I recently had a midwife tell me about the 3 P’s of labor. I’ve known these things about I haven’t heard it used this way. I really liked it, it made sense to me and was easy to remember. Now I’m going to inform you.
ready??
PSYCHE
Your mind must stay relaxed and calm. This signals your body it is ok to open up. in order to achieve this, you must trust your body that it knows what to do. You must trust your baby that s/he knows how to come out. You must trust your provider that they are taking care of you. You must trust your partner that they are in it with you and taking care of you. having a doula by your side to make sure your birth preferences are being listened to and to remind you how capable you are can help achieve this.
POSITION
Baby has a long journey from belly to your arms. They have to tuck their limbs and head and make their way down the longest 4 inches (the birth canal) of your life. Asking ”where is baby?” And looking at external cues (such as standing on tiptoes, rocking back and forth vs side to side) can help us gauge where baby is. when your provider does an internal exam that can give us more pieces of the puzzle and help suggest effective positions and movements to help baby get into the most effective position to descend and not have a long labor.
POWER
The third P of labor is power. We need contraction. We need long and strong contractions to help the baby turn and come on down. Sometimes a reason your contractions aren’t coming is because baby isn’t engaged. There are multiple ways we can encourage baby to come down such as duck walking, curb walking, inversions Etc. In hospital births sometimes the drug Pitocin is introduced to help your body have a more consistent labor pattern
did you know about the 3 P’s of labor?? Did any of them surprise you??
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