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Tuesday, 04 November 2008 11:00 |
|
There are 4 foundations to The Pink Kit Method for birthing
body™. The 1st foundation has been put into the multi-media
resource called The Pink Kit: Essential Preparations for your
birthing body. In the video and interactive book, expectant
parents will learn the body knowledge that makes such common
sense you"ll wonder why you haven"t known it before. We can map
our pelvis and know our own shape. That shape helps us find
positions that keep us open rather than assume that certain
positions are better than others. We can create inner relaxation
with the pelvic clock and create more space for our baby with
the hip lift, sacral manoeuvre and sit bone spread. We can use a
type of directed breathing that we can use to focus our
attention, expand or relax specific areas of our body.
Childbirth is a simple plumbing exercise. An object has to come
through and out of a container. To do that it must pass through
a tube (pelvis), open a diaphragm (cervix) and aperture
(vagina). The object likes space, room and not to have its
passage bent.
In the multi-media kit is located the 2nd foundation of The Pink
Kit Method on an audio tape called The Internal Work. This is
the vital internal work or how to prepare your birth canal ...
the aperture. The plumbing concept of birth seems easy yet some
things get in the way. We are the container. We bring to
childbirth our structure, our ability to relax or tense up and
accept the process of childbirth which can be very painful or
fight against it. The goal of The Pink Kit Method is for each of
us to create mobility and flexibility in our structure and learn
to relax even when the sensations are very painful. Fortunately
we can use our incredible human mind and make choices about our
behaviours when we have the skills based on our preparation. We
can only make realistic choices in our behaviours when we have
the knowledge. The Pink Kit is the knowledge. Preparing our
birth canal:
· Creates a soft aperture for our baby to come through. ·
Teaches us to respond to the sensations in 2nd stage rather than
react. (Feeling we will have a bowel motion, the stinging
sensations of the stretching can cause women to pull back from
the down urge.) · Prevents trauma to the soft tissue of our
vagina.
An adjunctive resource was developed to step you through The
Pink Kit video called Companion Guide. Although the sections in
the video are easy to follow, many people wanted written
instructions as well. This resource also introduces 3 new
exercises: Kate"s Cat, Thai Massage, Letting Down Reflex along
with two new concepts: Common language which develops good
communication with your partner/husband and the concept that
there are defined skills for the Birth and Coach Role. These
concepts are expanded in the 4th foundation New Focus: Breath,
Language and Touch.
Primarily the stories we told about childbirth were about the
physical experience we had. We spoke about pain, or lack of it.
We had back labours, failure to dilate, babies that stayed high
in the pelvis, vaginas that tore, were cut or didn"t open easily
or ones that opened in one contraction. We had quick, very
intense births and painless ones. We had long, lingering labours
that didn"t seem to get started and when they did we were dog
tired. Story after story told of us that birth is primarily a
physical experience. Some of those experiences were absolutely
wonderful. Many women do just "get labour". Realistically, many
women don"t get labour. The use of medical pain relief is an
attempt to prevent women from suffering too much pain in the
process of childbirth. If women were really "getting labour"
they won"t be using pain relief.
In our stories, we spoke about residual pain or lack of it.
Residual pain often lasted for months or years and often laid a
foundation to an unsettled early parenting period. We couldn"t
sit down, move our bowels, had burning when we urinated, pain on
sex, vaginal wind, infections from tears or incisions, along
with pain in our pubic bone or tail bone. Some women breezed
through labour and the recovery. The Pink Kit Method just makes
it possible for more women to do that. Maybe we won"t all breeze
through it, but we"ll work better with the process in a
conscious manner with the skills we"ve taught ourselves through
our preparation. The first two foundations of The Pink Kit
Method deal with some of these physical issues because we are
now able to create a mobile birthing body and learn how to relax
inside and prepare our birth canal.
The 3rd foundation of The Pink Kit Method is the Managing
Skills. We all acknowledge that childbirth is a huge event in
our lives and our children. We also know that most of us have
never been to a birth and don"t have a clue what happens much
less what to do, how to act or behave. The Managing Skills give
us more subjective yet vitally important skills. Do you know
that women who niggle for several days are more likely to get
tired before progressive labour establishes if they don"t have
good coping skills? We can prevent that by asking a simple
question "What do you want to do now?" and learning how to calm
our mind and understand this early, kind phase of childibirth.
Are you aware that while in labour it"s vitally important to
stay in the NOW and apply good management skills at each and
every moment throughout your labour? We don"t have to wait until
the pain of labour is threatening our self control. Instead we
can stay on top of the sensations when we apply our skills. Can
you imagine working with your husband, partner, relative or
friend really well? We can learn to form a good team between
ourselves and the person or people who are their to support us.
Childbirth is a whole picture, not just another contraction. We
can learn these subjective skills that work to integrate our
Pink Kit preparation into our own experience. Of course, there"s
a section on when to use The Pink Kit skills you"ve taught
yourself. Our stories also told of our own self management
experience in and around what was happening to us or around us.
In other words, there were as many women who felt good about how
they had managed labour in hospital with all the assessments,
monitoring and procedure and health issues as there were women
who didn"t feel good about how they had managed their labour
even though they had accomplished a home birth.
Because our stories are so varied, the goal of The Pink Kit
Method has always been passing on the labour management skills
that work well in absolutely all birth situations so that each
of us can come away from our birth feeling positive about our
self management and how well our husband/partner coached us.
Childbirth is too full of variables or the unexpected to know
what it will be like; however, we can have skills to work
through the process as it unfolds. We can have skills that are
adaptable and transportable into any birth situation. No woman
should deprive herself of positive labour management skills
regardless of her choices or the necessity in regards to
maternity care or management. In other words, Common Knowledge
Trust bypasses the "either versus or" approach to childbirth
that has become familiar to so many of us. EITHER we will birth
in hospital with a doctor and have a medical birth OR we will
birth at home with a midwife and have a natural birth.
As we self managed labour, most of us felt that we had a natural
birth even when there was a great deal of medical care. We felt
that way because we felt good about how we had coped, managed
and responded to our own internal process of dilating and giving
birth. Many birth professionals admired our management and loved
that our husbands/partners were such good coaches. They wished
more couples could have such an experience. They often felt we
had had "lucky" or "easy" births because they so strongly felt
that childbirth is so unknown there is nothing we can do to
prepare for birth. We knew we had prepared for birth and then
used our good management and coaching skills to work through the
unknown journey as it evolved. We had conscious births.
We not only explored our own management of labour, we also
looked at the three most primal behaviours that accompanied
childbirth. They are so much part of Life that we hardly notice
them. However, the unique qualities of childbirth require unique
applications of these ordinary human behaviours.
The 4th foundation of The Pink Kit Method is New Focus: Breath,
Language and Touch. We will all breathe in labour, communicate
with our husband/partner and be physically touched (or not).
These are human behaviours that all of us share. Within these
three shared behaviours there are positive ways we can use them
in labour. In the 1970s when fathers came to help us, childbirth
education classes focused on breathing and relaxation
techniques. As birth discussions focused more on "choice" (birth
plans) and "information" (informed consent), the skills were
less stressed. In fact, a new belief around childbirth grew.
This belief told women that they breathed all the time and would
breathe in labour so there was nothing they needed to know.
Natural birth has incorporated many beliefs that have actually
acted to deskill women. It"s almost as though it"s become
admirable to believe the ideal birth is "intuitive" and
"instinctive" and requires little knowledge which might
interfere with the process. The stories that created The Pink
Kit Method approaches clearly show us that when we have positive
birth skills, we respond to the process of childbirth with a
consciousness unparalleled.
Unlike our traditional counterparts who are surrounded by people
closest to us who will help us each step of the way through
childbirth, we are often left alone either in hospital (checked
periodically) or a home by midwives who are giving us the space
to discover our own process. Either way, we can take our amazing
childbirth and coaching skills with us. When we do this, our
births become a conscious highlight in our lives. Through our
self learned skills we brought attunement to the birth of our
children.
New Focus: BLT is split into the Birth and Coach role. We have
different jobs do to in labour and giving birth yet we can use
the same knowledge to do those jobs well. When we work together
in labour, we develop close bonds with our husband, partner,
friends or relatives. It"s far better to bond with those close
to us than our birth provider no matter how wonderful. As a
labouring woman, we are required to look within ourselves. When
we coach our partner, we are looking at how she is responding to
the process from within herself. When we both use The Pink Kit
Method, then we stay on the same track.
In the Breath section, we learn that there are only 4 ways
humans breathe. Two are positive breath behaviours in childbirth
and two indicate that a woman isn"t coping well with the
sensations. From the birth role, we can learn how to use breath
as a focus, expand areas or relax specific areas of our body.
>From the coach role, we can learn how to hear whether a woman is
managing the sensations, how to model good breathing behaviour
to help her stay on track and how to help her expand and relax
specific areas.
In the Language section, we can learn the specific language that
really helps women to relax. We often use general language such
as "relax" when we see tension in a labouring woman. She is most
likely to turn to you and snarl. "you try", "I"m trying" or
"shut up". Instead we can specifically tell her to "soften in
your lower back". This gives her the place and action and she"ll
to do it. She"s momentarily forgotten or not observed that
specific tension because the sensations at the moment are BIG.
In this section we can learn that verbal messages take a wee bit
of time to go in the ear, through the brain, to the body and
back to the brain. So you learn about the importance of pausing.
Language or communication can be non-verbal as well. In labour
the ability to give each other cues to convey information is
important. Particularly in the rigorous part of labour, women
short form communication.
In the Touch section of New Focus you learn the type of touch
that produces deep internal relaxation. This form of deep,
rising touch allows all the connective tissue (fascia) to relax.
Most people don"t realize the importance of fascia and how much
tense can be stored there. Most people think of tension being
caused by muscles. Try this so you can understand the difference
between muscles (which is part of soft tissue or connective
tissue) and fascia (which is also part of soft/connective tissue
and what we need to relax in labour along with specific
muscles).
Sit or stand and look straight ahead. Relax your head, neck and
shoulders yet still keep your head facing forward. Put your
index finger on your forehead about an inch above the outer edge
of your eyebrow. Remember keep your head facing forward no
matter what. Start to apply pressure to turn your head and
continue to increase that pressure. Hopefully, you"ll notice
that it takes very little effort to keep your head facing
forward even when you apply a great deal of pressure to turn
your head.
In labour, that simple fixed or frozen soft tissue (inside of
the container) can stop mobility, openness and space. Babies
need space to move through you. Couple that fixed or frozen
fascia with tensing up your muscles, then you can imagine why
the object might have a struggle to get out of the container. Go
back to your exercise above and add muscle tension. Our coach
can see muscle tension but not see connective tissue tension.
Both the Birth and Coach role need to work to reduce that
tension, particularly when it"s inside.
When we combine all these Pink Kit skills, this common sense and
self knowledge we gain then we can approach childbirth with
confidence in our ability to move through the process of giving
birth. We don"t have to like one moment of it. Often our own
greatest personal achievements are the accomplishments we have
during challenging experiences.
|
|
|
Wednesday, 29 October 2008 09:00 |
|
There are 4 foundations to The Pink Kit Method for birthing
body™. The 1st foundation has been put into the multi-media
resource called The Pink Kit: Essential Preparations for your
birthing body. In the video and interactive book, expectant
parents will learn the body knowledge that makes such common
sense you"ll wonder why you haven"t known it before. We can map
our pelvis and know our own shape. That shape helps us find
positions that keep us open rather than assume that certain
positions are better than others. We can create inner relaxation
with the pelvic clock and create more space for our baby with
the hip lift, sacral manoeuvre and sit bone spread. We can use a
type of directed breathing that we can use to focus our
attention, expand or relax specific areas of our body.
Childbirth is a simple plumbing exercise. An object has to come
through and out of a container. To do that it must pass through
a tube (pelvis), open a diaphragm (cervix) and aperture
(vagina). The object likes space, room and not to have its
passage bent.
In the multi-media kit is located the 2nd foundation of The Pink
Kit Method on an audio tape called The Internal Work. This is
the vital internal work or how to prepare your birth canal ...
the aperture. The plumbing concept of birth seems easy yet some
things get in the way. We are the container. We bring to
childbirth our structure, our ability to relax or tense up and
accept the process of childbirth which can be very painful or
fight against it. The goal of The Pink Kit Method is for each of
us to create mobility and flexibility in our structure and learn
to relax even when the sensations are very painful. Fortunately
we can use our incredible human mind and make choices about our
behaviours when we have the skills based on our preparation. We
can only make realistic choices in our behaviours when we have
the knowledge. The Pink Kit is the knowledge. Preparing our
birth canal:
· Creates a soft aperture for our baby to come through. ·
Teaches us to respond to the sensations in 2nd stage rather than
react. (Feeling we will have a bowel motion, the stinging
sensations of the stretching can cause women to pull back from
the down urge.) · Prevents trauma to the soft tissue of our
vagina.
An adjunctive resource was developed to step you through The
Pink Kit video called Companion Guide. Although the sections in
the video are easy to follow, many people wanted written
instructions as well. This resource also introduces 3 new
exercises: Kate"s Cat, Thai Massage, Letting Down Reflex along
with two new concepts: Common language which develops good
communication with your partner/husband and the concept that
there are defined skills for the Birth and Coach Role. These
concepts are expanded in the 4th foundation New Focus: Breath,
Language and Touch.
Primarily the stories we told about childbirth were about the
physical experience we had. We spoke about pain, or lack of it.
We had back labours, failure to dilate, babies that stayed high
in the pelvis, vaginas that tore, were cut or didn"t open easily
or ones that opened in one contraction. We had quick, very
intense births and painless ones. We had long, lingering labours
that didn"t seem to get started and when they did we were dog
tired. Story after story told of us that birth is primarily a
physical experience. Some of those experiences were absolutely
wonderful. Many women do just "get labour". Realistically, many
women don"t get labour. The use of medical pain relief is an
attempt to prevent women from suffering too much pain in the
process of childbirth. If women were really "getting labour"
they won"t be using pain relief.
In our stories, we spoke about residual pain or lack of it.
Residual pain often lasted for months or years and often laid a
foundation to an unsettled early parenting period. We couldn"t
sit down, move our bowels, had burning when we urinated, pain on
sex, vaginal wind, infections from tears or incisions, along
with pain in our pubic bone or tail bone. Some women breezed
through labour and the recovery. The Pink Kit Method just makes
it possible for more women to do that. Maybe we won"t all breeze
through it, but we"ll work better with the process in a
conscious manner with the skills we"ve taught ourselves through
our preparation. The first two foundations of The Pink Kit
Method deal with some of these physical issues because we are
now able to create a mobile birthing body and learn how to relax
inside and prepare our birth canal.
The 3rd foundation of The Pink Kit Method is the Managing
Skills. We all acknowledge that childbirth is a huge event in
our lives and our children. We also know that most of us have
never been to a birth and don"t have a clue what happens much
less what to do, how to act or behave. The Managing Skills give
us more subjective yet vitally important skills. Do you know
that women who niggle for several days are more likely to get
tired before progressive labour establishes if they don"t have
good coping skills? We can prevent that by asking a simple
question "What do you want to do now?" and learning how to calm
our mind and understand this early, kind phase of childibirth.
Are you aware that while in labour it"s vitally important to
stay in the NOW and apply good management skills at each and
every moment throughout your labour? We don"t have to wait until
the pain of labour is threatening our self control. Instead we
can stay on top of the sensations when we apply our skills. Can
you imagine working with your husband, partner, relative or
friend really well? We can learn to form a good team between
ourselves and the person or people who are their to support us.
Childbirth is a whole picture, not just another contraction. We
can learn these subjective skills that work to integrate our
Pink Kit preparation into our own experience. Of course, there"s
a section on when to use The Pink Kit skills you"ve taught
yourself. Our stories also told of our own self management
experience in and around what was happening to us or around us.
In other words, there were as many women who felt good about how
they had managed labour in hospital with all the assessments,
monitoring and procedure and health issues as there were women
who didn"t feel good about how they had managed their labour
even though they had accomplished a home birth.
Because our stories are so varied, the goal of The Pink Kit
Method has always been passing on the labour management skills
that work well in absolutely all birth situations so that each
of us can come away from our birth feeling positive about our
self management and how well our husband/partner coached us.
Childbirth is too full of variables or the unexpected to know
what it will be like; however, we can have skills to work
through the process as it unfolds. We can have skills that are
adaptable and transportable into any birth situation. No woman
should deprive herself of positive labour management skills
regardless of her choices or the necessity in regards to
maternity care or management. In other words, Common Knowledge
Trust bypasses the "either versus or" approach to childbirth
that has become familiar to so many of us. EITHER we will birth
in hospital with a doctor and have a medical birth OR we will
birth at home with a midwife and have a natural birth.
As we self managed labour, most of us felt that we had a natural
birth even when there was a great deal of medical care. We felt
that way because we felt good about how we had coped, managed
and responded to our own internal process of dilating and giving
birth. Many birth professionals admired our management and loved
that our husbands/partners were such good coaches. They wished
more couples could have such an experience. They often felt we
had had "lucky" or "easy" births because they so strongly felt
that childbirth is so unknown there is nothing we can do to
prepare for birth. We knew we had prepared for birth and then
used our good management and coaching skills to work through the
unknown journey as it evolved. We had conscious births.
We not only explored our own management of labour, we also
looked at the three most primal behaviours that accompanied
childbirth. They are so much part of Life that we hardly notice
them. However, the unique qualities of childbirth require unique
applications of these ordinary human behaviours.
The 4th foundation of The Pink Kit Method is New Focus: Breath,
Language and Touch. We will all breathe in labour, communicate
with our husband/partner and be physically touched (or not).
These are human behaviours that all of us share. Within these
three shared behaviours there are positive ways we can use them
in labour. In the 1970s when fathers came to help us, childbirth
education classes focused on breathing and relaxation
techniques. As birth discussions focused more on "choice" (birth
plans) and "information" (informed consent), the skills were
less stressed. In fact, a new belief around childbirth grew.
This belief told women that they breathed all the time and would
breathe in labour so there was nothing they needed to know.
Natural birth has incorporated many beliefs that have actually
acted to deskill women. It"s almost as though it"s become
admirable to believe the ideal birth is "intuitive" and
"instinctive" and requires little knowledge which might
interfere with the process. The stories that created The Pink
Kit Method approaches clearly show us that when we have positive
birth skills, we respond to the process of childbirth with a
consciousness unparalleled.
Unlike our traditional counterparts who are surrounded by people
closest to us who will help us each step of the way through
childbirth, we are often left alone either in hospital (checked
periodically) or a home by midwives who are giving us the space
to discover our own process. Either way, we can take our amazing
childbirth and coaching skills with us. When we do this, our
births become a conscious highlight in our lives. Through our
self learned skills we brought attunement to the birth of our
children.
New Focus: BLT is split into the Birth and Coach role. We have
different jobs do to in labour and giving birth yet we can use
the same knowledge to do those jobs well. When we work together
in labour, we develop close bonds with our husband, partner,
friends or relatives. It"s far better to bond with those close
to us than our birth provider no matter how wonderful. As a
labouring woman, we are required to look within ourselves. When
we coach our partner, we are looking at how she is responding to
the process from within herself. When we both use The Pink Kit
Method, then we stay on the same track.
In the Breath section, we learn that there are only 4 ways
humans breathe. Two are positive breath behaviours in childbirth
and two indicate that a woman isn"t coping well with the
sensations. From the birth role, we can learn how to use breath
as a focus, expand areas or relax specific areas of our body.
>From the coach role, we can learn how to hear whether a woman is
managing the sensations, how to model good breathing behaviour
to help her stay on track and how to help her expand and relax
specific areas.
In the Language section, we can learn the specific language that
really helps women to relax. We often use general language such
as "relax" when we see tension in a labouring woman. She is most
likely to turn to you and snarl. "you try", "I"m trying" or
"shut up". Instead we can specifically tell her to "soften in
your lower back". This gives her the place and action and she"ll
to do it. She"s momentarily forgotten or not observed that
specific tension because the sensations at the moment are BIG.
In this section we can learn that verbal messages take a wee bit
of time to go in the ear, through the brain, to the body and
back to the brain. So you learn about the importance of pausing.
Language or communication can be non-verbal as well. In labour
the ability to give each other cues to convey information is
important. Particularly in the rigorous part of labour, women
short form communication.
In the Touch section of New Focus you learn the type of touch
that produces deep internal relaxation. This form of deep,
rising touch allows all the connective tissue (fascia) to relax.
Most people don"t realize the importance of fascia and how much
tense can be stored there. Most people think of tension being
caused by muscles. Try this so you can understand the difference
between muscles (which is part of soft tissue or connective
tissue) and fascia (which is also part of soft/connective tissue
and what we need to relax in labour along with specific
muscles).
Sit or stand and look straight ahead. Relax your head, neck and
shoulders yet still keep your head facing forward. Put your
index finger on your forehead about an inch above the outer edge
of your eyebrow. Remember keep your head facing forward no
matter what. Start to apply pressure to turn your head and
continue to increase that pressure. Hopefully, you"ll notice
that it takes very little effort to keep your head facing
forward even when you apply a great deal of pressure to turn
your head.
In labour, that simple fixed or frozen soft tissue (inside of
the container) can stop mobility, openness and space. Babies
need space to move through you. Couple that fixed or frozen
fascia with tensing up your muscles, then you can imagine why
the object might have a struggle to get out of the container. Go
back to your exercise above and add muscle tension. Our coach
can see muscle tension but not see connective tissue tension.
Both the Birth and Coach role need to work to reduce that
tension, particularly when it"s inside.
When we combine all these Pink Kit skills, this common sense and
self knowledge we gain then we can approach childbirth with
confidence in our ability to move through the process of giving
birth. We don"t have to like one moment of it. Often our own
greatest personal achievements are the accomplishments we have
during challenging experiences.
|
|
Monday, 20 October 2008 05:01 |
|
There are 4 foundations to The Pink Kit Method for birthing
body™. The 1st foundation has been put into the multi-media
resource called The Pink Kit: Essential Preparations for your
birthing body. In the video and interactive book, expectant
parents will learn the body knowledge that makes such common
sense you"ll wonder why you haven"t known it before. We can map
our pelvis and know our own shape. That shape helps us find
positions that keep us open rather than assume that certain
positions are better than others. We can create inner relaxation
with the pelvic clock and create more space for our baby with
the hip lift, sacral manoeuvre and sit bone spread. We can use a
type of directed breathing that we can use to focus our
attention, expand or relax specific areas of our body.
Childbirth is a simple plumbing exercise. An object has to come
through and out of a container. To do that it must pass through
a tube (pelvis), open a diaphragm (cervix) and aperture
(vagina). The object likes space, room and not to have its
passage bent.
In the multi-media kit is located the 2nd foundation of The Pink
Kit Method on an audio tape called The Internal Work. This is
the vital internal work or how to prepare your birth canal ...
the aperture. The plumbing concept of birth seems easy yet some
things get in the way. We are the container. We bring to
childbirth our structure, our ability to relax or tense up and
accept the process of childbirth which can be very painful or
fight against it. The goal of The Pink Kit Method is for each of
us to create mobility and flexibility in our structure and learn
to relax even when the sensations are very painful. Fortunately
we can use our incredible human mind and make choices about our
behaviours when we have the skills based on our preparation. We
can only make realistic choices in our behaviours when we have
the knowledge. The Pink Kit is the knowledge. Preparing our
birth canal:
· Creates a soft aperture for our baby to come through. ·
Teaches us to respond to the sensations in 2nd stage rather than
react. (Feeling we will have a bowel motion, the stinging
sensations of the stretching can cause women to pull back from
the down urge.) · Prevents trauma to the soft tissue of our
vagina.
An adjunctive resource was developed to step you through The
Pink Kit video called Companion Guide. Although the sections in
the video are easy to follow, many people wanted written
instructions as well. This resource also introduces 3 new
exercises: Kate"s Cat, Thai Massage, Letting Down Reflex along
with two new concepts: Common language which develops good
communication with your partner/husband and the concept that
there are defined skills for the Birth and Coach Role. These
concepts are expanded in the 4th foundation New Focus: Breath,
Language and Touch.
Primarily the stories we told about childbirth were about the
physical experience we had. We spoke about pain, or lack of it.
We had back labours, failure to dilate, babies that stayed high
in the pelvis, vaginas that tore, were cut or didn"t open easily
or ones that opened in one contraction. We had quick, very
intense births and painless ones. We had long, lingering labours
that didn"t seem to get started and when they did we were dog
tired. Story after story told of us that birth is primarily a
physical experience. Some of those experiences were absolutely
wonderful. Many women do just "get labour". Realistically, many
women don"t get labour. The use of medical pain relief is an
attempt to prevent women from suffering too much pain in the
process of childbirth. If women were really "getting labour"
they won"t be using pain relief.
In our stories, we spoke about residual pain or lack of it.
Residual pain often lasted for months or years and often laid a
foundation to an unsettled early parenting period. We couldn"t
sit down, move our bowels, had burning when we urinated, pain on
sex, vaginal wind, infections from tears or incisions, along
with pain in our pubic bone or tail bone. Some women breezed
through labour and the recovery. The Pink Kit Method just makes
it possible for more women to do that. Maybe we won"t all breeze
through it, but we"ll work better with the process in a
conscious manner with the skills we"ve taught ourselves through
our preparation. The first two foundations of The Pink Kit
Method deal with some of these physical issues because we are
now able to create a mobile birthing body and learn how to relax
inside and prepare our birth canal.
The 3rd foundation of The Pink Kit Method is the Managing
Skills. We all acknowledge that childbirth is a huge event in
our lives and our children. We also know that most of us have
never been to a birth and don"t have a clue what happens much
less what to do, how to act or behave. The Managing Skills give
us more subjective yet vitally important skills. Do you know
that women who niggle for several days are more likely to get
tired before progressive labour establishes if they don"t have
good coping skills? We can prevent that by asking a simple
question "What do you want to do now?" and learning how to calm
our mind and understand this early, kind phase of childibirth.
Are you aware that while in labour it"s vitally important to
stay in the NOW and apply good management skills at each and
every moment throughout your labour? We don"t have to wait until
the pain of labour is threatening our self control. Instead we
can stay on top of the sensations when we apply our skills. Can
you imagine working with your husband, partner, relative or
friend really well? We can learn to form a good team between
ourselves and the person or people who are their to support us.
Childbirth is a whole picture, not just another contraction. We
can learn these subjective skills that work to integrate our
Pink Kit preparation into our own experience. Of course, there"s
a section on when to use The Pink Kit skills you"ve taught
yourself. Our stories also told of our own self management
experience in and around what was happening to us or around us.
In other words, there were as many women who felt good about how
they had managed labour in hospital with all the assessments,
monitoring and procedure and health issues as there were women
who didn"t feel good about how they had managed their labour
even though they had accomplished a home birth.
Because our stories are so varied, the goal of The Pink Kit
Method has always been passing on the labour management skills
that work well in absolutely all birth situations so that each
of us can come away from our birth feeling positive about our
self management and how well our husband/partner coached us.
Childbirth is too full of variables or the unexpected to know
what it will be like; however, we can have skills to work
through the process as it unfolds. We can have skills that are
adaptable and transportable into any birth situation. No woman
should deprive herself of positive labour management skills
regardless of her choices or the necessity in regards to
maternity care or management. In other words, Common Knowledge
Trust bypasses the "either versus or" approach to childbirth
that has become familiar to so many of us. EITHER we will birth
in hospital with a doctor and have a medical birth OR we will
birth at home with a midwife and have a natural birth.
As we self managed labour, most of us felt that we had a natural
birth even when there was a great deal of medical care. We felt
that way because we felt good about how we had coped, managed
and responded to our own internal process of dilating and giving
birth. Many birth professionals admired our management and loved
that our husbands/partners were such good coaches. They wished
more couples could have such an experience. They often felt we
had had "lucky" or "easy" births because they so strongly felt
that childbirth is so unknown there is nothing we can do to
prepare for birth. We knew we had prepared for birth and then
used our good management and coaching skills to work through the
unknown journey as it evolved. We had conscious births.
We not only explored our own management of labour, we also
looked at the three most primal behaviours that accompanied
childbirth. They are so much part of Life that we hardly notice
them. However, the unique qualities of childbirth require unique
applications of these ordinary human behaviours.
The 4th foundation of The Pink Kit Method is New Focus: Breath,
Language and Touch. We will all breathe in labour, communicate
with our husband/partner and be physically touched (or not).
These are human behaviours that all of us share. Within these
three shared behaviours there are positive ways we can use them
in labour. In the 1970s when fathers came to help us, childbirth
education classes focused on breathing and relaxation
techniques. As birth discussions focused more on "choice" (birth
plans) and "information" (informed consent), the skills were
less stressed. In fact, a new belief around childbirth grew.
This belief told women that they breathed all the time and would
breathe in labour so there was nothing they needed to know.
Natural birth has incorporated many beliefs that have actually
acted to deskill women. It"s almost as though it"s become
admirable to believe the ideal birth is "intuitive" and
"instinctive" and requires little knowledge which might
interfere with the process. The stories that created The Pink
Kit Method approaches clearly show us that when we have positive
birth skills, we respond to the process of childbirth with a
consciousness unparalleled.
Unlike our traditional counterparts who are surrounded by people
closest to us who will help us each step of the way through
childbirth, we are often left alone either in hospital (checked
periodically) or a home by midwives who are giving us the space
to discover our own process. Either way, we can take our amazing
childbirth and coaching skills with us. When we do this, our
births become a conscious highlight in our lives. Through our
self learned skills we brought attunement to the birth of our
children.
New Focus: BLT is split into the Birth and Coach role. We have
different jobs do to in labour and giving birth yet we can use
the same knowledge to do those jobs well. When we work together
in labour, we develop close bonds with our husband, partner,
friends or relatives. It"s far better to bond with those close
to us than our birth provider no matter how wonderful. As a
labouring woman, we are required to look within ourselves. When
we coach our partner, we are looking at how she is responding to
the process from within herself. When we both use The Pink Kit
Method, then we stay on the same track.
In the Breath section, we learn that there are only 4 ways
humans breathe. Two are positive breath behaviours in childbirth
and two indicate that a woman isn"t coping well with the
sensations. From the birth role, we can learn how to use breath
as a focus, expand areas or relax specific areas of our body.
>From the coach role, we can learn how to hear whether a woman is
managing the sensations, how to model good breathing behaviour
to help her stay on track and how to help her expand and relax
specific areas.
In the Language section, we can learn the specific language that
really helps women to relax. We often use general language such
as "relax" when we see tension in a labouring woman. She is most
likely to turn to you and snarl. "you try", "I"m trying" or
"shut up". Instead we can specifically tell her to "soften in
your lower back". This gives her the place and action and she"ll
to do it. She"s momentarily forgotten or not observed that
specific tension because the sensations at the moment are BIG.
In this section we can learn that verbal messages take a wee bit
of time to go in the ear, through the brain, to the body and
back to the brain. So you learn about the importance of pausing.
Language or communication can be non-verbal as well. In labour
the ability to give each other cues to convey information is
important. Particularly in the rigorous part of labour, women
short form communication.
In the Touch section of New Focus you learn the type of touch
that produces deep internal relaxation. This form of deep,
rising touch allows all the connective tissue (fascia) to relax.
Most people don"t realize the importance of fascia and how much
tense can be stored there. Most people think of tension being
caused by muscles. Try this so you can understand the difference
between muscles (which is part of soft tissue or connective
tissue) and fascia (which is also part of soft/connective tissue
and what we need to relax in labour along with specific
muscles).
Sit or stand and look straight ahead. Relax your head, neck and
shoulders yet still keep your head facing forward. Put your
index finger on your forehead about an inch above the outer edge
of your eyebrow. Remember keep your head facing forward no
matter what. Start to apply pressure to turn your head and
continue to increase that pressure. Hopefully, you"ll notice
that it takes very little effort to keep your head facing
forward even when you apply a great deal of pressure to turn
your head.
In labour, that simple fixed or frozen soft tissue (inside of
the container) can stop mobility, openness and space. Babies
need space to move through you. Couple that fixed or frozen
fascia with tensing up your muscles, then you can imagine why
the object might have a struggle to get out of the container. Go
back to your exercise above and add muscle tension. Our coach
can see muscle tension but not see connective tissue tension.
Both the Birth and Coach role need to work to reduce that
tension, particularly when it"s inside.
When we combine all these Pink Kit skills, this common sense and
self knowledge we gain then we can approach childbirth with
confidence in our ability to move through the process of giving
birth. We don"t have to like one moment of it. Often our own
greatest personal achievements are the accomplishments we have
during challenging experiences.
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