The Ordinary Doula Podcast

E77: The Wondrous Washcloth

• Angie Rosier • Episode 77

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The humble washcloth is a powerful, versatile tool that can significantly enhance comfort during labor. With 20 years of doula experience, Angie shares how this simple item becomes an essential element in her birth support toolkit.

• The "wondrous washcloth" is available in all birth settings - hospitals, birth centers, and homes
• Cold washcloths provide cooling relief when laboring bodies heat up
• Creating a basin of ice water allows for rotating frigid washcloths during labor
• Waving damp washcloths creates a fan effect for additional cooling
• Warm washcloths on the perineum during pushing help prepare tissues and minimize tearing
• Washcloths provide excellent texture and traction during back massage and counter-pressure
• Keep multiple washcloths accessible during labor as they tend to get misplaced
• Having wet and dry washcloths ready helps during moments of nausea or vomiting

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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:

I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a dweller, I'm a birth junkie, whether you're a birth worker, a doula, whatever that might be. Hopefully, you find something valuable in the episodes that we share. This is something that I absolutely love. Like this takes up a lot of my head space and my heart space, and has for years, and it's a role that I'm so honored and humbled to be able to play in many people's lives. So today I want to talk about a tool that I absolutely love. It's very simple, as I think about attending a birth, if I'm going as a doula, I'm going to think about what do I want at that birth, what do I need, what tools do I need for me to be successful, to have something to share, something to offer, whether that's at a birth center, a home birth, a hospital.

Speaker 2:

This one particular simple little tool is something that I use, I think, at every single place. Some places it's readily available, others we have to look for it a little bit, but it's there and it's easy and it can make a big difference, although it's a very simple thing and you know what that is. It simply is a washcloth, that's right, just a washcloth. I call it the wondrous washcloth and this kind of struck me a couple of weeks ago as I was at a birth and used a washcloth extensively and I use it for many different things and I'll kind of go over that. So if you're in a hospital, there's going to be linens, right. You usually have a stack of linens in a cupboard or a drawer in the room. So go throughout the room whether you're the support person, you know, when you get to your space, like look, look around, see what's available to you, there's always a stack of washcloths and I want to know about that, I want to know where those are and I want to kind of have them ready for for what I need. If I'm at a birth center, they'll also generally be washcloths available. Birth centers have a lesser quantity of those. They don't have an endless supply, but there will be washcloths available at a birth center. And then home births. I did a home birth last weekend. We used washcloths, we had a little stack of washcloths, and when I prepare a client for a home birth, I like to kind of walk through their house, see where their linens are, their towels, their washcloths, see how many they have, what they'd like us to use. I like to kind of see what's available to us.

Speaker 2:

But the Wonders washcloth is one of my favorite tools that I use in a lot of ways. So many times I use it kind of maybe towards the end of labor. So one of the reasons or one of the great things that can be used for is it can take different temperatures. Right, we can take that washcloth, we can make it cold, we can make it warm. So very, very often towards the end, people in labor are going to warm up. They just kind of heat up over time as they're working and working hard, and that's a really quick and a good cooling system. So many hospitals and places and people bring their own to might have a fan, a small fan or something, but I find that the washcloth is a really great cooling element as well.

Speaker 2:

Now, ideally I hope to have a bowl or a basin full of ice water, mostly ice. Sometimes I just do that like in a graduated cylinder. If that's all we have at the space. Sometimes I'll do it in a cup like a styrofoam or a plastic cup, but ideally I'm going to have a basin of icy, icy water and I'll put like four or five washcloths in that and I can pull them out and they are frigid, cold and you know what, sometimes that feels so amazing. What I'll often do is and I warn the mom before I'm going to do this, you know I'm going to say, hey, here's some cold on your neck. And if it's really cold I might say that, hey, really cold. And some people are like, oh my gosh, that feels so good. Or hey, here's some cold on your forehead. So watch for signs of heat, right, like that they're working hard. And also this is such a simple little distraction, like we have a major temperature change on a very acute point I usually do forehead or neck.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes I'll place a cold, cold washcloth right in the mom's hands Like here hold this cold washcloth and she might start kneading it and working with it. And of course, wherever we put a washcloth on a warm body, especially a working warm body, it's going to warm up right. So that's why I like that ice cold washcloth basin where I'm going to keep that ice water next to me or within reach is there. Now, if you don't have that, that's okay, you can just wet it with water, just hopefully cold water. There's been some incidences where I haven't had very much cold water. It's kind of been like lukewarm. So you can still wet it with any kind of moisture, hopefully cold water from a tap or something, and then just kind of wave it in the air and I kind of I wring it out enough so that I'm not like, as I wave it, I'm not like flinging water droplets throughout the room.

Speaker 2:

Some people like that, some people are irritated by that, but I might just wave it right on the mom. So I'll hold two corners of it and just roll it like through the air so it rolls up on itself and then go the opposite direction and roll back. So what you're creating is a little fan, and so many people happened to last week. People like, oh my gosh, that feels good, I love that air. So you can create a fan if you don't have one. That action of kind of rolling it like gosh, what I can see, to my mind it's hard to describe verbally take the corners and just kind of wrap it around itself. What would we call that Winding it and fanning it. That also cools a washcloth. So if you don't have a cold washcloth, it's just like the airflow is going to cool that washcloth. So you have now a cold washcloth to place on the mom.

Speaker 2:

I will oftentimes have two at my disposal at all times and I'll hang them kind of. If I'm at a hospital I'll hang them on the little bed. The bed railings are kind of like a little handle so I'll hang them there so they're near the top of the bed, near the mom's head. If we're on the bed, whether we're on hands and knees, whether we're pushing and this is a very great pushing tool Just have wet washcloth nearby. We can also use washcloths for heat right, so we can get warm water. I've been in hospitals where we'll get like a coffee pot and we pour hot water from the coffee pot also into a small basin or cup or something and warm those washcloths up so these can be used.

Speaker 2:

I usually use a stack of four on the perineum shortly before pushing or during pushing for a warm compress. Now, sometimes the nurse will do that, sometimes the doctor or the midwife will do that. Sometimes I've been asked to do that, but that's something you can have available for whoever on the birth team. Sometimes the dad will do it that as they're pushing, you can do a warm washcloth on the perineum. So this has a couple of cool purposes as well. It can again a sensation change, right. So we're doing a sensation change for those without an epidural now. Uh, with now those people with an epidural, we want to be cautious about the temperature of the washcloth, even those without right. We don't want to burn anyone in this sensitive area, of course, um, but that heat, that warmth in the area can feel very good and distracting. It's another just um, simple temperature distraction that we're doing. It helps the tissue become moist. The temperature helps it prepare to stretch, so that can sometimes minimize the incidence of tissue separation at delivery. So that's another great tool for the washcloth.

Speaker 2:

Another thing I like to do with the washcloth is have it be a texture. So a lot of times doulas, like I don't know if other doulas, but our hands, are very important tools. We're doing a lot of hands-on support, comfort techniques. We might be I'm oftentimes on the lower back or the pelvis area doing some pretty good massage or movement, counter pressure, and a washcloth can be used for texture, for that. Sometimes I wouldn't say the skin gets too slippery, but or sometimes we're on a gown. But sometimes putting that washcloth damp washcloth right on the skin gives you some good like traction on the skin also is a good sensation for the the person receiving it. It's just it's kind of a nice texture to be working on with their back. Also can be cooled, can be warmed. It's going to warm up over time.

Speaker 2:

I was at a birth a couple weeks ago and this was a very physical birth. Like the support we were giving was incredibly physical. I had a great arm workout that day and used washcloths on this mom's lower back and hips as we were working her hips and moving her hips. She actually is a massage therapist and, um, and I've been to her, uh, her massage. She owns a massage school and I've been there for some massages and they do great work. So it's kind of a. It's interesting when you're working on a massage therapist, um, but that was something she really enjoyed was the, the texture of the washcloth, just something to change it up a little bit and give you a little bit of traction. So I'm just calling it the wondrous washcloth.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of different uses for this. Also, another side use is I like to have those handy because if people vomit like they get nauseous, they get sick and at some point during labor they're're gonna want something to wipe their mouth with very quickly. So have something ready and handy I can use. You can use like a paper towel or something. I like to have a wet one and a dry one if I can. But a washcloth is softer, it's just more soft, and then, of course, we get rid of that one. But, like I said, we'll go through. I'll have like just washcloths around the room. Sometimes they get lost in the bed, sometimes they fall on the floor and we need to replace them. That's why I like to have several of them available. But this is a really simple, important tool that you can use during labor. So look around, see what you have, what tools you have, and you may find that a washcloth is a really powerful, simple, important tool that you can use in labor. Hopefully that gives you some little tips, some things you can work on.

Speaker 2:

I am glad you've been able to spend some time with us today. Hopefully you are preparing for some great things ahead in your life Going into birth, feeling empowered, feeling prepared, feeling you have things that you can do right, like when we can, when we know what to do and we know what to expect. That's a very empowering situation to be in. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you have a wonderful day and again, as always, please reach out to someone, make a human connection, whether by touch, by contact, by eye contact someone you know, someone you don't. Maybe it's reaching out electronically over social media or messaging. Please reach out to someone to make an important human contact today. Hope you have a good one and we'll see you next time.

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.