Hey, Mama. Welcome back to parently. And I want to talk to you about how to speed up the labor process. We've had some videos on the stages of labor, when to go to the hospital, how to prepare. But I really want to talk to you about how to speed up the labor process because there's so many women out there that say, my labor was 20 hours long, my labor was 30 hours long. And that's scary.

And there are ways to help labor progress, so that you can speed up the time to just a few hours. And you can get to that moment when you hold your bundle of joy. I do want to say that first time moms aren't going to have a long labor. You have never had a baby exit through your birth canal before and it's a small area. Your body's never done this before. And so it's gonna take a while, but you can speed it up, as I said, and there's many reasons that we want to speed it up and I will say The biggest way you can do it I'm repeating from other videos is staying home as long as possible, at least until you're an active labor at least five centimeters dilated, your pain is so severe, you can't breathe.

You can't do anything but breathe through your contraction and you go to the hospital and you are halfway there. So staying at home and I know that's scary, but we want to continue to remove that fear. And we want to continue to help you reduce your unnecessary hospital interventions and have the beautiful birth experience that you want. That is our goal. So I'm going to recommend you grab a few things as you prepare to speed up your labor process. You need your essential oils, I will recommend that you get lavender frankincense and clary sage so that those three essential oils will be very helpful in labor.

Of course as our other videos have shown, you need your birthing ball or your exercise ball. So grab one of those, make sure that it is fully inflated that you've practiced with it and that it's ready to go for when labor starts. You need a really good playlist. And we do have some playlists from parently if you want to look up those playlists that we've created, but if you want to create your own with spa music, or yoga music, or elevator music, or whatever you want, but it should be relaxing, it shouldn't be anything that makes you nervous or anxious. And if you just want to keep it quiet, you can definitely do that too. You need your labor coach, as we have stressed over and over again, and you need your legs always bring your legs to labor.

So, number one, movement. We've talked about this over and over and over again, throughout this course. You need to be moving all throughout your pregnancy to make sure that you are your body's ready. It's engaged and you are Ready to have a vaginal delivery and decrease your C section rate. So making sure you're walking at least 30 minutes every day you get your heart rate up to at least 120 beats per minute for that 30 minutes. You need to walk around your neighborhood.

Walk up and down the stairs. Make sure you're holding on to the banister. We don't want any falling moms. We want to make sure that you are walking into work don't take the shuttle. So on my last day of work was the day that labor started active labor I was having some pretty strong contractions at work, and I'm a nurse so I was walking all over the hospital, but it definitely helped baby so walking helps the cervix progress it helps it open and soften. It puts you in a vertical position to allow baby to have more space to start to moving, engage in the pelvis and get ready to come down through the birth canal.

And it also takes gravity for for all that it's worth so baby has to exit down towards the ground. So if you are standing, it's kind of getting baby out of there. So, walk, walk, walk, Labor has started, it's starting to get more and more intense and you feel like you want to sit down. And this is where your birthing ball comes into play. So it's all ready to go in your house and you take a seat on it and we have that video for your relaxation techniques, start bouncing on your birthing ball, this is going to use gravity as well. It's going to allow baby to start to twist and get engaged into that birth canal, the pelvis, it's going to open up your hips and help you to be more flexible.

You want to open up your hips as much as possible, so that baby can take advantage of getting through that very small opening. So using your birthing ball, practicing squatting, lunges, with assistance, getting down on your hands and knees for cat and cow using your birthing ball to lean over And breathe. Make sure that you continue to move throughout your labor. If you want to practice your yoga or get up and dance, I know it sounds crazy because you are in pain. And as far as just, you know, trying to concentrate on the contraction, you you're exhausted, and so, in, in between contractions, you're going to want to sit down and rest, and that is going to happen. But you need to make sure that you are moving as much as possible.

When you get to the hospital. Depending on your hospital, depending on what your plans are for labor and delivery. If you decide to get an epidural, you will have to stay in the bed. Period. So that's going to make it a little bit more difficult. But if you do not want an epidural, make sure when you get to the hospital, that you make it clear to the nurse that hey, I'm going to be getting up I'm not staying in the bed.

You know, you can put an IV in maybe you know reseal where I'm not connected to a pump because I got to get up and walk, I got to be on my birthing ball. Or if they want to put the fetal monitoring on you say, Okay, I got to get up and move and then you can put it back on me. So these are things to consider. But if you stay at home and Move, move, move, move, move until you get to active labor, five centimeters dilated, your contraction, the interval in between is no more than five minutes and they're lasting 30 to 90 seconds, or 60 to 90 seconds. Then you can go to the hospital and make sure that you continue to move so that labor keeps progressing and you don't get this hurt in the road and it slows down and you get frustrated.

So movement. Number two is beyond. You are a woman with lots of hormones and chemical makeup inside of your body. And these are for multiple purposes. And even to create this baby that is growing inside of you. You had sexual hormones To create that baby, and these same hormones are going to help with labor and delivery.

So this is oxytocin. You've probably heard of pitocin. Before this pitocin is the synthetic form, which means it was made in a laboratory. And women that go to the hospital and doctors say we're going to augment labor, we're going to induce you, they're going to start pitocin in an IV form, and it's going to cause contractions and for the cervix to open. But oxytocin can be released into your body to help this happen naturally. So how do you do this?

Well, I'm beyond sitting in a very dark quiet room, having candles electric I will say no fire going on in case you have to jump up and go to the hospital. So electric candles battery operated, having your playlist of spa music or just having quiet using your essential oils for aroma there. asking your labor coach your husband to massage your temples, your lower back where you're feeling pain your ankles, hand webbing fees, pressure points that can help reduce pain and help you to focus and relax. So then next I will say intimacy and this can happen in multiple different ways. You can take a hot shower and that hot water with your husband. You can use hot washcloth on your breast for nipple stimulation or ask your husband to massage or kiss your nipples.

These can release oxytocin. Now, I will say you can have sex and you're going to only want to feel like it early on. When labor starts when you're in active labor or you're having so much pain that's not going to feel great. But for you to have an orgasm and for him to ejaculate. That semen of his does have prostaglandins in it and you will release prostaglandins. So this is an option and It might be something you want to talk to your healthcare provider about and see what what they feel comfortable with.

If, if they feel like oh no, but there really is no risk unless you were to break your bag of waters, then you cannot because there's no more barrier to protect baby. So if you were to break your bag of waters, you cannot have sex to protect your baby from infection. But as long as your membranes your bag waters are still intact, there is no risk for infection for baby. So, movement and I'm beyond making sure that when you get to the hospital, your husband, your labor coach, knows your birth plan, and knows the ambience that you want so that when you go into your room, the lights go out, you maybe have your electric candles, you have your playlist, the nurses know to not come in unless necessary, that you don't want to be asked a ton of questions because your husband's already gone over the birth plan.

They know what you want. And this is how you help labor progress faster. So staying at home as long as possible, keeping your movement and having that intimacy and that ambience at home. And Mama, I can promise you, these hormones and this atmosphere will help labor to progress faster so that you can get too pushy. And you can get delivery and hold your precious little bundle of joy in your arms faster. All right, well see you in the next video.

Have a good day.