Fear > Tension > Pain Cycle
From the time we are young girls, women, we are conditioned to be fearful of birth. It gets shown to us through movies where women are screaming for their lives, our sex ed class is absolutely rubbish and it can take us to having our own child to realise the beauty in birth.
It is extremely common and understandable to feel nervous about giving birth. After all, we are so used to hearing about the pain side of it. However, there is so much more to it. Most women once they have given birth would say they would do it 1000 x times over to experience their babies in their arms. There is truly nothing like that sweet, oxytocin high that cannot be replicated.
It is extremely common and understandable to feel nervous about giving birth. After all, we are so used to hearing about the pain side of it. However, there is so much more to it. Most women once they have given birth would say they would do it 1000 x times over to experience their babies in their arms. There is truly nothing like that sweet, oxytocin high that cannot be replicated.
In the late 1800s/early 1900s, two obstetricians named Dy Jonathan Dye & Dr Grantly Dick-Read were on the mission to find out why their less educated & poorer patients were experiencing less pain and less complications than their more privileged patients who generally required pain relief and a medically managed birth. Their findings were what we now know as fear > tension > pain cycle. This was found due to the fact the poorer and less affluent (their words, not mine) patients did not have the same fears around birth and therefore because of this experienced healthier outcomes. The study showed that the more fear a person had around birth, the more likely they would have complications and a painful experience.
When your body is feeling anxious, scared, unsafe or fearful, you are activating your body’s flight of fight mode and therefore your body fills with adrenaline. Your body reroutes blood & oxygen away from vital organs and sends it towards the extremities to help you escape your threat. Your body will naturally start to sweat, breath heavily, and increase heart rate. This is an automatic and primal response to fear and not something you can control. The physical parts of the flight of fight response means that your body will tense up in anticipation, your jaw will clench, shoulders will rise.. nothing will feel relaxed! Therefore when your muscles are tense, your contractions will hurt that much more because oxygen is not flowing freely to your uterine muscles causing contractions.
This is why I don’t LOVE vaginal examinations. Say you get checked, and you are 3cms but you thought you were 5cm.. suddenly you are going to start doubting yourself and your ability to birth, dread the oncoming contractions and think ‘shit, I can’t do this’. Suddenly, instead of that dreamy oxytocin your body will be filled with adrenaline and therefore can cause your labour to stall or stop completely. This is in the fear > tension > pain cycle. Being stuck in your logical, thinking brain means you are less likely to tap into that instinctual knowledge and instead of surrounding to the process, you are telling your body that it is in a dangerous situation. This is not what you want during labour!
Instead, go into birth with education, support and positive vibes. Have people in your space that lift you up, make sure you know what to expect in the labour room so there are no surprises and listen to POSITIVE birth stories. Yes, being realistic is also handy but spending your pregnant days listening to old mate Susie who had a traumatic birth is going to help no one. Trust your body, trust your baby and most importantly trust yourself!
