What kind of a birther are you?
Chiqui Brosas on Dec 16 2007 at 11:53 am | Filed under: General
All births are different. You can not compare your birth with your friend or your mother. Your birth will be special for that particular baby. Not one mother will have the same birth. Most birth books only discribe one kind of birth which is the most common, the text book birther, but there are actaully three different kinds. The Text book, the Putterer and the Speedster. I would like to discribe them briefly.
The Putterer is the one who labors the longest. If you’ve labored for more than 24 hours, you would fall in this category. Her contractions are slow and nonserious. If you are conscious about the hours of labor, you may fall into an emotional boobytrap. Here, you are not working hard at all. Don’t be too hung up with time. Enjoy your labor and get yourself occupied doing other stuff to help you pass the time. Most of all relax, take it easy so that your labor will speed up. Keep things light. it would be better if you don’t consider this as part of labor. It won’t be until twelve to fourteen hours before you get down to serious business. It would be advisavle not to rush to the hospital at this time. Relax, ease up, enjoy, your body knows what to do. So give in.
Speedsters are quick birthers. They get down to business right away. Their contractions are strong from the start and build up coming fast to a quick pace. They become emotionally serious and begin to have self doubt, entering the active phase and moving quickly to transition. You need to be able to observe this birther so as not to give birth at home or in the car. Bring her to the hospital when you observe that contractions are fast coming, one on top of another and when you see her serious and having a hard time focusing. Her contractions can be described as coming every three minutes and can go as long as sixty seconds. I have had some students who only labored for five hours and some even in three! My first birth was only seven hours. She was the fastest birth I had from amoung my five children! There is no fooling around with this birther!
The Text Book birther is what we often read in books. Her labor may take any where from twelve hours to twenty four. With her you will see the slow progression of the three different phases of labor; the early, active and transition. You will have plenty of time to take her to the hospital.
In birthing, you need to be able to stay in tune to your body because your body will tell you what’s going on inside you. You need not rush birth. Just allow Mother Nature to take her course and trust in your body. For someone who has gone to my birthing class, you would have been equipped for any eventuality and this should not be a problem. Happy birthing!
