Birth pains: how to recognize them and what methods to use to overcome them
What is the best description for birth pains? What do they look like? How can an expectant mother make her partner, or those close to her, understand what she is feeling? While it is difficult to understand what these pains are without having been through them, there are several ways to recognize birth pains, distinguishing true contractions from irregular ones (which are often just a false alarm), and several ways to overcome them.
How to cope with the pains of childbirth?
In the video, Tata Simona summarized the various methods for dealing with the pain of childbirth in the hospital, and before that, how to recognize and distinguish labor pains from irregular contractions. The moment of childbirth can be frightening, especially the first time, but knowing that there are ways to soothe the pain can help you live better the extraordinary moments that this event brings with it.
See also
The pains of natural childbirth
The pains of childbirth begin with the first contractions, and accompany the whole experience of natural childbirth. It is precisely this type of childbirth that constitutes a total and unforgettable experience for the mother, both for better and for worse. Many doctors recommend giving birth naturally, when the conditions are right, precisely because the mother can live every moment and immediately establish a relationship with the baby. Seeing the baby immediately, having skin-to-skin contact immediately, should be, according to experts, one of the priorities in choosing where to give birth. When a physiological birth is not possible, a caesarean section is obviously used, which involves an "anesthesia and a real operation. The pains of a caesarean section are more related to the post-operative, and to the healing of the scar. The pains of childbirth. natural instead require different methods to overcome them, to avoid unnecessary or excessive suffering to the mother.
How to recognize the pains of childbirth?
An expectant mother should know that the pains she feels even in the ninth month do not always herald the onset of labor. There are irregular contractions that often occur in the last few months, the so-called Braxton Hicks contractions, which are only a preparatory phase. in which the uterus begins to dilate, even very slowly and episodically. Often the real pains of childbirth, and labor, are compared to menstrual pains, but much more dense and intense. A pain in the lower abdomen that runs through the inside of the abdomen and is also felt as pain in the back, at the height of the sacrum. When it is time to give birth, the pains come in waves, a single twinge begins in a "light" way and intensifies over the course of seconds, and then subsides. The contractions of childbirth that announce that the body is ready become more and more frequent and intense, a sign that the uterus is dilating and preparing for birth.
Methods to overcome the pains of childbirth
Are the pains of childbirth bearable? It is a question that all mothers in their first pregnancy ask themselves, and all those who will never have to go through it. Fortunately, over the years, medicine has found several ways to overcome the pains of a natural birth, to allow mothers to enjoy all the advantages of this type of birth without suffering the disadvantages.The first method, the most used, is epidural anesthesia, an injection that is practiced in the spinal area to "sleep" the muscles and nerves of the small pelvis and give birth without feeling pain. The advantages of the epidural are very clear, and experts assure that the disadvantages and risks are minimal and very rare. For this reason, the epidural is always recommended for mothers in good health, and almost all hospitals and neonatal facilities. they offer it. A second method, an alternative to the epidural, is laughing gas. Yes, you got it right: arriving from the United States, the gas creates a feeling of calm and relaxation (which often leads to euphoria), which does not take away the sensitivity to body, not even in the pelvic area, but it allows a production of endorphins that relieve pain. The mother can even manage the amount to inhale by herself from time to time, precisely to self-regulate based on the pain she feels (or does not feel). However, not all hospitals offer this alternative, because the experimentation has recently begun in Italy.
Childbirth pains: alternative and less common methods
There are also alternative methods, not widely used and used, to manage the pains of childbirth. Some structures, very few in Italy, offer for example massages, or the use of acupuncture to stimulate the areas suitable for stretching the perineum and speeding up the birth, making it less painful. It is even thought that acupuncture creates such relaxation in some areas as to avoid a possible episiotomy, the surgical cut of the perineum that is done when the baby's head is larger than the dilation reached. A not very common method, but which is beginning to be talked about, is self-hypnosis: a technique that the doctor teaches the mother in some sessions, to deal with pain with a form of concentration that should teach how to manage and bear it, staying awake and conscious. Control over physical sensations, especially in such a situation, is very difficult, and only the most determined and willing can try. Finally, a method that should not be underestimated, and which is beginning to spread, is water birth. The water relaxes the muscles, reduces friction and allows for a softer birth, with an expulsive phase in which the mother can change position, relax and receive the comfort of water. Many begin to choose it also because it is the best way to have a birth at home, in the comfort and reassurance of the family environment.
