Maternity Acupressure

WOMEN who give birth with the aid of pain-relieving epidurals find it harder to breastfeed than those who give birth naturally, an Australian study has found.

The research suggests some of the drugs used in epidurals make their way into babies’ bloodstreams, subtly affecting their brains and development for weeks afterwards — including making them less willing to breastfeed. The study by University of Sydney epidemiologist Siranda Torvaldsen adds to a growing body of knowledge that makes a link between the use of the pain-killing drug fentanyl in epidurals and problems with breastfeeding. During an epidural a catheter is inserted into the spine to allow the infusion of pain-killing drugs. These deaden the nerves that relay sensations of pain from the lower body.

In a commentary on the research, published today in International Breastfeeding Journal, British scientist Sue Jordan suggests the impact of epidurals on breastfeeding should be officially classed as an “adverse drug reaction”. Dr Jordan, senior lecturer in applied therapeutics at Swansea University, said women given the infusions should be offered extra support to stop their infants being “disadvantaged by this hidden, but far-reaching, adverse drug reaction”.

Dr Torvaldsen and her colleagues studied 1280 women who had given birth in the ACT, of whom 416 had an epidural. They found that 93 per cent of the women breastfed their baby in the first week, but those who had received epidurals generally had more difficulty in the days immediately after birth.

By the time six months had passed, the women who had been given epidurals were twice as likely to have stopped breast-feeding, even after allowing for factors such as maternal age and education. The authors suggest the most likely cause of the problem was fentanyl, an opioid widely used as one of the components of epidurals. Such drugs pass quickly into the bloodstream and easily cross the placenta to reach the unborn baby.

Dr Torvaldsen said she conducted the research after speaking to lactation consultants who had noticed that since the addition of fentanyl in epidurals they had seen more women having problems breastfeeding.

She said her research added to other studies in the area, particularly a Canadian study that examined fentanyl dosages and breastfeeding outcomes. The Canadian study of 177 mothers found they were less likely to be breastfeeding if they had been given an epidural with fentanyl. Joy Heads, a lactation consultant at Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women, said similar problems had been seen when the pain-killer pethidine had been given to mothers in late stages of labour.

She said some newborn babies had lost their “sucking co-ordination” if the mother had an intra-muscular injection of the pethidine in the last half hour of a normal delivery.

This article, “Epidural babies can’t get grip on what’s breast” by David King, was published in The Australian on December 11, 2006.

Acupressure is a holistic system that builds on what the body is already doing right. In this way, the use of acupressure can be remarkably beneficial during labor. Acupressure can be very helpful in descending your baby, dilating your cervix, and making the contractions more frequent and successful. Acupressure shortens the delivery time by helping your body to use its remarkable underlying capabilities better, thus reducing the risk that your baby gets distressed or suffers, in any other way, from a prolonged labor.

Additionally, acupressure can be used to induce labor of a full-time pregnancy. Encouraging your labor to start is a very tempting option when you have reached your 42nd pregnancy week. Studies show that acupressure and the Japanese technique of “shiatsu” induce labor quite effectively. Actually, acupressure is one of the natural labor inducing remedies that has scientifically been shown to work effectively. This is why acupressure is a favorite technique among pregnant women to induce labor.
Acupressure is easy to master without previous experience. Most importantly, it has no side effects. Thus, acupressure is strongly recommendable than medical induction, or the many other “at-home” remedies, which could be dominated with side effects.

Get the whole story of Acupressure For Labor here.

When you are in pain during the birthing process, it’s your right to request the form of pain management that is safe, affective, and desirable to you!

Methods of managing labor pain is not, however, a decision made when you are in labor. It needs educating yourself and planning.

There are quite many options for labor pain management. Most mothers will use a combination of two or more methods to help with labor pain.

Holistic methods are natural  and drug-free techniques of managing labor pain. These include walking, birthing balls, squatting, water birthing, shower, massage and especially reflexology, shiatsu and acupressure throughout your labor to help you deal with labor pain.

Many of the holistic labor pain methods are simple and can be mastered quickly by your support person. If you choose, you can also hire a professional doula or midwife to give you labor pain relief. This has been shown to remarkably decrease the need of any pain medication and c-section and shorten the delivery time.

Labor acupressure for labor pains.
 

Many women have a good experience with epidurals. Sometimes the labor pain relief can allow you to rest and relax sufficiently to go on and have a good birth experience.

It’s good to know, however, that an epidural for labor pain relief can also lead to a “cascade of intervention”, where an otherwise normal birth becomes highly medicalized, and you might feel that you lose control and autonomy over your own body, labor and baby.

Educate yourself by visiting
http://www.maternityacupressure.com/epidural-side-effects-and-complications.html

Many women, especially with their first babies, think they are in labor when they’re not. This is called false labor. So don’t feel embarrassed if you go to the hospital thinking you’re in labor, only to be sent home!

If you think labor has begun, you should call your doctor or midwife. They can decide if it’s time to go to the hospital or if you should be seen at the office first. Learn the signs of labor so you will know when the time has come.

Call your doctor if you experience any of the following:

1. Contractions that come at regular and increasingly shorter intervals. Contractions should also become stronger over time.
2. You have lower back pain that doesn’t go away. You might also feel premenstrual and crampy.
3. Your water breaks (can be a large gush or a continuous trickle).
4. You have a bloody (brownish or red-tinged) mucous discharge. This is probably the mucous plug that blocks the cervix. Losing your mucous plug usually means your cervix is dilating (opening up) and becoming thinner and softer (effacing). Labor could start right away or may still be days away.

If you have reached 42nd week of your pregnancy but don’t have clear signs of labor, www.MaternityAcupressure.com helps to encourage your labor to start naturally.

Many women, especially with their first babies, think they are in labor when they’re not. This is called false labor. So don’t feel embarrassed if you go to the hospital thinking you’re in labor, only to be sent home!

If you think labor has begun, you should call your doctor or midwife. They can decide if it’s time to go to the hospital or if you should be seen at the office first. Learn the signs of labor so you will know when the time has come.

Call your doctor if you experience any of the following:

1. Contractions that come at regular and increasingly shorter intervals. Contractions should also become stronger over time.
2. You have lower back pain that doesn’t go away. You might also feel premenstrual and crampy.
3. Your water breaks (can be a large gush or a continuous trickle).
4. You have a bloody (brownish or red-tinged) mucous discharge. This is probably the mucous plug that blocks the cervix. Losing your mucous plug usually means your cervix is dilating (opening up) and becoming thinner and softer (effacing). Labor could start right away or may still be days away.

If you have reached 42nd weeks of your pregnancy and don’t have clear signs of labor, www.MaternityAcupressure.com helps to encourage your labor to start naturally.

A review by The Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) suggests that medical induction of labor is overused. The U.S. induction rate has more than doubled since 1989, rising from one woman in ten to one woman in five in 2001. This may, however, grossly undercount the true incidence of labor induction. Nearly half of women in a 2002 survey reported that some effort had been made to start labor artificially. The World Health Organization recommends no more than a 10 percent induction rate.

Despite modern techniques, induction of labor still introduces considerable risk compared with natural onset of labor, and many, if not most, inductions are done for reasons that are not supported by sound medical research.

Risks of Medical Labor Induction

First-time mothers have approximately twice the likelihood of cesarean section with induction compared with natural onset of labor. This risk is due to the procedure itself, not any reason that might have led to inducing labor. Inducing labor at 41 weeks in a hypothetical population of 100,000 first-time mothers will result in somewhere between 3,700 and 8,200 excess cesareans and cost an extra $29 to $39 million.

Women who have had prior vaginal births may increase their chances of cesarean section five-fold if the cervix is not ready for labor, and they are given cervical ripening agents. Inducing 100,000 hypothetical women with prior births at 41 weeks will result in between 100 and 2,300 excess cesareans and cost an extra $25 to $26 million.

All induction agents can cause uterine hyperstimulation (contractions too long, too strong, and too close together and higher baseline muscle tension). Uterine hyperstimulation can cause fetal distress. This means that, paradoxically, inducing labor because of concern over the baby’s condition may cause the very problem the induction was intended to forestall while the baby might have tolerated natural labor.

Induction of labor involves the need for other interventions — IV drip, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, usually confinement to bed — that also can have adverse effects.

Rupturing fetal membranes, a routine component of labor induction, can cause fetal distress and increases the likelihood of cesarean section. It may also precipitate umbilical cord prolapse (a life-threatening emergency for the baby in which the umbilical cord slips down into the vagina). Forty percent of all full term births involving cord prolapse were induced labors, rising to nearly 50% of births involving prolapse at 42 weeks or more.

Induced labors are usually more painful, which can increase the need for epidural analgesia. (Ref. 3) Epidurals introduce a higher probability of a host of adverse effects on the labor, the baby, and the mother.

Women with prior cesarean sections have a slightly increased probability of the scar giving way with Pitocin induction (8 per 1,000 vs 5 per 1,000 with spontaneous labor onset) and greatly increased risk when prostaglandins (24 per 1,000) are used for cervical ripening or induction. Prostaglandins include Cytotec (misoprostol), Prepidil (prostaglandin E2), and Cervidil (prostaglandin E2).

The whole article about the risks of medical labor induction is posted to
http://www.MaternityAcupressure.com/labor-induction-risks.html