What do you know about Active Labor?

Mar 24

This the the second part of our three part series of labor stages and I am so happy that you are taking time out of your day to educate yourself on how amazing your body is!

So why am I talking about labor stages?

When you know what's happening in your body for your body in labor, it's going to allow you to work with your fears and to generate ideas and action plans for how you're going to navigate labor.

So lets dive in!

Active labor, I call the movement and going internal phase part of labor.

Movement is extremely important when you're in labor and going internal is how we're going to get through it.

I'm gonna dive in and we're gonna talk about what's happening and why.

What's happening in all these different parts of our body to help our baby get out what's happening in active labor.

Active labor typically happens around six to 10 centimeters, although, as we know, our cervix is not a crystal ball so we can't have our cervix checked and say “oh, you're going to have your baby tomorrow” “or you're going to have a baby in two hours.”

It doesn't really tell us how long you're going to be in labor or anything like that.

It does tell us though, if your contractions are strong enough to change your cervix.

So one of the questions that I get asked from my doula clients in my birth class couples. Is how will I actually know that I'm in labor? How will I know that this is the real thing?

And here's my answer

If you contractions are becoming. Longer if they're getting stronger and they're becoming closer together.

That is a sign that your body is in labor! If you are noticing that things are getting more intense, that maybe they were lasting 30 seconds and now they are lasting 45 seconds, you're starting to have to breathe through them, or maybe you don't wanna walk or talk through them.

This is a sign to me that your body is actually in labor and trying to progress to get this baby out into the world.

As your body continues to progress and get further and deeper into labor. Your baby is continuing to work with your body to get further down into your pelvis.

In my birth class, I work on specific ways to teach you how to get your baby to descend.

Then the next thing is oxytocin. Oxytocin AKA “ the love hormone” . This is your body's natural hormone that causes contractions. Contractions cause the thinning and dilation of your cervix, (the gate between your uterus and the birth canal)so Oxytocin is the main ingredient to help labor progress.

In the hospital, they use Pitocin ( the synthetic form of Oxytocin) often to help your contractions become stronger.

There are a lot of things that we can do to increase your oxytocin, but in a nutshell it is anything that's going to help you feel loved and safe

Here are some signs that active labor actually has started

You have a lengthy pause after a contraction ends.
Ex: Partner“ hey babe, what do you want for dinner?” Mom: [ breathing through contraction] Partner: “what do you want?” Mom: “um what where you asking me?”
That's a sign that active labor is probably happening when you completely forget what you were just talking about. You can't jump into that next conversation, there's a pause between it and maybe you are actually losing your appetite.
You start to go deeper internally.
Typically your eyes are going to be closed a lot more often.
You may be having to breathe and do all sorts of coping mechanisms that are naturally occurring.
You start to make sounds

There are 2 magnitudes within active labor, I call one “Early active”. This is more like soft and gentle breathing, you’re making sounds but they are usually audible breathing , maybe some “ooooo” sounds. This is where you can talk and walk, but you don't want to. And then the 2nd part is Late active. This is more of, I can't not focus. Its the “ I have to focus on my breath or I won't be able to get through it” kind of energy.

6. And then the last sign is getting irritable or over stimulated easily. Often its when you're getting asked questions, or there are too many touches and instructions going on at the same time.

So here's the deal

When you are trying to focus on relaxing your body through a contraction, and somebody is asking you questions, for instance, when you get to the hospital and they have to admit you, they like to ask you all of these questions about your health history.

Which is important… however your partner most likely can answer these or most of them for you or it can wait.

So I want you to get curious and think of what you can anticipate yourself needing in labor in order to allow yourself to get deeper and deeper into these waves.

Answer this:

What will you need to put in to place now in order to keep your space undisturbed.

Partners and Active Labor

How can your partner help you through active labor?

Encourage movement!
Sometimes women in labor find a comfortable spot, but labor isn’t progressing much so its important to go to the bathroom, or have a change in scenery. However it isn’t always the easiest thing to do, to convince a laboring woman to leave her comfortable spot. So in my classes we go over just how to do this, when to do this and what positions to try that will be helpful for that stage of labor and where baby is in the pelvis. Don’t worry! I got you!
Counter Pressure
Example: double hip squeeze, the sacrum press, Knee press and the shoulder press. These are just some physical comfort measure examples that can relieve a lot of discomfort.
Encouraging sounds
especially if you are afraid or nervous or you feel, scared to make sounds in labor, allowing your partner to know this about you so that they can encourage those sounds when they can hear you starting to make them and maybe trying to quiet your voice, or you're not making them at all, but it's going to help you a ton to get through that next wave.
Noticing what your rhythm is and help you stay with it or find it again.
Encouraging fluids
Notifying your birth team

So those are things that can help get through active labor. Now in class, we go. A lot more in depth of , partners, roles, and how we can communicate those needs now and in labor.

The other thing I'll touch on is the embodiment. So when we can trust our body and understand how to work with our body, how to listen to our body, how to go deeper and deeper into our body and letting our brain start to take a backseat, when we know how to do that, it's going to decrease labor discomfort is going to increase your pleasure sensations and it's going to allow you to drop deeper and deeper into labor land, which is going to help baby come out faster and it's going to make it an overall more enjoyable experience for you.

If your in active labor and you have these waves that are getting more and more intense you're going to understand how to work with them, how to allow them to be there, how to allow them to help you.

When we fight those feelings, when we feel the intense contractions coming up and we start to fight them, we're tensing up our whole body which can prevent baby from descending easily.

In order for your baby to come down and descend into your pelvis, your pelvic floor needs to be relaxed and open. So one of the things that is my favorite tool to help my clients relax is toilet sitting!!

The toilet is also called the “dilation station” for a good reason.

Many of my moms that I've worked with go sit on the toilet when labor is slowing down or we need to change things up a bit. And guess what happens? Contractions start to increase and they start to make more progress! So give it a try next time!

Well my friend that is active labor in a nutshell! I hope it was helpful for you!

If your saying “ok, so now how can I implement these tools”?

Don’t worry! I’ve got you !

My in-person classes are linked here!

Next week we talk about transition, which is typically the most intense part of labor but don’t worry! Ill give you some tools that will help you through!