Members Only Auction Closed

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Ten Tips for a Normal Birth

One of LLL's Ten Concepts is: Alert and active participation by the mother in childbirth is a help in getting breastfeeding off to a good start. Today Rocio led meeting number two, Baby Arrives: The Baby and the Breastfed Family in a discussion based on Lamaze International's Ten Tips in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding that were printed in New Beginnings. Here are the ten tips as seen in New Beginnings 2009, Issue 2.

  • Choose a place that supports normal birth, a place where you will be comfortable. This may be at home, in a birthing center or in a hospital.
  • Choose a health care provider who supports the practices that promote normal birth.
  • Don't request or agree to induction of labor unless there's a medical indication for doing so.
  • Plan to move around freely during labor. You'll be more comfortable, your labor will progress quickly, and your baby will move through the birth canal easily if you stay upright and respond to the pain of your labor by changing positions.
  • Consider hiring a doula or professional birth/labor supporter.
  • Ask that your baby's heartbeat be monitored intermittently, rather than continuously, as this restricts your movement in labor.
  • Eat and drink as your body tells you to give you energy and prevent dehydration.
  • Use non-medical pain management strategies, such as focused breathing and comfort measures such as warm baths and showers, massage, and birth balls.
  • Don't give birth on you back! Upright positions (sitting, squatting or standing) on all fours or on your side enable you to work with gravity to push when your body tells you to.
  • Keep your baby with you after birth. Skin-to-skin contact keeps to regulate your baby's heartbeat and breathing and helps get breastfeeding off to a good start.

No comments: