Why Unmedicated Birth is Like a Marathon
It seems to me like there’s an awful lot of pressure on pregnant folks these days to make all the ‘right’ birthing choices in the lead up to their actual labour. Everyone has an opinion about the best way to labour and birth a baby. And naturally enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and has the right to make their own choices. However, as a Calgary birth doula, I feel very strongly that everyone’s birth is unique and that people should be supported to make the choices that are right for them – not their friend, not their mother, not a stranger on the internet… your birth is all about what works for you! That being said, I’m here today to talk about a particularly popular topic in the birth community, which is unmedicated or ‘natural’ childbirth. Why do people choose unmedicated birth? What are the advantages and disadvantages? How do you prepare yourself if this is something important to you?
There are, indeed, some compelling reasons why having an unmedicated birth might be of interest to you. First, avoiding medication (either for pain relief or for induction) allows the natural hormonal cascade to occur uninterrupted, and this can help support your body’s ability to produce pain-reducing endorphins, can support your baby’s transition to life outside the womb, and can promote bonding between you and your baby once they are earth-side. Second, avoiding pain medications like epidurals can make it easier for you to listen to your body’s cues and move around during labour, which may allow your baby’s head to make an easier descent through the pelvis for birth. In these cases, this may shorten the total amount of time you are in labour and help you to conserve your energy. Finally, planning for an unmedicated birth may open up your list of possible birth places, including a home birth if you’re working with a midwife. But importantly, unmedicated birth is one possible choice. It’s not the only choice and it certainly isn’t the only good choice.
The way I see it, an unmedicated birth is a bit like running a marathon. Some people choose to run a marathon because they appreciate a challenge, because they believe that they are capable and want to see that for themselves, because it helps them feel strong in their body, and for other personal reasons we may never know. For people who want to run a marathon, I totally support you. I’m happy to help. AND ALSO, if you’d think you’d be happier running a 5k or 10k, going for a hike, or whatever other analogy you want to work with, I’m also totally on your team. Running a marathon isn’t a moral obligation. You’re not a worse parent if you decide it isn’t for you.
A person with long hair in a ponytail goes for a run in the morning sun.
Even if you plan on accessing pharmaceutical pain management options, it might be worth preparing for your labour as though you’re planning to do without. There are a couple of good reasons for this: 1) the options that are accessible to us sometimes change depending on the stage of labour that we’re in. For instance, some hospitals may have policies about when they will admit you for an epidural and may require that you already be in active labour… but early labour can last for a long time! So being prepared can help you get through those early stages until those options are accessible to you. 2) The work that you do to prepare – keeping your mind and your body strong – will help you no matter how you birth. Either way, there will be moments that are more challenging and there will be physical recovery, so going into that transition feeling ready and strong can be empowering. With that said, let’s talk about how thinking about labour and birth like a marathon can help us prepare!
It’s a physical challenge
A woman works up a sweat exercising.
The most obvious way in which the two are similar is that they are both incredibly hard work. A marathon requires you to have the endurance to make it through a 42km long event, and labour - though the actual time people spend in labour varies considerably - can also stretch out over hours or even days! Because both activities require you to physically stay in the challenge zone for an extended period of time, we can take some tips from our marathon running friends to help us prepare for the long-haul challenge of unmedicated labour and birth. What does this look like for our labour prep:
1. Stay active throughout your pregnancy. Regular walking, strength training, yoga, or any other safe activities that keep your body mobile will help to keep your heart, lungs, and muscles strong for the physical demands of labour. Just make sure to check your activity plans with your health care provider to ensure they are suitable for your body.
2. Consider some professional body work – things like massage, chiropractic, pelvic-floor physiotherapy, and pregnancy-specific body work like Body Ready Method classes can help to ease tense muscles, address imbalances, and promote joint mobility to make the passage of your baby through your pelvic floor and pelvis smoother.
3. Fuel and hydrate appropriately – you wouldn’t go into a marathon without being appropriately fueled and you shouldn’t go into birth without energy in the tank either. Eating a well-balanced diet with complex carbohydrates, micronutrients, proteins, and healthy fats can help you have enough energy to meet your endurance needs. Also – just as an athlete will top up their fuel and hydration during a marathon, you can too! Think about good options to keep your energy up during labour in advance and make sure you have them on hand when you need them.
4. Rest and recovery – labour is a tremendous amount of work and none of us ever really knows how long we’ll be doing the work before our babies are in our arms. Making sure that you are getting sufficient rest in your final weeks of pregnancy is important so that you’re not running on empty when those first contractions start. When in early labour, balancing activity with rest can be important for helping your labour to keep plugging away without overdoing it and being exhausted by the time active labour is established. Thinking about how you’ll recover once birth is over can be helpful too: what foods will you want to refuel with? Who can take over some household work for you so that you can get enough rest? What can you offer to your body when it is tired and sore to feel more comfortable?
It’s a mental game
Birthing in today’s world, especially within the medical system, isn’t the same as it once was for our ancestors who didn’t have access to the interventions and medications we have today. So even though the human body is well designed to navigate the physical challenges of birth, sometimes our minds need a lot of convincing to stay in the game. The same is true with running a marathon. Even though you can physically do it, there will be times when you might be hit with the urge to call it quits because the work is hard and doesn’t seem to let up. It’s your mental game that keeps you in it, even when the physical work feels like its too much. So how do we use this information to help us prepare throughout pregnancy?
1. Educate yourself – take a childbirth education class. Knowing about the process of birth and what to expect in your chosen birth setting will help you mentally prepare for some of the challenges that might arise in advance so that you’re less taken by surprise if things come up.
2. Develop a list of positive affirmations – practice reaching for these during times of difficulty so you have a sense of what might help you stay mentally strong through the challenges of labour.
3. Try your hand at meditation, breathwork, or hypnobirthing – there are lots of different tools you can practice before labour begins to help you to calm your mind and body even as the intensity picks up.
4. Make a list of hard things you’ve gotten through or accomplishments that you had to work hard for so that you can see tangible evidence of your ability to work hard and to meet challenges head on. Think about lessons you’ve learned from those times that might support you through the hard work of birth.
5. Choose your support team carefully – being surrounded by the right people (a loving partner, a birth doula, medical care providers you trust) can help you to keep your head in the game. It can also help to know that those people can take charge for you if/when you need them to. Knowing you have that backup can help you stay calm.
Naked newborn baby being weighed on a scale.
At the end of the day, it’s important to also recognize that you can do all the preparation in the world but none of us can predict the future or control 100% of the variables that may play a role in your birth experience. If something changes during your labour and birth, that isn’t evidence of you not preparing enough or trying hard enough. Even the best trained athletes still sometimes roll ankles or pull muscles on race day. Sometimes you do everything right but end up running in poor weather. Whether you have exactly the birth experience you’re dreaming of or have to navigate some unexpected challenges that ask you to choose a different course, I hope you can be proud of yourself for all that you’ve done and are doing to get ready for your baby. You’re literally making a whole person, which is a pretty incredible feat we shouldn’t take for granted.
If you’re currently pregnant and looking for some support on your journey to prepare you for labour and birth, we offer Calgary birth doula packages here.