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There is another hormone mentioned in 'Childbirth Choices' - if
anyone has a copy - i think i must have loaned it to my sister.
Can't find it. I am not sure if it is a type of adrenalin but it has
a section on fear that was very clear and worth looking up.
I remember using it in my complaint as I pointed out that the dr
purposely scared me to make sure that i did not progress well because of
the production of the hormone "whatever it's name is'.
Sounded like a good arguement to me although it got sort of brushed
aside with Oh no meant no harm business. Saying "I will leave
you to labour for 48 hours and you will get a dead baby" Was not
meant to distress you at all, don't know how that could upset a woman in
labour. LOL
Sorry - a bit sarcastic there.
So if anyone has that book could they have a quick look.
Rhonda
-------Original Message-------
Date: Thursday,
November 21, 2002 16:06:02
Subject: Re:
[ozmidwifery] adrenaline in labour WAS birth and the power of the
mind
----------
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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