Singing

In my interview with Hakim Archuletta's he briefly mentioned singing (and offered to conduct the entire interview whilst singing!)as a good preparation for labor. Michel Odent, a French obstetrician who has dedicated his life to natural, uninterrupted childbirth, used to conduct singing sessions in place of some of the prenatals. Here is an excerpt from Odent's book entitled, "Birth and Breastfeeding: Rediscovering the Needs of Women During Pregnancy". In this excerpt he talks about how a pregnant woman's brain changes and how becoming more in touch with our mammalian, and our human sides, is most befitting for this time in our lives, and actually congruent with the brain changes occurring in a woman's brain during gestation.




Labor is another excellent time to use our voice. It can be a wonderful coping technique especially for the intense contractions at the end of labor. Anything from moaning, "oooooopppeennn", "ooommmm", or even 'Allllaaahhh", relaxes our throat muscles, channels the pain and energy of the contraction, and in turn relaxes our pelvic area. Ina May Gaskin, America's legendary midwife, is famous for saying "Loose lips make loose hips". It's true, try it even now, not pregnant. Blow a raspberry and feel if you can't feel where you are making contact with the ground, or chair, more fully. I love this following video of a woman singing through her labor. She has two big contractions while singing which are almost impossible to distinguish. A couple of hours after this video was taken, she delivered a ten pound baby at home!



So try singing as a preparation for labor, and for life, and for all those lullabies that are sure to come!