Active 1st Stage Labor Activities

Video Transcript

"So this is what to do in active first stage labor. The most important thing here is to manage the pain, and any way you can manage the pain is fine. Relax, breathe, rock, use visualization, listen to music. Get your favorite CD; put out something that helps you either relax, or something that helps you focus. Groan, dim the light; make it so it's dark; make it so it's quiet there. Use massage; if you need to, you know, use your favorite scented oil, use massage tools too, to help you. If she really wants you to get into a certain point and you don't have enough strength, this works great. Also, have the freedom of movement; be able to move however a woman wants to. You can use hot packs and cold packs. You can use the kind that you just push on them and they automatically get heated up. You can make a cold pack by just putting ice in a glove. You can do this at the hospital, at home, you can just use ice packs from home, you can use washcloths that you get cold, washcloths that you get hot. You can definitely take a shower; if your water hasn't broken you can take a bath. You want to conserve your energy, so it's going to be pretty easy to do that, because you're not really going to want to do a lot, but if a woman is kind of flailing around, you want to kind of get her calmed and centered, because flailing around isn't going to do her any good. You also want to let labor take over, and that's really an important thing to remember is at this point you have to surrender to labor. You want to relax into it. You don't need to think anymore; you just need to let it be and go with it. You want to change positions, and this is really important. Every twenty minutes you want to change positions, and there are so many different positions you can get into. These are just some ideas of different positions, but really, anything that feels good is the right position to be into. You just want to make sure you change them about every twenty to thirty minutes. The partner has a very important job right now. The partner's job is to make sure she stays changes positions, to make sure that she's takes sips of water every so often, to make sure that she's urinating; she's using the rest room about once an hour. And also, keep her encouraged. You want to keep her positive, you know, want to remind her that P.E.P., pain equals progress. This is the only time in your life where pain does not signify that something is wrong with your body. It actually signifies that good things are happening. So these are things that you can do to help with active first stage labor."