‘The wisdom and compassion a woman can intuitively experience in childbirth can make her a source of healing and understanding for other women’ – Ina May Gaskin.
Ina May Gaskin
I’m such a huge fan of Ina May Gaskin and I recommend her books Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth and Spiritual Midwifery to everyone!! I have consolidated below some wisdom collected from reading her books and I really hope you find it useful!
The mind-body connection
Ina May’s believes there is a strong connection between the mind, heart, soul and body during birth. If a woman is feeling loved and adored by her partner and feeling grateful for being in labour and she can surrender to the process and trust her body, then this will help her cervix to dilate with oxytocin levels rising and will feel less pain with the endorphins.
However if a woman is fearful or holding onto negative energy, this can have an opposite effect and can stall the cervix dilating.
There are a few birth stories where women had fear, and as soon as they started talking about it they felt as if it released a lot of the negative energy and their bodies opened up and contractions started again. Ina May believes that if you hold on to fear then your body tightens, if you let it go of it your body relaxes.
Women can also cope better if they can shift their perspective on the sensations of the contractions. Ina May says, ‘don’t think of it as pain, think of it as an interesting sensation that requires all of your attention’.
If you have any anxiety or fear during labour, the best thing to do is to talk about it. Share your feelings with your birthing partner or midwife, as talking about it will help to release any negative energy and will help to soften your body, in turn making more space for baby.
Pain and Endorphins
Ina May believes that the reason why the women whose births she had attended were able to get through labor without anesthesia or tranquilizers had to do with the atmosphere she learned to create at a birth. A women who is the center of positive attention, feeling grateful, amused, loved and appreciated, has a higher level of endorphins, which block the perception of pain.
A woman may feel more pain if she is afraid, cold, angry, humiliated or experiencing any other disagreeable emotions. This is due to adrenaline, as it’s the body’s protective mechanism when it is presented with danger; the heart rate quickens, the muscles tense, labor contractions may be inhibited, and the perception of pain is intensified. The adrenaline is a survival mechanism to help the mother to fight or flight, not to have a baby.
This really highlights the importance of creating an atmosphere that is relaxing, humorous and sensual to encourage oxytocin and endorphins. Birth breathing (a technique I teach in my Pregnancy Yoga Classes) can also help to calm the nervous system and encourage oxytocin and endorphins.
Absorbing Negative Cultural Attitudes
A famous quote from Ina May is ‘Remember this, for this is true as it gets; your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceros, elephants, moose and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body’. ‘We are the only species of mammal that doubts our ability to give birth’.
Through Ina May’s experience she has identified that ‘generally speaking, the more comfortable a woman is living in her body, the more easily she gives birth. Unfortunately, women are quite likely to absorb negative cultural attitudes about their private parts during early childhood’.
There is a long list of names for the female member, which can carry pornographic or derogatory connections for some women. I don’t think there is a long list of words for men’s private parts that make them feel embarrassed of themselves? For example, in 1961 it was illegal for the word ‘cunt’ to appear in print, and yet the word ‘prick’ was printed; why this further injustice to women?
Ina May believes to overcome these negative connotations to the female body we must use the words regularly and in a positive way to help ‘women to proudly reclaim all the words that refer to their reproductive organs’.
‘There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ, they would bag about it. So should we’.
Practice self love, your body is truly amazing! Learn as much as you can about how your body works to birth your baby. Let your midwife know if there are any negative words that you would like her to avoid using during your labour, this will enable her to provide more support to you.
Sphincter Law
Ina May beleives that your vagina and cervix are sphincter muscles and act just the same as your other sphincter muscles. The sphincter muscle of both anus and vagina do not respond on command. They open more easily in a comfortable and intimate atmosphere where a woman feels safe. Whereas if a woman feels threatened in any way then the cervix will close, even if they have already dilated.
Ina May shares many stories where a woman has been fully dilated at home and then as soon as they get into hospital they have closed up, or they have been dilated and then close up after an examination where it has made them feel uncomfortable.
The mind can have a powerful effect on the cervix. Comfort, love, humour and reassurance can help you to dilate. Fear, interruption or anxiety can make them tighten or close. If you have tension in the jaw then you have tension in your sphincter muscles. To help relax these you can practice the birth breathing from our yoga class, chanting, singing or blowing raspberries to loosen the mouth and jaw. It would really help for your birthing partner to understand this too so they can support more in helping you to relax. Remember – Floppy face, floppy fanny!
The Monkey Self
Ina May suggests that we need to let go of our analytical mind and let the older ‘monkey brain’ take over. Ina may says if we can short-circuit the mind during physical pursuit, we can let our inner primate do all the work. it’s a short way of saying don’t let your over-busy mind interfere with the ancient wisdom of your body’. She writes ‘Monkeys don’t think of technology as necessary to birth-giving; Monkeys don’t obsess about their bodies being inadequate…Monkeys don’t do math about their dilation to speculate how long labour might take…Monkeys in labour get into the position that feels best, not the one they’re told to assume…’
Bring your awareness inwards and focus on the birth breathing that you have learnt in class. This will help to quiet a busy mind, which in turn will help to wake up ‘the monkey’ part of the brain. This will help to bring you into a meditative zone. Focusing on the breath will also help to stop your mind from focusing on any fears or worries.
The Brain Can Be Unreliable
‘Labour progresses best if you pay attention to the expansion rather than to the contractions’. Ina May says that when a woman’s cervix is nearly open, this is when she is the most apt to feel emotional, to feel that is it impossible to give birth, that you may rip in half or explode if they allow their baby to move down the birth canal. She states that when women are under the spell of this particular fear, they resist from relaxing, as they feel if they do relax then great damage will be done to their bodies. She highlights the importance of knowing that your brain can be quite unreliable at this stage in labour and that it’s important to have someone there that she trusts who can reassure her that she will be okay, the intensity will pass, she won’t explode and to encourage her to relax and surrender to the process.
Focus on your breathing to quiet and focus the mind. It’s important for the birthing partner and midwife to reassure the women at this stage.
