Making Your Birthplace Like Home & Why It Matters

Often when we head to our birthplace we are walking away from all of the things that bring us comfort. What if we told you that there was a way to create more of an at-home experience in whatever setting you're birthing in AND that it will even help your labor to progress more comfortably? Oxytocin and adrenaline have an interesting relationship and when oxytocin is flowing it's generally due in part to mom feeling safe and being able to relax. Hint: Oxytocin is the hormone that causes contractions and the same hormone that flows during intercourse. Naturally, if you can find a way to be more relaxed and feel safe, your body will react positively to those feelings.

Show Notes

3:30 - Everything in the hospital is so generic and wipedown-able (yuuup, that's a word now). Literally from the walls, to the pillows, to the waterproof covered bed to the linoleum floor, most of it screams, "This is not home."

11:40 - Hospital gowns. They're uncomfortable, drafty, there are buttons and ties where they shouldn't be...we can agree on this, right?!

14:47 - Hospital monitors are a major distraction to both mom and birth support during labor. Birth support starts watching and listening to the monitors instead of tuning into the rhythm of birth and the mother's body.

21:39 - All the things that you can do to make your birth space feel like home when you are not birthing home.

34:45 - When you are comfortable and oxytocin is flowing freely, your birth is able to progress just as it should. These simple things we are teaching here about creating a more home-like environment no matter where you are will assist in the progression and comfort of your birth. Don't discount the little things!