Recently, more and more pregnant women are trying to give birth not as their mothers gave birth, in a horizontal position, but standing or sitting. Why is this becoming a fashionable trend and is vertical delivery really easier and faster?
Alternative birth
To give birth to a child in a special chair, in a standing or sitting position, has long been possible in Switzerland. In this country, even a monument to a woman giving birth is standing. Our obstetricians are gradually adopting such experience and are trying to keep up with Europe in matters of obstetric care.
The fact is that in an upright position they gave birth 2 more centuries ago, when there was no Rakhmanov bed yet. And now the forgotten old is gradually returning to medical practice.
The history of obstetrics. A look into the past
It should be remembered how women gave birth several centuries ago. Childbirth in a horizontal position on the bed became popular only 250-300 years ago.
And in even more ancient times, women were completely dependent on the mercy of nature. In France it was considered convenient and safe to give birth while standing on all fours, in China - sitting on a chair. And in many European countries they also gave birth while sitting. In Holland, there was even a custom, following which the mothers, along with the daughter who had been given to their daughter, went to the wedding for a vertical birth chair. These were ordinary wooden chairs, without any upholstery even.
Women had a very difficult time, and the danger to life was incredible. After all, no one at that time was watching how the baby was located in the uterus and how much the woman’s heart was ready for such physical exertion. Now medicine is well prepared for any situations during childbirth and doctors know when a woman can give birth herself, and when her body is simply not ready for it.
How is a vertical birth?
Obstetrics is fundamentally different if a woman is preparing to give birth while standing or squatting. The task of doctors and assistants is only to support the woman in labor and to observe. Only when any unexpected complications during childbirth begin, they must promptly transfer the woman to a regular bed and have a cesarean section.
To give birth to a child while sitting, it is necessary to look for a maternity hospital in advance that has specially equipped rooms and trained medical staff who know what to do and how to help.
Without the control of a doctor, you can’t give birth, you must go to the hospital. Vertical childbirth is just as dangerous as horizontal childbirth, if not more.
A woman can choose any pose. It’s convenient for some to squat on a special stand or with support on fitball. If comfortable, then sit on a special chair. The position on the cards is considered the most convenient for the rapid promotion of the child through the birth canal. But when childbirth is already swift, such a position is contraindicated.
To reduce labor activity, just change the pose. If a woman stands on all fours on the floor and spreads her legs wide, rapid childbirth will slow down and besides, the pain will decrease slightly for a short period.
A pregnant woman can also climb into a regular bed if she is very ill. An active position of a woman is still better than paralysis with fear, when she herself can not do anything. Although each family chooses its own version of childbirth.
Pros and cons of such birth
Those obstetricians who have already converted their wards and are able to conduct obstetric care in an unconventional manner, claim that there are many advantages in this situation.
What are the benefits of vertical delivery? The pros and cons of this approach is important to understand before deciding on anything.
The advantages are:
- Less trauma.
- Pain is less, since the pressure is not on the large intestine, but on the muscles of the pelvic floor.
- A woman feels freer and can move, walk.
- Gravity in this position helps the baby enter the birth canal more easily.
- The baby’s head in this position of a woman adapts more smoothly and physiologically to the bends of the birth canal.
- Minimal risk of hypoxia in a child.
- Children born in this way rarely have birth injuries and adapt more quickly to the world around them.
- During normal childbirth, lying on their back, doctors make incisions in 25% of cases, and during childbirth, sitting only in 5%.
There are much fewer negative sides, but they are significant:
- An unprepared physically woman cannot cope on her own.
- Epidural anesthesia is not given to these women.
- If there is no special chair that is suitable for both positions, that is, horizontal and vertical childbirth, it will be difficult for doctors to provide professional obstetric care during breaks.
Another important remark about why you should not get too carried away with the idea of such a birth. In the country, there are very few trained chambers in maternity hospitals and specialists. Finding such staff or investing in training existing staff is very difficult now.
Indications and contraindications
For medical reasons, for which it is still desirable to give birth non-traditionally, include cardiovascular diseases in a pregnant woman. Then she must not do cesarean. And the second is the risk of detachment of the retina from excessive pressure.
Who definitely can not decide on a natural vertical birth? There is a list of contraindications in which a woman risks both her life and the life of her child if she goes to birth without control and without medication. These are mainly several categories of women in labor:
- Pregnant women, for whom, according to physiological indicators, doctors prescribed a planned cesarean section.
- Those who have seen on ultrasound that the child has not turned head down by the appointed time, it is also not recommended to take risks.
- Physiologically narrow pelvis in women.
- Poorly opening uterus.
- The stitches left after the first birth, which were passed using cesarean.
- Abnormal placenta.
- Pathologies of the uterus that were before pregnancy, or uterine cancer.
- Chronic fetal hypoxia.
- Large child or twins.
These are the most basic contraindications. There is one more, very important. For girls who already have varicose veins at a young age, giving birth while sitting is almost impossible. Since the load on the legs is large, vein disease will worsen.
Natural birth. How to prepare?
A woman who plans to give birth herself, without epidural anesthesia, must undergo physical training. I must say that it’s worth it.
It is very difficult to give birth to a modern woman who is used to home comfort, personal transportation and the presence of all kinds of painkillers pills for all occasions. Civilization has made adjustments to both lifestyle and physiology.
Wild pain is not easy to withstand. You need to physically prepare yourself so that birth pain does not cause panic. A woman starts to scream in a panic, and this is harmful for both the child and the expectant mother. A woman in labor may receive breaks from physical stress. And since a woman ceases to fully inhale oxygen and exhales it during a scream, the child will definitely get hypoxia.
Preparation takes a long time and hard. Through training in the fresh air and constant monitoring of breathing, you can gradually strengthen your will and endurance. It is best to perform yoga asanas aimed at endurance and training of the pelvic muscles. Be sure to learn how to relax all the muscles. During a brief rest between fights, you need to restore strength and mental stability as much as possible.
But this is not 1, or even 2 months of training. This should begin to be done already from the beginning of pregnancy. It is best to go to courses where specialists will explain everything and make you practice deep breathing.
Psychological training
No less important is psychological preparation. Of course, vertical birth is a physiologically natural and freer birth. A woman can intuitively select the position of the body in which she feels less pain.
Women who have already given birth in this way all claim that pushing is much easier, but it can take longer. After all, no one stimulates such birth. The chair for vertical childbirth helps to feel comfortable. But this is not enough, you also need emotional help from your husband or midwife.
To risk giving birth without medical help, you need to be as prepared as possible emotionally for severe pain.
You need to read a lot of information about what stages are in childbirth, what awaits a pregnant woman and how to set yourself up for a favorable outcome. Psychological tuning is essential.
At this time, you can neither be afraid nor panic. It’s best to think during the fights not about pain or risks, but about how lucky you are to get pregnant. After all, not all women have the opportunity to even become pregnant, not to mention the fact that they can endure.
Maternity hospital choice
Not many women in childbirth are aware of the benefits of this method, and not everyone can naturally give birth. Nowadays, many suffer from chronic gynecological diseases in which the doctor does not approve the desire to produce a child without medication. When allowed, you must choose the appropriate maternity hospital, in which vertical childbirth has been practiced for a long time, and doctors have experience. Honey. the institution should suit both the criteria for the attitude of the staff to the woman in labor and the price category.
Understanding which maternity hospital you need is an essential planning item. Vertical childbirth is not practiced in all hospitals. Now this is more an exception than a rule. For their adoption, a medical institution must have a license.
Behavior during childbirth
In everything else, except for the position of the pregnant woman during labor, vertical birth does not differ from traditional horizontal obstetrics.
A woman can walk around the ward during the rest period between contractions. And the attempts themselves can be experienced by holding onto special handrails or ropes. All maternity hospitals are equipped differently. If the husband agrees to be present when the child is born, he can greatly help by supporting the woman when it is difficult to stand on her feet.
It is important to listen to what the midwife says. When the head is already showing, the midwife usually asks all the same to lie down, so that it is convenient to grab the child in her arms. Although some use a container of water so that the child falls into the water, but it can be unsafe.
Reviews of women in labor
What will say those who became a mother thanks to the help of specialists studying vertical childbirth? Photos of women in childbirth who survived such a birth, and their own reviews tell us that they really feel better.
And women in labor are recovering much faster. For women leading an active business lifestyle, it is important to stay on their feet. The most important advantage of vertical childbirth, reviews of mothers already confirm this, is the quick adaptation of the baby in our world. When both the mother and the child did not receive any injuries, there is no hypoxia in the newborn, they alone can go home the next day.
conclusions
So, not all women are shown to give birth while sitting. Physically and psychologically, you must tune in advance to such an experiment, if the doctors have allowed you. Next, choose a maternity hospital that can provide the opportunity to give birth in an upright position without risking the life of the child, which is not so simple now. But if everything succeeds, you will have the happiest and safest birth.