The dying art of natural physiological third stage

Grace patiently waiting for her placenta that arrived 1.5 hours after birth

THE DYING ART OF NATURAL PHYSIOLOGICAL THIRD STAGE OF BIRTH

 A physiological or natural third stage during birth means you wait for the placenta to be born naturally. After your baby's birth, your midwife will delay clamping the umbilical cord to allow oxygenated blood to pulse from the placenta to your baby. Meanwhile your uterus (womb) will contract, and the placenta will peel away from the wall of your uterus. The placenta will then drop down into your vagina, ready for you to push it out or alternatively get more upright for the placenta to fall out.

It’s very rare in hospitals in Australia to experience natural third stage unless you have pre planned and educated yourself on this subject. Third stage is routinely managed by quickly clamping and cutting the umbilical cord, administering a shot of Syntocinon (synthetic oxytocin) into the woman’s leg and pulling out the placenta quickly. This method of delivery of the placenta is considered to be the safest especially in a medical world centred around RISK MANAGEMENT.

Let’s briefly look at risk management and what it means.

Broadly defined, risk management includes any activity, process, or policy to reduce liability exposure. From both a patient safety and a financial perspective, it is vital that health centres conduct risk management activities aimed at preventing harm to patients and reducing medical malpractice claims.

 Third stage comes with potential risk primarily postpartum haemorrhage and very rarely stubborn placentas that just don’t want to be born. Hospital birth procedure is to have greater control over these issues so they use synthetic oxytocin. Unfortunately, in my experience the use of synthetic oxytocin for third stage also comes with risks if women have birthed their baby’s naturally without the use of Synthetic Oxytocin during labour. I encourage my clients to birth their placentas naturally if they've had a natural physiological birth up to the point of the placenta being born.

Natural third stage can take time. While mum is left to rest and bond with her baby the hormone oxytocin is flooding her body. The oxytocin causes the uterus to contract which in time peels the placenta off and it falls to the bottom of the uterus. Once mum is upright the placenta will often fall out into the bowl you have ready.  It's a lovely soothing feeling as the placenta leaves your body. The womb continues to contract on and off after birth. These first contractions seal off the exposed blood vessels and start the process of bringing the uterus back into its pre-pregnancy shape and size..

Hospital protocol can make the choice of a natural third stage challenging. Our local hospital permits women one hour for the placenta to be born. Like birth, every woman has her own personal experience and doesn’t always follow the textbook. I’ve had placentas arrive in 10 minutes and others take 2+ hours. As long as there’s minimal bleeding it’s safe to wait for your placenta. The calmer the environment and you remain skin to skin with your baby the more successful natural third stage will be.

 It takes more effort to navigate natural third stage in the hospital but in my experience it’s well worth the wait. You can let your midwives know you wish to wait longer if the initial first hour has past and bleeding is minimal.

 Please note, if you’ve had Syntocinon during labour it will be considered safer to use Syntocinon for your placenta as your own oxytocin receptors have been disrupted.

This photo is a client of mine waiting on her placenta which took 1.5 hours to arrive.

Love Your Menopause - Golden Goddess Tea

I created this delicious, health-giving tea because I wanted women to feel good during their menopausal transition. Our society isn't very kind as to how we think about all the amazing things our female bodies can do. 

As teenagers our periods begin and we moan about having to bleed every month. We forget that this blood is needed to preceed the burst of our egg during ovulation. Some day you may long to conceive a child and this monthly process is part of what makes that possible. If we are lucky we become pregnant. Many people believe birth is a curse, yet I experienced it as the best two best days of my life.

Around 40 women start to notice changes in their cycles as peri-menopause is beginning. Again our society sets us up to believe menopause is the ultimate hell a woman has to endure. I'm not going to downplay the peri-menopause experience. It was a time of intense tiredness for me and some pretty heavy periods. My experience got me motivated to create Love Your Menopause Tea. I drank lots of it during that time. Now I'm 53 and haven't had a period for almost a year, what a liberating experience that is. The full circle of womanhood.

Change doesn't have to be bad. Seek support of other women and adopt a healthy lifestyle. Take a break from coffee, eat good nutritious foods and exercise daily. Most importantly take time for you. Self care isn’t optional if you want to feel good during these years of change.

You might be surprised just how liberated you can feel too.

https://www.flourishmumsandbubs.com.au/shop/love-your-menopause-golden-goddess-tea

When a baby is born so is a father.

Generations past, pregnancy and birth was women’s work. Men almost completely stayed out of the birth experience. Many fathers stayed at the pub with their mates during labour, others stayed in the hospital hallways awaiting the news of their baby’s arrival. The main expectation of men during those years was the role of being a good provider and loyal husband. Times have most certainly changed in our society. Many fathers attend some antenatal appointments, antenatal workshops and most fathers are present at the birth of their children.

In my experience this is a daunting task for many men. They aren’t biologically geared for such expectations, however many men do a wonderful job none the less.

As a doula I find I support fathers as much as I support the birthing mothers. You can read more about this if you follow this link https://www.flourishmumsandbubs.com.au/supporting-dads

Recently I had a client who was overseas with her hubby for a few months during their pregnancy. I emailed the dad and asked him if he’d like to share with me how he was feeling and what concerns he may be having. Below is the letter I received. I thought it was a wonderful piece of writing to share as I believe he managed to capture in words what so many men may not have the skills to express.

To my doula.

I suppose if I had anything that was worrying me about the situation, it would be whether we'll be able to open up our relationship enough to let a little person in between us.  We're very tight and it's been 15 years of loving each other.  I want to make sure that he feels loved enough on his side and that we don't feel at all resentful on our side.  I know that's a bit esoteric.  Most folks just worry about whether the baby will be safely born or something, I suppose that's OK too and certainly also on my mind, but the long term is what's coming.

Aside from that, my concerns centre around safety during the birth. Susie has always had a low blood iron count her whole life.  She has a pretty low average pulse rate as well.  Despite the overly-clinical nature, I'm glad we're doing this in a hospital instead of at home where my mother had me and my brother.  It's kind of the story of modern society in a nutshell, but given that Susie has some non-trivial health risks associated with blood loss, I'm happy there'll be a supply of what makes humans tick on hand if things go sideways.  

All that stuff about staying relaxed during birth will be a good help for us.  We both tend towards anxiety in our ways and the more relaxed we can get the better.  It's interesting that our most anxious friend, a young girl from Sussex in the UK, had what sounds like the easiest birth out of all our friends recently.  

Just randomly, it's amazing how many people have been bringing babies into the world in our social circles lately.  We've had Annie and Sam, who dropped off the radar completely after the birth and went full antivaxx.  Then there was Trixie and Vance who moved down to Aura and are happily doing the young suburban parent thing, perfect little Aussie homeowners, though he's from Norway.  Lisa and Lex had Isla and changed their lives not one bit, but they're cruisy surfers and make an art out of not caring too much about anything.  Thomas and Hannah, the country horse / EMT folks, had kids next and their kid Jason is already twice the size of Isla.  William and Sammy now have baby Nick and they both quit their jobs for a whole year and are just chilling around home and travelling a bit even though they don't have a bit of cash.  And then there's us. Finally!  I wonder what our story will look like to others from the outside.

All I really care about is that we get through this birth part OK.  After that, I've seen some quite clueless people raise some fine kids so I'm not too worried about it.  I'm sure we'll do alright.  I'll be reading all sorts of things about how to engage young minds and what kind of things to feed the little fellow.  I'm resigned to changing a few million nappies.  We've got a really neat mural in his room for when he's old enough to appreciate it.  I know absolutely nothing about being a parent but am confident I can wing it. We've just got to get through the birth with as few scars, both physically and emotionally, as possible and I'll be happy as a clam.

Why drink Red Raspberry Leaf tea?

Up until very recently herbs were consumed as tonics, nutrition and medicine. For centuries pregnant women relied heavily on these herbal medicines to keep them healthy and strong during pregnancy and postpartum.

One herb that was widely used by almost all pregnant women in Europe was red raspberry leaf, most often consumed as a pregnancy tea in combination with other therapeutic herbs such as nettles, alfalfa, chamomile and rosehips.

Red raspberry leaf was renowned as a uterine tonic, increasing the blood flow to the uterus and aiding the uterine muscle fibres to function in a more organised manner. Studies indicate that some of the plant components, such as fragrine, an alkaloid, do act directly on the smooth muscles.

 Historical uses of red raspberry leaf include prevention of miscarriage, aiding conception, a decrease in morning sickness, prevention of postdates pregnancy, decrease of discomfort in prodromal labour and a shortened active stage of labour.

Red raspberry leaf was also consumed for nutritional support as the plant contains many nutrients, including vitamin A, C, and E, as well as calcium, iron, and potassium. 

 In today’s busy pace of life women tend to depend solely on their pregnancy multi vitamin for their extra nutritional needs, missing out all together on the therapeutic benefits of pregnancy herbal allies. I can’t imagine my pregnancies without the divine gift of therapeutic herbal teas.

After doing some of your own research I’d like to suggest you try my “Pregnancy Wellbeing Tea”. Herbal tea that’s designed to support you and your baby’s health while on your beautiful journey into motherhood.

The Goat Doula

I’m going to tell you one of my favourite animal birth stories.

The goat in this photo was one of our family milking goats many years ago, her name was Misty. The little girl in the photo is one of my daughters, her name is Jala. We had 4 milking goats who over the years birthed many babies.  Misty always had very quick labours and smooth births. The other 3 goats often had complicated births, at times I had to assist with the second baby, as they always birthed 2 or 3 at once.

There was one thing different about Misty’s births than the other goats, she would not birth without my daughter at her side. We discovered this the first time Misty went into labour. I was in the kitchen when all of a sudden I heard the most distressed goat call I’ve ever heard. Misty could get pretty loud at feeding time but this was a sound like no other. I ran down to the goat shed and realised Misty was in labour. My presence didn’t calm her, she continued to bleat very loudly. My daughter came running down to the shed to see what all the commotion was about. Misty instantly stopped bleating as soon as Jala entered the shed. Jala went over to Misty and gave her the usual rub down and cuddle. Jala stayed with Misty for a while and then wanted to go off and play. As Jala was leaving the goat shed Misty started her horrible sound again. Jala returned to Misty’s side and the sound ceased. Once Misty trusted Jala was going to stay she layed down on her side and Jala sat down next to her. During Misty’s contractions she would lick Jala’s hair. By the end of the labour Jala’s hair was matted like felt in parts. This phenomena continued for many of Misty’s births, she always loved Jala at her side.