Is There a "Method" for Achieving
Naturally Painless
Birth?
(Updated August 2008)
Well, yes and no.
Before I go on, please know that by "naturally painless birth", I mean one that is spontaneously painless, from beginning to end. In other words, the mother experiences no bodily pain, from the first contractions, to transition, to pushing, to crowning and afterward. She may well feel very intense sensations, but they are not painful to her. Or she may feel nothing at all, or very little. Or she may feel intense pleasure throughout, especially as baby emerges. And all of this is accomplished without drugs, elaborate breathing techniques, focal points, or any of the other artificial props that our culture uses in an attempt to make birth "easier".
Though you certainly may end up having a naturally painless birth, I feel it would be wrong of me to tell you that if you do A, B and C, then you are "guaranteed" to give birth painlessly, without drugs. I know a number of ways to help make unmedicated birth easier, but whether or not these measures reduce any pain and difficulty you may experience to zero, depends on a number of factors, most in your control and some not.
At this site, you'll find a few general drug-free pain relief tips here and a chart with more specific tips here. The chart lists common causes of pain, together with straightforward, drugless pain relief measures. Happily, a lot of these time-honored techniques can make birth not only more comfortable, but also easier. That's because they respect how we women and our babies are built. For your convenience, the chart includes links to other sites with in-depth information on specific pain-relief measures.
Additionally, there are ways to help ensure pain relief, perhaps even painlessness, well before labor begins. These may include prayer, affirmations (whether Bible-based or more general), and a basic rethinking of our cultural misconceptions of birth. To achieve empowered birth, painless or not, our assumptions must undergo a "paradigm shift" (to quote The Power of Pleasurable Childbirth author Laurie Morgan). We must move from doubt and fear to trust and confidence. This emotional and mental retooling may require a few or many of the weeks leading up to birth, depending on a mother's level of anxiety and the number of "issues" she has to work through.
 Why I Do not Advocate the
Use of Hypnosis
in Childbirth |
I've written a lot about instinct and about painless, easy birth in these pages, and now here I am talking about techniques and methods for achieving "pain relief". Am I contradicting myself and acknowledging that unmedicated birth is inherently painful? No on both counts! Like it or not, it's these very techniques (those that respect physiology and instinct) that can help us to break free of our cultural brainwashing and to take back our births; to unwrap the cultural layers of pain and ignorance, and uncover what our births were originally designed to be: much easier and more comfortable than our culture expects, and even, in the ultimate expression of normal birth, entirely pain-free and pleasurable.
And taking back our births is not just about us moms - I'm not talking some selfish "empowerment" thing, and ignoring our babies. Actually, adopting a relaxed, unafraid attitude and having an active, instinct-led birth, along with eating healthy and staying fit during pregnancy, are some of the best things you can do to help ensure baby's safety during birth.
Keep something else in mind: instinct is natural and spontaneous. Ideally, you'll want to get things in place to facilitate your unfolding instinct as birth progresses. For example, if you feel the urge to make love just prior to or during labor (membranes intact), you should most definitely go ahead, as sex is a wonderful way to help you get open and loose for birth. If, during active labor, you feel the need to get into water, then a shower - or better, a birthing tub - should be available. If you need to walk or vocalize or have darkness and privacy, those too should ideally be possible for you. There should be plenty of water to drink and light, nourishing foods on hand for when you need them. All of these things can go a long way toward making it easier for you to flow with birth's intensity, to keep yourself strong and hydrated and nourished, and to open with your body's opening.
At the beginning of this article, I wrote in response to the title question, that "yes and no", there's a method for achieving naturally painless birth. I've talked about the "yes", now for the "no". There are a few painless births that occur totally unexpectedly - the mothers make no preparation in that direction, and are completely surprised by how effortless birth is for them. Can we say that these women have an unusual lack of fear or anxiety toward birth? Maybe, maybe not. When you read their birth stories, a lot of them come across as "regular women", not especially fearless or earth-motherly or anything. Even more interesting are those births in which the mothers, sans drugs, don't feel a thing. After having had five births in which I felt everything, it is really hard for me to imagine not being able to feel the uterus contracting and the cervix opening, but it does happen. Is the explanation for such births mental, physical, or both? I think it's hard to say and that the answer varies for each case. In any event, these unexpectedly easy and painless births, and especially the sensationless ones, seem to be births for which one needn't prepare - they simply "happen".
I realize that for many women, the sensations of unmedicated birth have "just plain hurt", and that's that. But of those women, I ask: were you lying in bed when you were having all that pain? Or were you upright? Did you try laboring in water or on all fours; or walking, massage or slow dancing; or leaning on your mate, a wall or counter? If you had back labor, did you know about counterpressure or the maneuver described in Back Labor No More? If you were made to stay in bed and didn't get to try those comfort measures or didn't even know about them, and if there were no internal causes for your pain (such as baby in an unusual position), then in my opinion, you were grievously wronged, or as Leilah (a.k.a. Jasmine) writes, raped, plain and simple. (Note: That link is to an archived essay of Leilah's, "Rape of the Twentieth Century". It is an essential read; link may be slow to load, but is well worth the wait.)
For the truly high-risk, extremely painful or difficult birth, which represents 6% or less of all births according to Bradley, modern medicine's habit of quick and aggressive intervention can indeed be a blessing. Unfortunately, today's doctors and hospitals tend to treat all births as high-risk, and to overapply the tools at their disposal. They also tend not to tell women that they have options such as active birth, or that epidurals have real, even dangerous risks. I said in the introduction to these pages, and I'll say it again, because this point is so important for you to "get ahold of": modern medical practices and cultural beliefs, more than anything else, are what have made drug-free birth so hard for so many Western women.
Learning how our bodies give birth and how best to work with that,
shedding our fears, and opening ourselves to our instincts are all
important steps we can take toward achieving naturally easier
births. For some of us, that will mean completely painless
births; for others, there will be some pain, but nothing that
can't be borne. I truly believe that the vast majority of us
with healthy pregnancies can go on to have lovely births, painless or not, provided our babies, our bodies, and
our instincts are respected by all involved.
