part of our training we are taught what areas can trigger labour (lower back, pelvis, areas on the feet). Many of us also take extra courses after school in areas that what we want to specialize in. For example I have taken courses in reflexology and pre/post natal massage. In fact I specialize in pre/post natal care, and have many time helped my clients with inducing labor. If the woman's body is ready to go into labor, massage to induce tends to work within 24-48hrs. If her body is not ready then nothing is going to help other than time.
For pain relief we use our knowledge to help the women to relax. We are trained to talk softly, and with authority if needed. When a woman in labour is experiencing contractions as being painful we can remind her how to breathe, massage areas that, in the past, have been shown to be her "tight spots" or areas where she "holds her stress". Often, when a contraction hits a woman she, understandably, tenses up. By helping her body to relax and by reminding her how to take slow, deep breaths it is easier for her to get through each contraction. This in turn empowers her to know she can get through each contraction, either on her own or with coaching, and she is less she will ask for medical interventions in the form of pain relief.
Sometimes it is not the mother who is tense. When the people around are tense or nervous that transfers over to the mother. Offering little 10-15 minute massages can help those people to relax, so that they can then focus on the person who needs the most attention.

** This is a great time to point out that your ability to relax and enjoy the labour process will be dramatically compromised if you don’t work to create a safe place where you are surrounded only by people you know, trust and who can allow you the space to relax safely. **

I enjoy taking the time to answer questions, translating “doctor speak,” and reminding her that what she is feeling is normal. When I massage her abdomen, prenatally, I also take the time to show her where the baby is positioned. Looking at your baby on an ultra sound screen and feeling it for yourself are two very different things. Having that connection is such a vital key to feeling like you are having a healthy and happy pregnancy.

The bottom line is that you can’t skip labour and, by now, presumably you are pretty excited about the reality of meeting your wee baby. What is there to be afraid of? If it was REALLY as bad as everyone tells you that it is there is NO way any of us would line up to go a second, third, fourth . . . time, is there??

Decide what kinds of tools you can employ, commit to making this a wonderful and adventure-filled experience and don’t forget to wave at all of the nay-sayers as you have a fantastic time becoming a parent!

Keep us posted about how incredible it all was and keep your ears closed to the horror stories that people need to unload. It isn’t you, really. It’s them!

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Here is a list of tools and strategies, outside of alternative therapies like: Homeopathy, RMT, Acupuncture, Acupressure, Aromatherapy, Chiropractic, Reflexology, etc. that you may like to consider:

Music
Dancing
Walking
Sleeping
Hydrotherapy
Birth Ball
Breathing
Hands and knees
TENS machine
Rolling pin/tennis balls
Hot/cold packs
Distractions outside of the house (movies, dinner, midnight stroll, etc.)
Sex
Singing
Baking

. . . what other ideas can you offer as suggestions that worked well for you???

Posted by Sam