Curriculum Topic: Educator Demonstration
Activity Type: Labor & Birth, Healthy Birth Practice 1, Anatomy, Healthy Birth Practice 5
Purpose: This reinforces that a woman’s body was made for birth!
Supplies: Charts or Powerpoint and Pelvic Models (A good picture of this is in the Birth Atlas if you have access to one. They were produced by Childbirth Connection, but are no longer available as new.)
Instructions:
Use anatomical charts or PowerPoint slides and pelvic model to look at how the pregnant body changes.
Set-Up:
Area for Presentation
Talking Points:
Hormones which cause muscles and ligaments to relax may be responsible for heartburn and urine leaks, but they also will allow the birth canal and pelvis to open for the birth of the baby (use model pelvis). The female pelvis differs from the male pelvis in shape (wider pelvic outlet) and in greater flexibility (ligamentous laxity due to hormones). The baby is protected in the pelvis when it is the most vulnerable in the early months, and by the amniotic sac throughout the pregnancy. Reinforce the positive aspects of the pregnant body changes.
Reference: Adapted from the Lamaze Toolkit
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