Coping with contractions

Leanna Mae is an author, women’s health educator, and birth doula. Her degree is in health sciences. She is passionate about patient education. She loves to teach! She is also passionate about patient rights and healthcare ethics. She became a birth doula in 2008, a certified breastfeeding specialist in 2014, and graduated college in 2018. After graduating, she started teaching classes. She now offers online classes and in-person classes in western Ohio as well as birth doula services in the Dayton/Springfield area. 

What it means to cope

What do you think of when you hear coping with contractions? Let’s talk about what it means to cope.
 
Cope
Verb (a verb is an action word)
Definition: (of a person) deal effectively with something difficult
Some synonyms:

• Manage
• Get through
• Carry on
• Handle
• Tackle
• Bear up
• Take care of
• Endure
• Withstand
• Master
• Overcome

 
You are mastering and overcoming the contractions when you learn how to cope with the way your body is designed to bring life into this world.
 
Why do I call it coping with contractions? You are doing an action right now. You sought education. You’re gaining education right now. You are planning. You are preparing. You are not passive. You are not intending to do nothing or go in unprepared. You are learning how to and practicing how to cope with a contraction.
 
Coping is the active management of using techniques to handle this.
 
Coping is a positive action. Learning how to cope is an act of preparing for this birth. Labor is hard. Having a baby is hard no matter how you do it. Actively coping means you’re doing something to work through the journey you’re walking through one contraction at a time. I’m proud of you investing the time to learn these things and practice these methods.
 
The way that we approach coping is dynamic and multi-faceted. We will integrate many methods to prepare and multiple methods throughout labor. Coping is mental. Coping is physical. Breathing is coping. Counter-pressure is coping. Using tools is coping. Support helps you cope. The environment contributes to how you handle labor. There are so many things we do to help women cope with contractions.

These skills can be used in any birth. At the core of coping, we have these things:

1. Our faith
2. Our mindset
3. Our preparation for birth
4. Our support people
5. Our environment
6. Our breath
7. Our movement
8. Our tools
9. The release of tension, the effort to relax and work with your body
10. Working with our nervous system
11. Increasing oxytocin
12. The love you have for your baby will bring you through

 
We can integrate these things into all birth experiences. Coping with contractions isn’t just for contractions. These coping skills can be applied to the whole labor experience. Coping with contractions isn’t just for natural birth. Most of these things can be used to help cope with complications, interventions, and even through c-sections.

Your body was made for birth.
Learn how to work with your body
to bring your baby into your arms.

Sign up for the class on coping with contractions, and learn how to master a natural birth.

Tell me your favorite coping methods in the comments!

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