Curriculum Topic: Group Activity, Ice Breaker
Activity Type: Healthy Birth Practice 1, Anatomy
Purpose: The birthing body is amazing. It already knows how to conceive a baby, grow a baby, nourish a baby, and then labor and birth a baby. All of the "parts" are there by design. This is something we can not complete in a lab. Helps to grow confidence in how your body is designed to give birth.
Supplies: Laminated cards labeled with the following terms and a separate set of cards with the definitions:
UTERUS: Organ that starts as the size of a fist but stretches 1000x in pregnancy. Strongest muscle in the human body!
CONTRACTION: Uternine force needed to guide your baby to birth.
CERVIX: Lower part of the uterus that opens into the birth canal.
DILATATION: Opening of the certvix during labor. Measured in centimeters.
EFFACEMENT: Thinning of the cervix during labor. Measured in percentages.
AMNIOTIC FLUID: Approximately one liter but re-circulates at the rate of one cup per hour.
PLACENTA: Organ that exchanges nutrients and waste between mother and baby.
VAGINA: Otherwise known as the "birth canal"
PERINEUM: The external tissues surrounding the urethra, vagina, and anus.
UMBILICAL CORD: Connects the baby to the placenta
ISCHIAL SPINES: Most narrow part of the pelvis. Baby has to fit through these while descending through the pelvis.
RELAXIN: Hormone that relaxes pelvic ligaments. FUNDUS: The top or uppermost portion of the uterus.
STATION: The distance of the baby's presenting part (usually the head) to the ischial spines. Measured in centimeters from -2 (baby is still high) to +4 (baby is birthing).
Instructions:
Use as many of the term/definition cards you want. Randomly pass them out and have the participants find the match to their card. Once all of the cards have been matched, go around the room and each dyad reads their cards. You can point out the anatomy on a poster or slide as it is mentioned
Talking Points:
Identifying and defining each of the anatomical terms. But, also interjecting some "amazing facts" makes this activity more fun. Use your own terms/definitions to match your own talking points you want to emphasize.
Modifications:
-This can be used as a "meet and greet"
- A vocabulary card is adhered (by Velcro) onto the Growing Uterus poster, by each participant.
Reference: Adapted from the Lamaze Toolkit
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