Curriculum Topic: Group Activity, Individual Activity, Practice
Activity Type: Labor & Birth, Healthy Birth Practice 1, Pregnancy
Purpose: In addition to encouraging a healthy lifestyle through good nutrition, exercise, and prenatal care, it is important to help pregnant women manage the stresses of life. It is helpful for those in early pregnancy to teach them to “tune in” to their bodies and practice awareness throughout their pregnancy.
Pregnancy and impending birth cause varying degrees of stress on a woman, depending on the circumstances of the pregnancy and the people involved. Not all stress is bad. Normal short-term stressors can help women take on new challenges. However, severe prolonged stress such as that associated with a divorce, abuse, catastrophic events, or depression can threaten the mother’s health and affect the baby.
Having a support system of friends, family, and professionals to call on will help her to cope. The childbirth educator can provide students with information about the normalcy as well as the warning signs of pregnancy and help women consider who they will call when they feel stress or concern. Discuss the role of a doula in class. Most doulas include prenatal consultations during pregnancy once they are hired to attend a birth.
Most of the time, discomforts of pregnancy are normal occurrences that go along with a growing, changing body. Yet there are times when a woman’s concerns need attention. She needs to be reassured that it is always appropriate to seek help from her care provider if for any reason she thinks or feels that something is wrong.
Regular aerobic exercise is one of the best stress relievers around. Prenatal yoga helps release tension and helps the mother to become “in tune” with her body. Relaxation strategies such as progressive relaxation and visualization can help students take a break during their busy lives and let go of tension.
Time Needed: 10 min for each relaxation script
Instructions:
Teaching relaxation is an art that is acquired with time and patience. First learn to relax yourself; then it will be much easier to teach others. It may be helpful to begin with a recorded session that you play for your class as you join them in relaxing.
Find a comfortable spot for yourself and model a relaxing position as you introduce the session with a soft, relaxing voice. Dimming the lights in the classroom, playing soft music, and shutting out distracting noises and movement are helpful but not always possible. Begin and end relaxation sessions by allowing students time to slowly lead into a relaxed state, and to slowly arouse for the next activity. Do not rush! Not everyone will respond to every method, so offer a variety of techniques for releasing tension. Be sure to give couples time and permission to feed back to one another in a non-judgemental way. If they cannot communicate their needs, they will not be helpful to one another in releasing tension. Open discussion to the class for those who would like to share what they experienced following each exercise.
Set-Up:
This exercise may be done while sitting in chairs or on the floor. It does not require reclining with pillows. It may be taught anytime, practiced anywhere. Consider dimming the lights and making the room as comfortable as possible.
Talking Points:
Relaxation Techniques:
1.) Progressive relaxation helps students become aware of how a muscle feels when it is contracted, stretched, and released. Work one muscle group at a time, from head to toe. Ask the student to determine whether it is easier to release a muscle after tensing it, stretching it, or neither.
2.) Selective relaxation reinforces muscle isolation. Not all muscles are tense or all released at the same time. In labor, it is beneficial for some women to focus on relaxing other muscles as the uterus contracts.
3.)Touch and massage techniques should be demonstrated and practiced, so that each student learns to perform them. Allow time for each to be the giver and the receiver of the massage, and to feed back to one another the type of touch each prefers. Practicing massage is a popular homework assignment!
4.)Visual imagery is a useful tool to help a woman reduce stress, relax, cope with her pain, and to think positively. It can even help labor progress. When using imagery, remember to:
– Consider the environment: space, music, lights, temperature, pillows.
– Suggest that distractions are fewer if they choose to close their eyes.
– Begin the image by describing the room where they are grounded and safe.
– Address distracting thoughts. They may put them in a box, on a shelf, or leave them by the roadside, and have them back after the exercise.
– Suggest a range of sensations they may experience, not just one.
– End the image by envisioning the same scenes passed as they left the room.
– Follow up with class discussion of the experiences of those who wish to share.
Modifications:
Spiraling Relaxation into Each Class
Class 1 – Progressive relaxation and tension awareness; hand massage
Class 2 – Selective relaxation; release to touch; autogenic phrases
Class 3 – Massage, stroking in various positions
Class 4 – Visual imagery; positive affirmations
Class 5 – Partners find mom’s “hidden tension” and help her to release it
Class 6 – Review all relaxation skills in a labor rehearsal
Reference: Adapted from Lamaze Toolkit
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