IntroductionLabor and birth is an important life-changing event. How labor is perceived prior to the event often effects how the event is experienced. Labor is a powerful, yet healthy, force. Women must trust themselves, their bodies and their support people. They need to accept the work their bodies will do to accomplish the task of giving birth. The support people around the laboring woman, especially the coach, need to understand the work her body must do. The baby is resilient and ready for the transition to extra-uterine life. Labor is a healthy process for the baby, stimulating the baby for independent respirations and other bodily functions. Unfortunately, “an almost exclusive focus on the physical aspects of birth has led to routine interventions and the loss of perspective of birth as a normal event”. Sharron S. Homerick, Ph.D., ACCE. “Labor is two people working together, mother and baby. A mother must yield to wherever her baby takes her in labor. Her work is hard and requires access to her own strength, and it is easy, because she can only follow her baby. There is no other choice. It is this combination of strength, and yielding that brings a woman through birth in a manner in which she is able to learn more about herself…” Gayle Peterson, MSSW, LCSW. The course of a labor is greatly influenced by the mental preconditioning of a woman and her coach. During the course of this Lamaze class series, I will endeavor to equip you with the best knowledge and training possible to give you the tools necessary to cope with your labor. Good luck, God bless you, and practice, practice, practice. Stacy D. McCullough Next: Fetal Development |