Standing labor postures keep you active and moving, which helps to facilitate baby’s decent and rotation though the pelvis. These postures also help you to manage pain.
In all phases of labor, before pushing, it’s generally better to be active and upright during contractions. Standing and leaning over something, in this case a chair, allows you to manage your contractions in a productive manner.
Amy could also be on her hands instead of her forearms. That would give her a different angle of her back and pelvis. Whichever option feels right at the time is the one that should be used.
Josh, has a gentle hand on Amy’s arm and is making eye contact with Amy. His quiet presence keeps her calm and feeling like he’s engaged in her labor.
Pro Tips
If you notice, Amy has her forearms on a pillow. This is an easily accessible tool that makes a huge difference for comfort. A little padding goes along way.
Walking in between (or even during!) contractions is an added bonus to standing postures. Walking, in and of itself, can be enough to manage pain and facilitate baby’s movements through the pelvis. It’s easier to walk between contractions, if you adopt a standing, forward leaning posture during contractions.
Check out the rest of the labor posture series with Josh and Amy:
- Rock Your Labor with these Birth Ball Pro-Tips
- Birth Ball Pro-Tips for Labor – Part 2
- Three Techniques to Keep You Calm During Labor
Want to know more?
In, Confident Birthing, my Lamaze class, we go over these labor postures and a host of others to make you more comfortable, speed labor along and teach your partner how to best support you during birth.
Can’t make a group class? Private childbirth classes are available either in-person or via Skype to get you ready for baby.
I was SO PUMPED to use what we learned in class to manage labor and contractions. But, alas, our baby had other plans…
I know. She came into the world how she needed to be born. Babies always know what they need, even if we don’t.
I really like hearing this. Sometimes I beat myself up because I didn’t get to experience labor into birth after my first was born emergency then no one ever told me about vbac until I was pregnant with my “third”, twins, and was too into my pregnancy to change plans. Babies have their way.
Babies do have their own way and their own needs. It’s a challenge, sometimes, for us to respect that when we have needs or wants as well.
I am sorry your care provider didn’t mention VBAC with you during your second pregnancy. They did you a disservice by not offering you all options.
It’s helpful to a degree to talk about our births or to mourn the experience we didn’t have. We can “what if” our birth experiences ad nauseum, but it changes nothing and only makes us feel worse about what happened. At some point, however, it becomes a toxic internal cycle regarding something which can’t be changed.
Our kids always have their own ideas about how they need to live their lives. It’s up to us as their parents to facilitate this journey, but not take away who they are at their cores. It starts with pregnancy and birth and rolls on from there.
*hugs* to you.