I’ve done a lot of thinking about Galen’s amazing birth in those weeks.  It went really, really smoothly and was a wonderful experience for me.  Scott says it was a good experience for him too.

There were two major things that contributed to such a great birth – the first is my careful attention to my nutrition during pregnancy.  I have always felt strongly that good prenatal nutrition is vital, and I’ve written about it extensively in the blog and in articles on the site.   I “practice what I preach” and was really careful to eat well for my baby.  This resulted in him being healthy and vigorous, and in my body being in excellent condition to go through labor and birth.

The second thing I did was work through the Pink Kit with Scott.  All of the Pink Kit was helpful to us.  I used many of the labor positions that we learned.   And the breathing skills were vital for both Scott and I to know.  Scott was able to help me get my breathing under control several times.  I went from 3 centimeters to 10 centimeters and pushing Galen out in about 2 hours – 2 very intense hours.  Having Scott help me breathe turned out to be really important.

The biggest part of the Pink Kit to help us, however, was doing the Internal Work for the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy.  We were pretty faithful about it and worked through the exercise almost every night.  I felt it to be really helpful during pregnancy as I learned to relax all the muscles in my birthing area.

And after Galen was born I knew the Internal Work had been helpful – Galen was born in just two pushes and I had no episiotomy, no tearing, not even any “skid marks.”  I was able to begin kegels right after birthing him and my tissues have recovered much more quickly than they have with any of my other births.

I was able to really enjoy Galen’s birth.  Our Pink Kit work helped me to be really comfortable with myself.  I was able to reach and feel the curve of Galen’s head just before my water broke, and I was able to feel him move down through my birth canal.  I felt a slight sting as he crowned and his head was born and then I was able to feel the joy of his body sliding out and bringing him up into my arms.  I was able to be relaxed and aware, and Scott and I were able to communicate well through the entire labor and birth.  Scott was able to really be a part of things, and really really helped me (especially because it moved so fast and he was able to help me stay calm and working with my labor rather than against it).

Galen’s birth was really an awesome experience for me.  It was everything I’d hoped for and more.  I spent time doing birth visualizations as is suggested in the Pink Kit and many books on birthing.  I feel like that helped prepare my mind for the birth as well and it went very, very much like I’d imagined.  I think there’s a lot of power in preparing your body and your mind for birth.  Galen’s birth was so wonderful because we took the time to prepare – and because excellent resources and knowledge were available to us (and are available to you, too!)

Read Galen’s birth story, more about prenatal nutrition, and explore the Pink Kit!

One of our Pink Kit techniques – the Hip Lift – has been really helpful during pregnancy.  I have had some pain in my right hip my last three pregnancies.  It’s pain from my sciatic nerve getting pinched, and it’s a very intense, very sharp pain.  I found relief this pregnancy in swimming.  However, once we stopped going to the bay a few times a week (it got cold way up north here!), the pain returned.

I had the idea to have Scott try the Hip Lift technique because it seemed like it would help relieve pressure on the nerve.  I’m super pleased to say that it did!  We’ve done it twice now, several days apart each time.  It seems to help move my bones enough to let the nerve settle somewhere better.  It’s been over a week now and no pain has returned yet, so I’m happy.  One less ache to think about

We’ve also been doing our Internal Work very regularly.  I’ve found it challenging to learn to relax all the muscles of the birth canal while having pressure applied to them.  But about a week ago I noticed I was able to keep relaxed much, much more.  And the past few nights I’ve noticed the amount of tension I felt in the muscles to be much less.  It could be that birth hormones are starting to kick in even more and soften those tissues.  But I actually asked Scott to work harder on the side muscles last night because I’m used to feeling some tension there – and there was hardly any once I relaxed.

I’m pleased.  I like the Internal Work because it gives me a good chance to focus on the muscles I’ll need to relax as my baby’s head is moving down and out.  I would really like to experience that feeling on a more concious level at this birth.  During my other births I found the pushing stage overwhelming.  I’m feeling good about the Internal Work and think it will help me to feel more in control of helping my baby come down and out to meet us

Anyways,  the massage chapter refers to the Internal Work.  The internal work has its own separate audio but it is a kind of massage so this chapter references it briefly.

The chapter then moves into other kinds of massage – including everyone favorite ordinary massages like back and foot massage.  It recommends that both you and your partner take turns giving massage.  Massage can help reduce stress and tension during pregnancy, thus encouraging relaxation which is very conducive to baby making and baby having

It also covers the “external massage” partner to the internal work.  The external massage focuses on the tissues and muscles outside the birth canal and around the pelvic area.  As with the internal work, your partner can do this for you or you can do it yourself.  I’ve found this a little easier to do myself and so that’s how I’ve been going about it.  It’s basically a gentle and organized massage to all the tissues the baby may stretch (again this is similar to the perineal massage some care providers recommend).  You also work the muscles around your tailbone and sit bones.  All around the thighs gets massaged too (these thigh muscles can get sore during pregnancy and I like this part of the massage.)

This chapter also has sections explaining how hormones change your pregnant and birthing body.  You’ll learn that your body is constantly sending chemical messengers that help your pelvic muscles, tissues, and ligaments get more and more ready for birth (and you’ll also learn why you may have some soreness there).

Final portions of this PK section deal with getting the rest you need (take this part seriously!!) and body care during pregnancy.

The most helpful portion of this section for me is the part talking about external massage.  I think it helps me because after massaging those muscles I become more aware of them – and thus I am able to relax those muscles more effectively.  Relaxed muscles in the pelvis and thighs make it easier for baby to come out.  And I know I want my baby to have a nice, easy birth experience…and of course I want to have a nice, easy birthing :p

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The internal work is sort of like perineal massage, which you may have read about.  Perineal massage gets mixed reviews from midwives – some think it helps and others thinks it makes no difference.  The theory behind it is loosening and making the tissues around the perineum supple.  (If you’re not sure, the perineum the tissue between the vagina and anus.)

Perineal massage usually works on that tissue on around the opening of the vagina to make the tissue more elastic so it will stretch around the baby’s head more easily, resulting in a smaller chance of tearing for the mother.

Ok.  So.  The Internal Work is different.  It’s similar in that you’re working down in those intimate areas.  But the focus is not really on that small area we think of as the perineum (the PK does recommend that you work with that area, however, it’s in a different part of the kit and I’ll talk about it later).

The Internal Work is very literally internal, and you are working with muscle bands inside the vagina.  The Pink Kit comes with an audio that walks you through exactly how to do this.  Scott and I listened to it a few times and then just started the work on our own.  I found it easier to focus on relaxing without the tape going and I think Scott just found it less annoying not to have a narrator

I have Scott do the internal work because I am comfortable with that.  But if you don’t like the thought of someone else doing the internal work with you there are complete directions for doing it by yourself (in the shower is recommended).

So our adventure with the internal work has been positive.  Like I said, it works with bands of muscles inside the vagina (birth canal).  The top of the vagina is left alone – this is where the bottom of the uterus, the cervix, and the baby’s head (or bum for a breech babe) are at.  The Pink Kit does teach you how to check your own dilation/baby’s position but not in this section.

So this leaves the sides and back of the birth canal to work with.  As you’ll learn through your PK work there are a LOT of muscles up there.  And as Scott has noticed they are pretty strong muscles!  The Internal Work involves gentle but firm massage on these muscle groups to help you, the birthing woman, become concious of them and learn to relax them.  It also helps progressively relax them over the weeks you do the internal work (it’s recommended you start around 32 weeks).  It takes about 10 minutes a day.

For me it has been challenging to relax the side muscles.  Scott says I do a good job of it but I can still feel tightness in them.  It takes focus for me to relax all of my body and then specifically relax more in there.  I also find relaxing when Scott is working on the back muscles to be hard.  That massage hits against the muscles that make it feel like you have to go to the bathroom.  You’ve heard that lots of women mistake a baby’s head for needed to poop – and that’s why.  The baby’s head pushes right up against those same muscles.  So the internal work helps you get used to that sensation and the hope is you’ll be able to relax (instead of the instinctive tightening to STOP everything) so that your baby’s head can come through your birth canal easily.

So far, after two weeks of the internal work, I think it’s worth it.  I’m much, much more aware of the muscle groups within the birth canal.  I’m more able to relax them than I was, and I think working on it over the next few weeks will help a lot.  Even if I’m not “more supple” or “more stretchy” (LOL) for the baby’s birth I will have a strong understanding of how to relax those muscles and let go when it’s time for my baby’s head to move through the birth canal.  I think that will be invaluable because I’ll know that no muscle tension will be holding my baby back.  Releasing tension is also a key to an enjoyable birth, and that’s what I’m planning to have   So we’ll keep up the Internal Work.

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This section felt pretty familiar. After reading through New Focus and having gotten through most of the video I’ve learned a whole lot about relaxation and about my own body – and how to relax it.  We’ve also already started the Internal Work (which I promise I’ll write about!) and that has helped me explore relaxation a lot.

So this section of the video, which deals further with relaxation, and how tension can cause unnecessary pain, was pretty intuitive at this point.   I liked the discussion on the types of tension – Conscious, Unconscious, Structural, and Stretching.  Plenty of practical suggestions help you learn how to release each type of tension.

Practice and conditioning are urged in this section and I really agree with that.  It takes practice to explore the different types of tension, and to learn how your body responds to things.  Repeated practice will help you condition your body to relax.  Practicing the Pink Kit skills will help you identify and release tension quickly.  This section of the video went more deeply into how to breath and release tension in specific areas of your body.

Working on general relaxation as well as specific places is also a good idea – I think you should take time every day to work through relaxing your body and mind, and affirming your body and knowing you have the skills and resources you need to have a good birth   I know I’m enjoying having my Pink Kit skills and awareness build more every week!

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In this post I’ll write a bit about one of the video sections – the section on the soft tissue of the pelvis.

I was actually reluctant to write about this at first because when I first watched the video section I had a lot of trouble with it! I could visualize and understand perfectly what they were talking about, but making my body relax was very hard.

This section deals with the “soft parts” of your pelvis – all the tissues and muscle surrounding and attached to your pelvis. There’s actually an amazing amount down there when you sit and actually look at a diagram of it. All tissues and muscles you pretty much take for granted – at least I know that I did!

I had to watch the video section a couple of times, and read in the Companion Guide for the exercises in the soft pelvis section. The Companion Guide just gives handy step-by-step directions to the exercises you see on the video (Essential Preparations gives more in-depth information and background for the video).

It took some practice for me to do the internal technique – The Pelvic Clock. It was something I really had to get for myself since Scott can’t really help me figure out that particular muscle set (though he has helped me a lot through the internal work – which I’ll talk about in its own post!). It just took a lot of concentration for me to realize that I can consciously feel those muscles.

I can see where working with the soft tissue of the pelvis – especially learning to relax it – will help a lot during labor. If that tissue is soft, warm, and relaxed the baby is able to move through much more easily. Tightening those muscles intentionally helps me to feel just how much that “closes me up” and would make it hard for the baby to come down. This is another section I’ll practice through regularly as we count down to to the birth.

I’m really grateful for the Pink Kit and how much it’s helping me learn about my own birthing body, and the skills I’m developing that will help so much when my birthing time comes

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It was another very interesting lesson, however.  We went through several techniques for creating more room in the pelvis by manipulating the bones of the pelvis themselves.  I was pretty amazed at how I could actually feel the slight movement.

Two movements felt best to me so I’ll talk about those.  The first was the Hip Lift.  A partner needs to help you do this one.  Your partner places one hand on the hip blade, and the other under the sit bone on the same side.  Your partner presses straight down on the hip bone and lifts the sit bone up at the same time.

It was really cool to feel just how much room this created when Scott did it slowly (and gently!)  We tried it with me relaxed and with me tensed up – big difference!!!

The Pink Kit recommends this for a baby who is not coming down, and suggests trying it for a few 3-second intervals, then allowing a few contractions to see what happens.  By doing it on the same side as the baby’s head is pressing (your baby comes into your pelvis at a slightly diagonal angle) you create more room for the baby to move through.

Since my sit bones are closer together I could really feel this.  During all of my labors there has been a point where it feels the baby was just not moving down, though I was ready.  Changing position helped one of them and my midwife doing some work helped the other two – but with pain for me!  I would much rather try the Hip Lift if this baby decides to slow down moving!

The PK encourages you and your partner to both try things so you both get a good understanding of it.  So I tried the Hip Lift on Scott.  Hah!  You can really tell that the female pelvis is meant to birth, and that the birth hormones are making the cartilage in my pelvis more flexible, because trying to do the Hip Lift on Scott was really hard!  I had to push down quite firmly on his hip bone for either of us to feel any movement.  It’s a very interesting thing.

The other movement I liked was a breath movement involving the tail bone.  I placed one finger on my tailbone and focused on breathing and expanding the area below my finger.  I could actually feel my tailbone (which is quite short!) moving out – which in labor would create more room for the baby’s head!  Other breathing exercises in this section helped me understand how to bring breath and relaxation all around my pelvic area to help open it up.

The Bony Pelvis – Movement section is another that I’ll revisit several times before the birth.  In addition to the techniques I mentioned there are quite a few more.  With the observation skills you develop and the awareness you bring forth as you work through the Pink Kit these techniques are really powerful because you’re truly able to feel the ones that help you.  I think I’ll benefit from practicing these and going through the various labor positions regularly as well.

Our next section focuses on the soft pelvis – the muscles and tissues involved in the birth.  Again I find myself looking forward to that.  And next week we begin even more of the PK resources… we’re starting to get closer and closer to our baby’s birth day – very exciting!!

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Our latest section was on positions for labor and birth. This is a really vital topic. Many natural childbirth education courses cover it. The Pink Kit difference is that before we started this section we had a section on the Bony Pelvis. This first section is significant because it gives you a chance to figure out what your own lower pelvis is like – the shape of the bones your baby will come through. After you’ve gotten a feel for that you get to work with many different positions for laboring and birthing – and you can feel which ones open you up the most!

I enjoyed this section of the video. It was great to see so many different positions actually demonstrated and many useful tips were explained. I know I’ll watch this section several more times, especially as the birth gets closer. I’m sure Scott enjoyed it because he got to watch me being silly and trying out all the different positions

Since watching the video I’ve been observing just how “open” my pelvis feels when I am in different positions. It’s interesting because there are positions where I really feel “closed” and know those wouldn’t be good to labor in. And I’ve been able to notice others that I feel good and open in.

I can’t believe how aware I’ve gotten since starting to use the Pink Kit. I really pay attention to my breathing and my body much more. The PK has given me a lot of good basic skills that I can practice in many situations. And again, I’m really glad for the video and the fact I’ll be able to practice with it to really get my skills down before the birth!

We’ll be moving on through more video sections – our next goes again the the bony pelvis, and how you can help make it more open and assist your baby’s descent. I find myself looking forward to learning even more!

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There are some parts of your pelvis that you just can’t feel – after all, they’re inside of you. But you can feel the outer pelvis, the lowest part, and you can feel some of the top of it.

It was pretty interesting to feel my own unique shape – what the Pink Kit calls “mapping the pelvis” – this is mapping the pelvic outlet. Some midwives and doctors do a similar assessment to determine how much “room” a woman has to let her baby out. This is much better in my opinion because well, it’s a lot easier to figure things out for yourself than having someone else poke around!

I found out that I have a lot of room front to back, but the area between my “sit bones” – side to side – is just about average for me. You measure by seeing if the width of your fist will fit between the sit bones (those two bits of pelvic bone you sit on!) – a fist width is about average. Scott’s fist is a lot wider than mine and he couldn’t fit his.

The video showed drawings of several common shapes (mine was there!) and talked a lot about figuring yours out. It also encouraged partners to figure their own shape out. Scott determined he would not be good at baby having :p Luckily, as the video pointed out, men and women tend to have slightly different pelvic shapes!

Our next section is on how different positions during labor can help you open up for your baby and work with your own body. I’m looking forward to it!

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It’s also good because we get to see women using the techniques we read about. That’s really helpful to me.

Scott is frustrated because he feels like the written material is repetitive, and thus decided not to read the two pages on breath in Essential Preparations since breath was covered pretty extensively in New Focus. I find reading all the material helpful, however. I can almost always take something from it.

I find repetition on something like breathing to be quite helpful as well. Reading about it and practicing it over and over means it’s going to come naturally to me during labor. I also want it to come naturally to a coach because I know for a fact that having a coach breathe with me has been helpful in labor.

I liked the video segment on Breath, which is what we watched last night. It was good to see the demonstration. The video covered directed breathing. One bit showed focusing the breath into the sacrum area (and showed exactly where that is). Just like the section of New Focus that talked about breath into the pelvis I found this section on breath into the sacrum very helpful.

I’ve been thinking about directed breathing all morning after watching the video last night. I’ve had a bit of a queasy tummy (isn’t that supposed to be gone in the first trimester???!) and spent some time on the couch focusing my breathing around to relax.

As I’ve practiced breathing and relaxing through braxton-hicks contractions and when I’ve gotten stressed in the past few weeks I’ve noticed I have a tendency to pull my belly muscles in. So it has been good to focus on consciously relaxing those and throughout my pelvic region. The Pink Kit has been so helpful in bringing my awareness of that tension and relaxation to the forefront of my mind. I enjoy practicing throughout the day and internalizing the skills, because I know they’ll be with me in birth.

I’ve also been able to share with Scott about things like my tense belly muscles so he can help remind me of that during labor. I certainly don’t want to make things even more tense down there when a contraction is already squeezing – I want to get the rest of my muscles out of the way so my uterus can do its work effectively and with less pain for me :p

So the breathing and tension exercises have been nice for me, as has the increased awareness. I also like that when I’m focusing on that I tend to focus on the baby. And I like the feeling of preparing for birth, which is becoming more and more urgent as we get closer to the time he’ll arrive.

Our next section is on the Bony Pelvis and we get into the nitty gritty of anatomy. Scott has assured me he’ll read that section since we’ve not covered it yet And then we’ll work through that portion of the DVD this week. I’d actually like to get through the next couple of sections or three sections this week as they’re all inter-related. And I’m eager to learn the Pink Kit skills so I can begin being aware of those things and practicing them throughout my days too

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