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From: "Denise Hynd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I have not heard of burst of adrenaline with each contraction nor can I see the physiological sense of such.
Rather when a woman is in labour the hormones that drive it are midbrain in origin that is subconscious, primitive the need is to let go of the conscious work and tune into the baby and body.
Hi, Denise -
I got the information about the burst of adrenaline from the classes I did with Julia Sundin, who has a book published called "Face to Face With Childbirth". She is a Sydney physiotherapist and ran Active Birth classes. According to Julia a contraction can consist of two parts 1. fight/flight (adrenaline) and 2. Flow State (Oxytocin). THe first 3-5 seconds are like the start of a race and put you on alert, and is designed to wake us up - not frighten us. She says that the fight/flight response is designed to last for a short time, and that the adrenaline helps to supply us with Energy (converting amino acids to glucose) for the contraction, and says this is why women don't need to be aerobically fit to labour. She believes that in active labour, telling a woman to relax into the adrenaline won't work, as if we don't take action, we will get exhausted, our blood sugar level drops, as the adrenaline takes over.
Julia says that adrenaline is "user-friendly" in labour : it calls us to action and is designed to help, and gives us extra energy and ability. She believes it can create instant empowerment if we use it as a fuel to get bigger and stronger, and that the adrenaline can make us vital, ready and powerful. And she suggests ways to release the adrenaline, such as foot-stomping, banging stress balls together, moaning and thumping pillows, as she says that adrenaline is a hormone of action and that action is the only way to deplete it quickly (to let the oxytocin do its thing).
I used all these in my labour, and I must say they really helped me in terms of feeling strong and empowered. The only thing I felt was that perhaps as my labour progressed the techniques diverted my attention from "going inward" - I used them to control rather than letting go and letting my primitive responses guide me. (I definately agree with your comment about needing to let go of the conscious work) But then again, by THAT time, I was feeling extremely unsafe and abandoned and was looking for anything to gain a skerrick of control in what I felt was a situation where I actually thought I was going to die. SO maybe there needs to be a place where the woman feels safe enought to let go of the conscious work...as I certainly didn't feel that.
I would be interested to hear your comments about the above - I guess when I was pg I thought that if Julia was telling us this in our classes, that it must BE so. But I have learned the hard way that I can no longer trust and must do my own research. I have not looked into this adrenaline stuff before, as it hasn't come up till now...but now I guess I must question everything.
Melissa
PS my support person in my birth was Deb Gould, my sister-in-law...you shared a car with her and Kelly on the way to your talk in Brisbane. Small world, hey!
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