Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon

Author:Susan McCutcheon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2017-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

WHERE ARE YOU SQUATTING?

What’s wrong with squatting in a bed? Your heels sink back into the mattress and your feet end up at an unnatural angle with the potential to cause damage. And don’t assume the bed is a sterile place to birth. Many times I have seen a mother in labor jump out of bed and run to the bathroom, too absorbed in her labor to bother with the slippers by the bed. Those feet of hers, the very ones that just traipsed across the floor, go right back to the bed with her.

COACH: The woman in advanced labor just doesn’t care about all these things; she’s too absorbed with her labor, so the job falls to you to be mindful and be prepared to grab those slippers and get them on her feet. Hospitals harbor some of the worst bacteria; after all, except for birthing mothers, nearly everyone else in a hospital is sick.

Some women enlist their doctor’s help or their nurse’s help to make a safe, dedicated space on the floor for squatting. I watched as a mother asked her doctor to help her do this. She told him she brought a quilted pad and a fresh sheet. He helped her spread the fresh sheet out, and on top of that my students put down a quilted pad, like the kind you find for diaper tables in baby stores. Others have used a quilted pad for a twin bed. (Get it washed ahead of the due date and baked dry in a hot dryer; pick a flat one, not one with corners.) Over that, the nurses put down a few chux pads, which you can find in most drugstores. Hospitals have them, but take some of your own so you have them readily available the minute you want them.

Set up near a wall, in case you want to sit for a moment and have some back support. A rolled-up towel provides a comfy as well as a slightly raised place for you to sit when the head emerges. That makes it easier for the baby’s head to drop down a bit and the shoulder to emerge.

Another mother, wanting to use the full squat in a different hospital, enlisted the nurse’s help. This brilliant nurse came up with an innovative idea! This mom did not want a water birth, but the nurse encouraged her to use the empty water-birth tub for squatting and pushing. This obviated the need to set up a sterile place on the floor.

Remember, here’s something I said when we started talking about positions, but it bears repeating: Women should have more freedom to move around and to choose positions that work best for them. This change is not happening everywhere, and not all at once, but more options are becoming available for women who seek them out.

When you are in a full squat (not the sitting squat), your weight is a force. When I taught physics classes, I always made my students rewrite any

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