14 Strategies I Used to Give Birth Without Drugs (Twice)

I'm going to come right out and say it. Every woman has the right to approach labour feeling prepared, supported and confident.

And knowing what to do in the face of labour pain – let’s not beat around the bush, it is very intense, all-consuming pain – will be a huge help in preparing for your birth.

After my first was born terrifyingly quickly, and I spent those house feeling wildly out of control, I put my physio hat on and started searching for strategies to prepare for my second birth. And the second time round I felt calm, confident and in control. (Except for the very last bit when I told my husband I was done, he can have the baby, I'm quitting. And then my baby was born minutes later.)

So here are the strategies I used to birth my two babies without drugs.

EARLY LABOUR

For the first stage of labour, I only needed to use coping strategies during the contractions themselves. Contractions feel like period pain – mild at first and then gradually building more and more strongly. They last around a minute. For the time in between these contractions, which for me varied from about eight minutes at first to less than two minutes apart, I could just chill the beans.

Here are the strategies I used to manage my early labour contractions:

1. Meditation/mindfulness. If you’ve scratched the surface of this topic, you’ve probably come across meditation. I used a few different strategies to meditate, and I found that I naturally moved from one approach to another depending on the vibe at the time. (Side note – I have not studied up on hypnobirthing but I take my hat off to women who can use meditation through their whole labour! That’s so amazing. I found it really only worked up to a point, after which I needed to use bigger things to distract me from the pain.)

2. Breath – I love a good breath meditation. I placed my hands on my belly and focused on the gentle movement, or on the sensation of the breath in and out of my nostrils.

3. Candle – What makes a flame so mesmerising?! Being at home I had a real candle, but I hear there are some pretty good substitutes if you’re in hospital. Focusing on the flame and my breath together worked pretty well to keep me calm and in control for my early labour.

4. Music – During early labour I mostly preferred to focus on my own breath. But when my husband put the Devi Prayer on right towards the end of my transition, wow it really snapped me out of my rising panic.

5. Body – I used little movements at first – like wiggling my toes. Then as the pain got stronger I tried foot tapping and hand banging.

6. Words. Call them what you will – chanting, incantations, power phrases etc – having a few key phrases in mind going into labour meant that these were there ready for me to draw on. I had two simple phrases – ‘good pain, good pain’ and ‘go baby go, go baby go’ – and I said these over and over during my stronger contractions.

7. Counting. This one’s great if you love numbers. I counted in my head at first, then out loud later on. I matched the rhythm of my breath or my toe movements to the counting, usually up to five and then back down again.

8. Visuals. Focusing my eyes on something real helped to take my mind off the pain. I stared at objects both far away – like the distant lake out my bedroom window, or close by – like a particular piece of tile in the bathroom. I also used a bit of mental visualisation, like picturing myself bobbing in a boat on the lake, or walking through our local bush reserve, although later in labour this required too much mental effort for me.

TRANSITION / SECOND PHASE

This was really when I needed to pull out all stops. The pain became pretty constant – both the contraction pain across my uterus and the internal pressure pain from my baby pressing downwards.

1. Sound. Hollywood loves a good birth scene complete with screaming woman. I found that screaming was not helpful – in my first, very fast labour, I felt completely out of control and found myself screaming out of sheer panic and pain. My midwife very tactfully suggested I push that power down inside me – and boy, did that work! I bellowed low and loud like a cave woman and had my baby minutes later. So… don’t be afraid to be loud!! I found that low moaning out loud (as opposed to high screaming) provided both the physical release of pain as well as sound distraction.

2. Movement. I found it physically impossible to stay still during second phase. I paced around the house like a crazy woman, moaning and groaning and counting my steps. I basically kept moving until I was forced by my body to squat and push during the contractions.

3. Body positions. Again, my body told me what to do. I felt compelled to squat, to kneel, to really get low and open up my pelvis. And lean forward to take the pressure off my bum. Everything was opening… Whatever position your body is telling you to do, go with it.

4. Other pain. Um, what?! Yes, seriously. I found that clenching my hands so tight they hurt actually provided some distraction. I also clenched anything else within reach – the couch cushion, my husband’s hand… I’ve heard from a friend who said she pounded her hand on the bench so hard she had bruises for days! But it got her through. Whatever works for you.

5. Internal visuals. Reading Juju Sundin’s description of labour in her Birth Skills book really schooled me up on what goes on during labour. I definitely found it helped to picture my cervix widening and the baby’s head descending. All you can feel is pain, you can’t feel your cervix widening… so knowing what’s happening and being able to picture this in your mind could really help.

6. Swears. As a first year physiotherapy student I remember reading about an experiment where two groups of people held their hands in freezing cold water. The people who were told to swear – using colourful expletives – could hold their hands in for far longer than the other group who could only say boring words like ‘table’. I can back this up from my birthing experience. I managed to stay ladylike until the second phase, after that it was open slather with all the swear words under the sun. So go for it.

I think that’s about it. If you’ve found any of these helpful – or if you’ve used other strategies in your own labours! – please drop a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.

I’d also really encourage practising these strategies BEFORE your labour. It will probably feel cheesy AF, but I promise your body will remember the practice. And it will thank you.

If you want to read more on how you can prepare yourself for labour, Juju Sundin’s Birth Skills book was an absolute godsend for me. Can recommend!

And one more thing! If you haven’t already, check out my birth story to see how all of these coping strategies came together on the day.

Good luck! You’ll be amazing. Please let me know how you go xx