The Ordinary Doula Podcast

E72: Tools for Coping During Labor

• Angie Rosier • Episode 72

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This extensive collection of coping techniques for labor is drawn from decades of doula experience, emphasizing how these tools can benefit everyone regardless of their birth plan—even those planning on epidurals.

• Preparation and knowledge dramatically increase confidence and can shift birth preferences
• Physical techniques include belly dancing, position changes, walking, marching, and hands-and-knees positioning
• Simple comfort measures like lip balm, cold washcloths, and quick energy sources (popsicles, honey sticks) provide surprising relief
• Touch-based approaches include counter-pressure, massage, tennis balls for back pressure, and acupressure
• Mental techniques involve visualization, focused breathing, meditation, and positive affirmations
• Environmental changes like switching rooms, using music, or adjusting temperature create fresh perspectives
• Support from birth partners through encouragement, praise, and reminders of progress is invaluable
• Taking one contraction at a time and trusting your body and birth team helps manage the experience

Please reach out to another human today, maybe find a stranger, somebody you don't know, and make a connection with someone else—it'll make their day and yours as well.


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Show Credits

Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice Helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast. My name is Angie Rozier, I'm your host and I'm happy to be with you today. I love helping people prepare for labor and birth. Some of my favorite times have been as people are preparing. We spend a good you know four or five hours with our clients before labor ever begins, and I love like watching the lights go on when we're educating people and preparing them and they're like, oh really, and they change, like they change their approach, they change what they want, mostly because they gain knowledge and confidence in something. That's a powerful tool.

Speaker 2:

I just had a post, a prenatal visit with a client Gosh last week and she, you know, wanted to be induced as early as possible. She wanted an epidural as early as possible and and and really we're pretty objective in how we teach things, we don't want to take people's goals away from them but by the end of our prenatal preparation she's like, oh, I can see why I might want to delay an epidural or I might want to. You know, maybe induction isn't the best thing as soon as I possibly can, but it was kind of cool to see her shift that way. So in this in this episode I want to cover some coping techniques, like tons of them. I got this. I have a friend who just taught childbirth education for a long, long, long, long, long, long time, like decades, decades, and we were going over some of her old materials and she had now this is back in, like you know, old school days of posters and things like that. I mean, a lot of childbirth educators still use posters, but this came from quite a while ago. So we went through some things that she had. She had this particular poster that she actually made and it was made of I don't know a bunch of just poster board that they had glued together Maybe there was like 10 of them and they just wrote and wrote and wrote on these. As they unfolded them, you got to see more and more and more coping techniques and comfort techniques. So I'm going to just kind of go through that and you can see, hopefully, that there are so many different coping techniques that you can be prepared with that you can lean on, that, you could try that, you could use that you might love during the labor process.

Speaker 2:

This is a lot, not just for people who want to go unmedicated and avoid an epidural, but this could be for anyone and everyone. There's going to be probably some time of discomfort throughout any labor, throughout an induction, throughout labors, where we're planning on and banking on using an epidural. But there are tools you can use up to that point or in place of that. Some people will go through labor like I was planning on getting an epidural. But you know what I'm doing. Okay, I'm leaning on my coping techniques. I'm doing fine. I'm just going to go through and finish up and have a baby without an epidural. If that's what they want, right, if that's what they desire. So, just kind of going to go through this, posters upon posters upon posters, this unfolding endless poster, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

One of the things, just and these are in no particular order, right, no particular order at Belly dance, when you belly dance, you don't have to be good at it, right, you have to be an expert belly dancer, but the movement of the belly, the trunk, during labor with belly dancing is phenomenal to help that baby move through the pelvis. Another one change position Super simple, super powerful Lip balm. Put on some lip balm. At some point, give a hug, go for a walk. Some point, give a hug, go for a walk. This one talks about getting in the tub, pace, breathing. So a lot of these things can be done with the support or help of someone else, but they don't have to be. If somebody someone you know for someone to hug you, someone to offer you some lip balm, just go for a walk. Somebody paces their breathing with you. Um, marching, marching in place, high knee marching, is great movement. Using music, switching up the music, using relaxing music, using some fun, upbeat music, having something to eat this talked about, um, applesauce, like having a little bit of applesauce.

Speaker 2:

Just just do a squat. Where you are standing, doing a squat, a rolling pin or something similar to it, a paint roller does the same thing. A rolling pin. Roll that down the back, down the legs, down the thighs. That's a great touch point as well. Get on hands and knees as you change position. Try just being on hands and knees for a few contractions.

Speaker 2:

Counter pressure. That that's having a partner, support person, a doula, somebody helping with tools. Just do counter pressure on your back or knee. Press A cold washcloth. That changes your world actually, just using a cold washcloth. It can be tap water, cold, it can be ice, cold water. Put that on the neck, put that on the forehead, maybe somebody holds it in their hand. That's a temperature shift and change that can be a great distraction.

Speaker 2:

Acupressure so doing some acupressure find some points there's some on the hands, some on the feet, some on the shoulders where you can do some acupressure to also help things feel a little bit better, a little easier. Using a fan whether that's a plug-in fan, whether it's a fan that you wave with your hand, that can be very helpful. Lying on a side for a little while Change your environment, get a new environment. Walk out of one room into another, go outside for a little while, go into the bathroom, come out of the bathroom, like, just change your venue a little bit. Having a popsicle something cool and refreshing, is going to add some energy. Having a honey stick or some juice lots of different ways to get some quick energy. Having a snack using a tennis ball rubbing that tennis ball along your back. Or a racquetball, even like a pickleball, is going to be helpful to just rub along your back. Having a good cry that's okay too. Sometimes you just want to have a good cry.

Speaker 2:

Vocalizing, making sounds, making noises I have had people who like to sing during labor. I've had some people who are, you know, professionally trained singers, or they just love music, or they just vocalize by that low, deep, guttural grunt, or they just want to talk. They talk things out. Another one is have a sucker like quick energy there. Have a massage. Have an oil, rub the scent of the oil, if there's a scented oil. Having a massage wherever if that's on your shoulders, your back, your arms, your hands, your feet, massage can be really great.

Speaker 2:

Visualization visualize something comfortable, familiar and inspiring, encouraging. Maybe you visualize the baby moving through the pelvis. But use visualization can be really powerful. I was at a birth several years ago. This couple just had another baby a couple weeks ago, but I remember one of their first babies. The dad took all of us in that room on a journey to Mexico. He absolutely had us all visualizing being in Mexico, walking down the street. It's a place they had been before as a family and during some tough parts of labor he talked her through, talked and walked her through Mexico. It's pretty powerful.

Speaker 2:

Have a touch in point with your God or your creator, with the. You know. Any kind of prayer that you feel that might be important to you can be helpful. Stroking the arms, stroking the back, using the bathroom, urinate often keep the bladder empty. Focused concentration that could be with a focal point you're looking at with your eyes. That could be thinking about a certain thing, but focused concentration could be helpful.

Speaker 2:

Focusing through one contraction, focusing on the time of the contraction might maybe that's 60 seconds, but have some focus. Concentration on something. Firm foothold give a firm foothold can be helpful for people. Or sometimes, if you're standing noticing your feet being firmly held on the ground, ignore the clock. Maybe you know we just talked about focus on time, maybe absolute no focus on time. Cover up a clock if there's one in the room. Put your phones down and away. Don't don't look at the clock, don't let time bother you. Sometimes I'm always surprised. I'm not, I'm not anymore, but during labor, very often people will see the time, notice it like oh my gosh, the time is going by so fast. Is it already, you know, nine o'clock or whatever, rocking, rocking back and forth. Maybe you're sitting on a ball rocking. Maybe you're being held in someone's arms rocking. Maybe you're standing swaying back and forth, spiral breathing. So spiral breathing that's a visualization as well.

Speaker 2:

Some guided breathing, where you're going to breathe circularly, have somebody walk and talk you through this as you breathe down. Inhale up, breathe down. Very, very simple. There's on. Just go online. You're going to find so many breathing exercises Heat, a heat pack, a hot pad, um on the back, something maybe you're holding on your chest.

Speaker 2:

If you're feeling cold, feeling hot, giving praise Find sincere encouragement to offer. Give praise to people, tell them their progress, like wow, you have been doing this so well, you've been laboring for X amount of hours. Or wow, you're already X amount of centimeters. But praise and encouragement and progress is going to be helpful as well. You can also use patience. That's a tough one, but just be patient, especially during those early parts of labor when we are just hanging out for what feels like an incredibly long amount of time. Be patient and distract yourself during that. If I have something to do whether you're going to go for a walk, watch catch-ups on some shows, connect with some friends, play a game, make some muffins just find ways to be patient and distract yourself. Look at this as one contraction at a time. Don't look at the big picture. Just take one contraction at a time.

Speaker 2:

Do some meditation. Maybe this is a practice you normally do in your life, but just some intentional thought towards whatever is going to be helpful for you. It's going to can be very good. Doing some chanting. Some people have a little mantra that they will say over and over again. Positive affirmations that someone is saying or reading to you can be very helpful. Perhaps these are made up in the moment, perhaps they're discussed and prepared ahead of time, reminding them that you love them, that you're impressed with them.

Speaker 2:

Right, hydrotherapy this could be a shower, a tub. I have had people just put their hands in a little bucket of water before. Cold water, warm water, opening up Maybe we're opening up like a flower, so that could be in our guided affirmations. Warm socks Put on some warm socks.

Speaker 2:

Having another support person Maybe you need a change, not a change of venue, but a change of crew, you know. So give a break to someone who's been helping you and just change the support person. You might get new things you gain from another support person or a second additional support person. Kneel down for a while, rest for a while. This could be, you know, take a nap, take a little rest, even if it's brief, in between contractions.

Speaker 2:

And then another one is trust. Just tap in to yourself and trust this process, trust your body, trust yourself, trust the team that you have put together. So that is just kind of a run through of this awesome, unfoldable poster that can show us so many things that we can do during the labor process to cope. These are just an endless list of great tools. There's a lot of tools available too.

Speaker 2:

So hopefully you go into your labor having something prepared, something to do, something to say some you know some tools, some tangible, concrete tools that you're going to be able to use which makes labor go more smoothly, to use, which makes labor go more smoothly, more comfortably, helps the time to pass and you can labor in a manner that is feeling successful to you and your partner as well, and those who are supporting you. Hopefully this helps. I am excited for you and what you have coming up with, your upcoming labor and birth situation. Please prepare for a positive experience. That's important to set your mindset on a positive experience so that you can obtain that. Thank you so much for being with us here today on the Ordinary Doula podcast. This is Angie Rosier, your host, and, as always, please reach out to another human today, maybe find a stranger, somebody you don't know, and make a connection with someone else, it'll make their day and yours as well. Thanks for being here and have a great day.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Doula podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning. Episode credits will be in the show notes Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth. Thank you.