5 intriguing things I bet you didn’t know about labour

As a Hypnobirthing teacher of 4 years, almost all of my clients aren’t aware of these 5 facts about giving birth.

Let’s take a look and see how this could help you to prepare for your upcoming birth.

There are so many parts of labour that we don’t know about, I’ll be the first to admit that before my own hypnobirthing course, I didn’t know these things either. Having an understanding of these 5 facts can be crucial in helping us to prepare for our own labour.

So, let’s take a look and see if you know any of these lesser-known facts about birth.

1/ The hormones that you produce during labour are the same hormones that you produce when having sex

Carry on reading to find out how this can benefit you during labour

Yep, we produce very similar hormones during labour and during sex. We can use this knowledge to our advantage when giving birth. Oxytocin, endorphins, adrenaline, prolactin and serotonin are all hormones present in both sex and labour. When we understand how these hormones work and how they can benefit us during labour, we can start to recreate a similar environment to one that we would have sex in (it’s not getting weird, I promise, keep reading).

Let’s take one example and see how it can help us during labour. We know how important the hormone oxytocin is at starting and maintaining contractions, we want lots of it in our system during labour. We understand oxytocin likes closeness, trust, intimacy and darkness (as it does when we have sex) so we can think about kisses, cuddles and dim lighting during labour to enhance levels of oxytocin in our systems.

Make sure you learn plenty about the hormones we produced during labour, what they like and how to maximise them within your system to help with pain relief, contractions, energy production and relaxation.

2/ The cervix can stop dilating at any point and can even “close” during labour

Carry on reading to find out how this can benefit you during labour

I’ve heard plenty of stories before from people saying that they felt like their cervix “closed” during labour. Whilst it’s hard to know for sure if this is the case, I do firmly believe that it is possible for this to happen. When we understand how the hormones of labour work, we know that if we feel under threat, unsafe or undisturbed this can have huge impacts on how our labour progresses.

Our hormones are there to protect us and our baby, it makes sense that if we feel threatened, our body wouldn’t want to bring our baby into the outside world just yet, it would want to keep them inside for longer to protect them. This is often why we hear of women saying they had really strong contractions at home (when they feel safe) but when they got to the hospital, their contractions had disappeared, this is often because the car journey may present an unsafe space for them, their body is simply protecting them.

Having hypnobirthing techniques at this point can be so useful to bring back those contractions and allow dilation to start again.

3/ A full bladder can stall labour

Carry on reading to find out how this can benefit you during labour

We’re told to drink plenty of water during labour to help us stay hydrated but if you aren’t emptying your bladder regularly it can stall labour. The bladder sits within the pelvis, if it’s full during labour, it can get in the way and become an obstruction for your baby getting out.

Here’s the thing to remember though, the mind often cannot focus on two things at once, if you are having regular contractions, you may not feel the sensation of needing to wee. It’s important that your birth partner gives you a gentle reminder to go to the loo to make sure that you are emptying your bladder.

4/ Due dates are based on Aristole’s observations of the moon, there is not much more scientific evidence than this that they are accurate

Carry on reading to find out how this can benefit you during labour

You would assume that we would have more evidence than the moon to suggest that babies arrive at 40 weeks of pregnancy, but we don’t. Yes, we look at cycles, yes we have ultrasounds and yes 40 weeks is somewhere between 37-42 weeks that the World Health Organisation suggests the average pregnancy lasts. However, there is no real scientific evidence that all pregnancies last 40 weeks.

How do we know this? Because less than 5% of babies are born on their due date. Aristotle got it wrong, ultrasounds get it wrong but yet we are still using due dates as an exact science.

So, if you are approaching your due date, please keep in mind that it’s probably the date that your baby won’t be born.

5/ The time in between contractions is a really important part of labour that most people neglect

Carry on reading to find out how this can benefit you during labour

Everyone focuses on the contractions and how they will manage them but people often forget about the time in between. During the early stages of labour, you are likely to get long breaks between contractions, as labour progresses, the breaks will get shorter and shorter, however, it’s important to utilise this time well to conserve energy levels.

I dedicated a whole blog post to this particular topic, as it’s such an important thing to understand, you can read it here:

Conserving energy in between contractions

My top 4 tips on what to do in between contractions during labour.

There you have it, 5 interesting things about labour that you might not have known about. To continue reading my tips for labour, head to the Bump, Birth and Baby blog below: