hi I'm Kristen and I'm a certified Lamas child birth educator this is a free online series of child birth education classes based on the lamas healthy birth practices you'll get the most value by watching all the classes in the series in order and you can visit my channel for the full playlist if you find these video classes helpful please like the video and subscribe to this Channel and consider donating via Paypal using the link in the description if you'd like to take group child birth classes in person with me there's also a link in the description that shows you how to sign up as always keep in mind that the content in these classes does not constitute medical advice let's get started so what are the most important things you'll learn in this video series if possible let your birth start naturally keep moving throughout labor to help baby move down and help you stay comfortable able have your birth partner support you throughout your labor and birth if possible let labor and birth happen without medical intervention avoid lying on your back during labor and birth follow your instincts when laboring and pushing your baby out keep your baby with you after birth and try to breastfeed and always surround yourself with people who support your wishes for birth and breastfeeding as we go along in this series you'll understand more about all of these points and why they're so important and what you can do in order to follow them so let's talk a little bit about pregnancy Anatomy this is important to help you understand what's happening to your body as you approach labor go through Labor and then push your baby out so the first thing we want to look at is the uterus you can see here in the diagram the uterus is that big muscled organ that holds your baby and then we have the amniotic sac which is just inside the uterus and that is the waterfill sac that holds your baby keeps it healthy keeps its skin soft and provides it with nutrients and you see there the umbilical cord the umbilical cord is that Lifeline that connects the baby to the placenta and the placenta is what brings the nutrients from the mother's body to the umbilical cord and then to the baby and finally I want to talk about the cervix you can see here the cervix is a very small thing you can see it down there by the baby's head and it's kind of um kind of a a thick um cushy kind of thing that if you touch the end of your nose you can kind of get an idea of what the cervix normally feels like during labor something magical happens to the cervix the cervix then begins to thin out and that's called a facin we'll talk more about that later and as it thins out it becomes so thin almost as thin as paper and that then allows the cervix to open up or dilate and you'll hear about dilation during your labor as well we'll talk more about that in a moment so ultimately you want the cervix to a face which is to thin out and then to open up and that's the dilation part and the dilation of course when it's 10 cmers wide that's when the baby's head can fit through it and that's when you reach the pushing stage we'll talk a lot more about uh dilation and effacement in just a moment so let's take a moment to meet your placenta now I want to give a little bit of a warning because if you're squeamish um you may not want to look at the picture of the placenta um it is h a part of the body and so um if you know if blood kind of makes you feel a little squishy um you might want to turn away for a moment or two but I do want to explain the very very important organ called the placenta okay so this is a placenta and you can see it's actually kind of large it's full of blood and you see that umbilical cord that's attached to it and that um umbilical cord would be attached then to the baby uh let's learn a little bit more about it it's truly an amazing organ it connects the mother and the baby and the the mother sends nutrients to the baby through this placenta the placenta is attached to the inside of the uterus and then uh through the umbilical cord it sends nutrients to the baby it provides oxygen and nutrients and it's delivered after the baby is born now something to consider is that most mothers um when they deliver their placenta they don't necessarily notice and that's because um she has just pushed her baby out which is a lot harder to deliver than a placenta and she's all full of love hormones and she's so happy to meet her baby for the first time and she's holding this baby in her arms and she's so preoccupied with all of that that she's not thinking about this soft squishy thing that she's delivering so a lot of moms don't even really notice when they're delivering their placenta I also want to make a very important Point here you can see it's a pretty large size it's about the size of a large dinner plate and I want to think about this for a moment with you now imagine if you were walking around in the the world and you had had a dinner plate sized wound on the side of your thigh for instance and people saw you out in the world and they saw this wound they would say what are you doing out you need to be resting you need to heal you need to get better from this wound well it's very similar um mothers have this dinner plate sized wound on the inside of their uteruses and because we can't see it we don't really think about it so we see you know we expect mothers to just jump back into to regular life to be um getting back to her regular routine very quickly and you got to think about how she's actually going to need to heal this large wound on the inside of her uterus just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there so think about those uh new moms in your life that um H have just pushed out a baby or just had a baby um in general it could be through C-section um that she is healing this large dinner plate Siz wound on the inside of her uterus so she deserves deserves a little bit of extra rest extra patience extra love Extra Care so let's make sure that new moms get what they need um in other parts of the world not the United States it is very traditional for new mothers who have just had a baby to um take more than a month off to recover from birth because those cultures recognize that it takes a lot for a mother to regain her strength to heal this wound um to go through all of the processes the hormonal changes that um birth and having a new baby uh brings about for her so let's always keep that in mind with our new moms so a little bit earlier I talked about the cervix uh going through dilation and effacement and so um this is going to illustrate for you exactly what this means so you see here on the left side uh just above early labor you see that cervix with that that little squishy um you know it kind of jets out there and it's it's not open very much at all and as early labor begins you can see that it's beginning to open up just a little bit and it's thinning um obviously it doesn't have that little nub on the end of it so it's it begins thinning which is effacement or effacing uh before it starts to dilate so then you can see as we move along a little bit under uh active labor you can see there that um it's thinned out even more the cervix has thinned out even more and you can see it's opening up a little bit more so you'll hear when you are talking to an obstetrician or a midwife or a nurse you'll hear things about dilation and a facem and maybe you're in early labor and they'll say oh you're one or two centimeters dilated and that's wonderful news to hear but it is very important to understand that if fac is the thing that needs to happen first that that cervix needs to become very thin in order for it to effectively dilate so that that baby can come out so um while it's wonderful that you're showing progress you do want to keep in mind that effacement is the thing that you really need to have happen before you can have some effective dilation for that baby so um you see there it's thinning under active labor and then as you move to transition which is very close to the time when you're ready to push the baby out you can see that that uh that cervix has gotten very very thin it's almost paper thin and it is it's dilated now to somewhere between 8 and 10 centimeters which means very close to pushing phase or right at pushing phase and once you reach that 10 centimeters of dilation then your nurse or Midwife or your OB will tell you it's time to push so whenever you hear about dilation and effacement you'll have a really good idea aidea of what that all means from these pictures here uh and you'll know that effacement is so important that that needs to happen first before you can have truly effective dilation for that baby's head another term that you will probably hear at some point from uh your Midwife or your um labor and delivery nurse or your obstetrician is station uh so let's talk about what are stations so when you hear about stations it's referring to this you can see this diagram here it's the placement of the baby's head in the mother's pelvis so negative numbers like1 or minus one that means that the baby's head is higher in the pelvis minus three would be much higher than minus one and then positive numbers like plus one plus 2 plus three means that the baby's head is lower and of course when you're at plus three you are at pushing phase that baby's head is coming up so when you hear stations you'll know exactly what they're referring to now I want to talk about something that we describe in the the world of birth as the four Ps of Labor and birth and this little diagram helps to uh give you a bit of an illustration of it so let's start at the uh upper left corner there that's the powers that's the uterine activity what is the strength of the contractions you need really productive strong contractions in order to be able to uh push that baby down and to open uh a face and dilate that cervix and then we move around to the passage which the passage is the birth canal and that includes both soft tissues like um the vagina and the cervix and the vagina um but it also includes the pelvis the Bony pelvis and while the the pelvis is a bit of a restrictor during birth we'll talk a little bit more about it later there is flexibility to that pelvis um the pelvis can open up a certain amount to accommodate the baby's head and then you have the passenger and the passenger is our baby babies are smart they want to do the things that they need to do in order to be born they have to work hard to rotate themselves so that they can get in the right position to come through that birth canal and they part they are active participants they're not just simply sitting there um just waiting to be born they are a part of the whole birthing process and then there's also the psyche and that's essentially the mother's state of mind and this is so incredibly important I stressed this a lot to new parents that mom needs to feel good about the birthing experience she needs to be well supported by the people around her if you remember that was one of the um the items at the very beginning that I talked about it's so important for a mother to to surround herself with people who support her birth wishes and her breastfeeding wishes and the mother also needs to feel like she is in control that she is being listened to that she is loved and that she has the power and ability to push this baby out or if she's having a c-section that she has the power to make the decisions that are best for her baby to be there and to care for her baby after it's born so these four Ps will come back to them they are so incredibly important to the birth process so how do you know when you're in true labor one of the things that you will begin to to feel uh somewhere in your third trimester is called Braxton hick contractions Braxton hick contractions are a tightening of the belly and it can be uncomfortable at times and when they first start happening it can actually surprise you you think wow what is going on with my belly but they are not true labor they are considered practice contractions your body is just preparing it's getting ready it it knows what it will be doing in the coming weeks and it knows that it needs to that uterus is going to be working hard and it needs to get a little bit of practice in of tightening but they will not braxon Hicks will not start labor and they are not true labor contractions so how do you know if you're feeling Braxton Hicks contractions what you can do is when you start feeling them you can start moving around start walking um be active in some way and you can also if you're lying in bed and you feel Brax and hix contractions you can turn on to another the other side um so if you're lying on one side turn to the other side if uh your those Braxton hick contractions go away when you start to move or you change positions then you know that they are just simply Braxton hick contractions which is just practice contractions so just remember that if you start to feel them you can move around or you can change positions and if you notice that they go away they are Brax toix contractions now what are true contractions like when you're in early labor true true contractions might feel a little bit like braxon hick contractions so let's take a look at them true contractions may be irregular early on but what that means is that when you have a real contraction in early labor you may notice that there will be maybe five minutes between some of them and then there may be 15 minutes between them there may maybe be 10 minutes between them and then there may be 12 minutes between them so you'll notice that they'll be very irregular there will not be a set time between each contraction and when you feel those it could mean early labor but it doesn't mean that you're in active labor and that birth is imminent true contractions will get longer they will get stronger and they will get closer together but this does take many hours to happen so you may be feeling initially that you're having contractions every 15 minutes and or or or you'll have them in 15 minutes and then you'll have them in 12 minutes and then you'll have them in 17 minutes and then let's say that this has been happening for a few hours and then you start to notice that okay all of a sudden they're very consistent now they're happening every 15 minutes or they're happening every 10 minutes and you want to make sure that you're timing them don't I would not necessarily recommend just looking at the clock necessarily because you can be busy you might be busy with other things you might be at work you might be doing things around your home so what I recommend is to download a contraction timer uh for your phone they're often just a few bucks maybe $5 or less um in either the Google Play store or in the Apple store get it for your phone and just hit the button when a a contraction starts and then hit it again when your contraction is over and it will give you a report that is wonderfully helpful in determining how often are my contractions another reason that a contraction timer is so incredibly helpful is because if you call your labor and delivery department they will ask you how often are your contractions how frequent um how far apart and if you aren't able to look at your app and see the report it makes it a little bit harder to give your labor and delivery department a good answer in to that question so I definitely recommend recommend getting a contraction timer you also can tell that there are true contractions because walking around can actually make them stronger and when you lie down and you're resting true contractions do not go away so let's talk about pregnancy hormones oxytocin this is uh also called The Love hormone and this is something that you share with your loved ones when you stroke a loved one's cheek when you hug when you hold hands when you cradle your baby you are releasing oxytocin and oxytocin naturally creates feelings of love and connection with those that you care about and it's an extremely important hormone in pregnancy and in labor and birth it um also circulates throughout the the baby's bloodstream um and protects it from low levels of oxygen during birth because baby let's face it during labor and birth baby is getting squeezed now baby has plenty of oxygen because remember there's also the umbilical cord that connects baby to Mom so Mom continues to provide uh nutrients to the baby through the the the placenta and the umbilical cord um but you it's always good to have hormones like oxytocin that are there to protect the baby during birth beta endorphins are hormones that relieve stress and pain in the mother cacam Mees are a a hormone that help Mother and baby both feel alert now remember earlier I mentioned that U baby is an active member of the the whole birth process baby isn't just hanging out there waiting to be squeezed out of the mom baby is there participating and um knows that that it's it has a role and it does it just instinctively and um cataca means help that baby stay alert especially since labor can take a while um and mother and baby can you know they're working hard and there's often not a lot of sleep and rest going on during active labor but catacol amines can help baby and mom keep going through um the challenges of Labor catacol amines also protect the baby's heart and brain during contractions like I mentioned contraction are really squeezing that baby but baby stays safer when it has those cacola Mes in its bloodstream prolactin this is the mothering hormone and prolactin is the hormone that kicks in after a baby is born and has an opportunity to latch onto the mother's breast um this releases the prolactin that tells mother's body that it it needs to start producing milk and it also helps it uh when a mother nurses that hor hormone the prolactin also helps mom feel very connected with baby and she feels that great desire to take good care of her baby so what triggers labor what's what is the secret there how how does labor even begin so here's how it starts baby is ultimately the deciding factor as to when labor is going to begin baby like I said is not just um hanging out out there just waiting to be born baby's body knows when its lungs are mature and its body then releases hormones that go through the placenta into the mother's body those hormonal messages then cause the uterus and the placenta to release prostaglandin and prostaglandins cause the cervix to begin to thin and open like I mentioned earlier the effacement that thinning of the cervix and of course dilation is the opening of it the mother's body then once it gets that message from the baby's body that the lungs are mature the mother's body then produces oxytocin and her uterus becomes very sensitive to that oxytocin and then that intensifies the contractions and the contractions begin to squeeze and push baby down at the beginning of our session today I talked about how it's important to let labor begin on its own why well because we know that baby's lungs are ready for birth baby sent that message through the placenta to the mother's body to say hey my lungs are ready to breathe room air we also know that that message that went to the mother's body then sent hormonal messages to the uterus and told the uterus let's get ready it's time to start pushing baby out so we know that when the baby lungs are ready for birth then the uterus is also prepared to push out the baby we also know from all those hormonal messages that the mother's body is ready to nourish that baby through breastfeeding those hormonal messages include prolactin like I mentioned in the previous slide and that helps the mother's body prepare to make milk for the baby 39 weeks is critical to baby's development you really want to try to get your baby to 39 weeks of pregnancy before it's born and that's because the baby's lungs heart liver and brain are mature like I mentioned earlier the baby's lungs are ultimately the deciding factor where that say that this baby is ready to be born and that's when the messages began uh being sent to the mother's body that we need to prepare it's time to push this baby out the baby is less likely to have hearing and vision problems if it can make it to 39 weeks of pregnancy the baby's also better able to regulate its body temperature in the real world if it's made it to 39 weeks of pregnancy the baby is able to suck and swallow it's developed those muscles to be able to do that and that's so incredibly important of course because baby needs to be able to get colostrum and then breast milk from the mother after after birth so how can you stay healthy during pregnancy of course eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water throughout the day now eating a healthy diet is going to vary from person to person I would recommend trying to reduce your fast food intake um and focus on eating more vegetables more fruits um eating more complex carbohydrates um whole wheat um things like that and as far as water goes water is so incredibly important because baby is essentially swimming in its own little ocean all the time and that fluid that anotic fluid is always being replenished and the fluid that you drink helps to replenish those fluids that baby is swimming around in during the entire pregnancy it's also important to drink a lot of water to flush out your kidneys um pregnant women are at a little bit higher risk for kidney stones and the more water you drink the more you're flushing impurities out of your kidneys the less likely they are to produce Stones you want to exercise regularly now if you didn't re uh exercise before you got pregnant it is okay to start moderate exercise in your pregnancy you want to be really careful I would not recommend just you know immediately starting to run a mile or two a day I would start out slow maybe walk a mile um and then then you can see how you feel um so make sure that you do moderate exercise if you haven't um exercised previously wash your hands well after you change baby diapers if you have another baby you take care of you need to be very careful about not transferring any germs from that baby to you and your baby do not kiss young children on the face because those of us who have raised children know that they carry all kinds of respiratory germs and you really want to avoid that do not share your food or eating utensils with children and avoid cleaning cat litter pans if you can but if you can't use gloves and always avoid sick cats you do not want to pick up any illnesses from cats while you're pregnant and when you're gardening make sure you wear gloves there are some potential uh bacteria and viruses in the dirt that or in the soil that you do not want to catch while you're pregnant it's important to know the warning signs that you should call your care provider during your pregnancy and labor after 20 weeks of pregnancy If you experience headaches or blurred vision swelling of your hands or face shortness of breath up stomach pain or if something just doesn't feel right please call your care provider right away call your Midwife call your obstetrician um call your labor and delivery department these symptoms could be a sign of pre-eclampsia which is a condition where the mother develops high blood pressure during or after pregnancy so if you experience any of these symptoms before and shortly after your birth then please do let your care provider know immediately some other things that you'll want to notify your care provider about are things like spotting now if you experience brown spotting early in pregnancy sometimes it can just simply be a little bit of tissue that is dislodged while the egg Burrows its way into the uterine lining um but it it certainly doesn't hurt for you to tell your care provider your midwife if your OB um a nurse in the labor and delivery department that you're experiencing some brown spotting if you discover red bleeding anytime during your pregnancy call your care provider immediately if you have bleeding in your third trimester which means week 27 or later go to the nearest emergency room and let them know that you are pregnant you are over 27 weeks that you're in your third trimester and you're experiencing bleeding so what are we going to learn in our next class can you have a painfree labor and birth how can your birth partner help you have your best birth let's put together your birth plan I'll provide templates how a doula can help you and when you should call or text doua so join me for our next class I look forward to seeing you and if you have questions post them in the comments below thank you so much if you're located in the Sacramento California area you can also take classes with me in person watch this tutorial to find out how you can register to sign up for classes visit Southgate wand park.net and visit the recreation menu click on register for programs then scroll down on the next page and click on the register Now button go up to the activities menu in the upper leftand corner and click on special interest classes you'll see child birth education pop up at the top click view sub activities to see the the available classes and then click on an individual class class to read the description the dates and the times and when you're ready to sign up click create an account in the upper right hand corner enter your email address and then follow the prompts to register I look forward to seeing you back here at this Channel or in person if you decide to take classes with me watch the video series so that you too can have the best birth for your family have a beautiful day
