Curriculum Topic: Group Activity, Educator Demonstration, Virtual Friendly
Activity Type: Healthy Birth Practice 2, Healthy Birth Practice 5
Supplies: Paper/pencils
Paper or flip charts
Instructions:
Divide the class into groups or have partners work together. Brainstorm ways in which they have listened to their “gut” or instinct in beneficial ways. Show videos of birthing people working through labor "instinctually".
Talking Points:
Examples of Instinctive Behaviors
- If left to their own devices, almost all birthing people will remain out-of-bed during labor and birth, frequently changing positions and using movements that facilitate the descent of the baby and ease pain.
- They often adopt rhythmic movements such as rocking, bouncing, or swaying, which stimulate mechanoreceptors to “close the gate” to pain messages, thus lessening pain.
- Birthing parents often like to squeeze someone’s hand during labor contractions. Again, the pressure of squeezing stimulates mechanoreceptors in the palms of the hand which reduces pain perception.
- In traditional societies, birthing individuals give birth in upright positions such as kneeling, standing, and squatting that allow gravity to aid the descent of the baby.
- Immediately after the birth, most people reach for their babies, desiring immediate skin-to-skin contact with their babies.
- When babies cry, a parent's instinct is to pick up their baby. Psychologists today believe that a baby’s first task is to learn to trust. If their needs are met, they develops that sense of trust and feelings of security.
Storytelling: Tell stories of people devising their own rituals that help them through birth.
Reference: Adapted from the Lamaze Toolkit
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