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In my internet travels to find a solution for one of my
follow throughs OP baby (number 2 and desperately wants a VBAC) I came across this.
What do you think? From… http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/position.html "Chunging" to Turn
a Posterior Baby
To the
new doctor's amazement...the pregnant woman was placed on the blanket and then
thrown into the air by the four men, each at one corner of the blanket, then
caught again. I found
the article. It is in The Birth Gazette, March '87 Vol 3 No. 3, page 22. There
is a picture of Leo Sorger on the cover. Ask The Midwife I read an article some years ago written by an American obstetrician
who had traveled the back country of I was
attending a woman's birth, and she was having a long and difficult labor. We tried everything: long walks, jeep rides over
bumpy roads, blue cohosh tea. Suddenly remembered the
article and told everyone there what to "Chung" is. The three of us
shook the laboring woman all over as hard and as long
as we could while she was standing, leaning over a dresser with her arms
braced. I thought it would hurt, since she was having such strong contractions.
To our surprise, she said it felt good! We laughed and continued to shake her
until our arms were sore. The woman went to 10 centimeters
and delivered a 6 lb. 3 oz. boy four hours later. I feel the "Chung"
did the trick.
IMG: I
have "Chunged" women in labor
before, although I never used this word for it, or even knew that anyone else
had ever done such a thing. The first birth during which
remember using this method was the thirty-sixth birth attended. As with
most of the others, this mother was having her first baby. She was a soft
spoken person, who usually kept her feelings very much to herself. She was happy
about being pregnant and didn't seem very much frightened about going into labor. It wasn't
that her labor took very long. What was a little
unusual about it, in my experience, was that she stayed at 4-5 cm for a couple
of hours, with her rushes coming stronger each time. She was being very brave,
but the intensity was incredible. I deep massaged her legs, working to keep her
thigh and calf muscles as relaxed as possible during and between rushes. My
husband stopped by to see how the labor was progressing.
Noticing how the mother was doing, he suggested that shake her legs instead of
squeezing or holding her muscles. Keeping eye contact with her so I could tell
easily whether I was helping or hurting, I took one of her thighs between my
hands and shook it with a sort of rotary motion as her uterus contracted and
she kept up her deep breathing. It was obvious right away that the shaking
during a rush made it easier for her to relax. We were soon past the stuck
place, and she pushed her baby out with no real trouble. After
that, I found that used this shaking method only now and then. Mostly it seemed
useful to help a well muscled woman who was having trouble relaxing the muscles
of the pelvic floor. The shaking forces her to give up to it, since the rhythm
is insistent and impossible not to notice. She goes with it in the same way you
go with the hammock when it's swinging. Dr.
Palmer Findley's "The Story of Childbirth, " published in 1933,
contains an interesting reference to shaking the mot her during labor: "Engelmann mentions a peculiar custom practiced
by some of our Western Indians in which the woman is tossed in a blanket, the
four corners of which are held by four stout men, the idea being to correct any
malposition of the baby and shake it out of the womb." Does
anyone else out there ever find "Chunging"
useful? If so, let us know when you use it and how. CHEERS, Julie
Garratt (: --- |
