This is one example when I am thankful there is the cesarean option for an otherwise healthy birthing duo. If the baby is in the ideal position already and the pelvis was opened according to where baby is waiting, but the baby still doesn’t come in about four hours of strong, frequent contractions it may be the pelvis really is too small. Rather, we look to the baby to get some more information. The amount of pain and effort is not the way to determine whether a baby can fit because things in a hard labor can improve very fast with body balancing and a smart birth position. Is the pelvis was too small to let the baby down? Often a better birth position allows the pelvis to be opened enough to let the baby through! Once baby rotates and descends, then you will have labor progress. Your efforts will have brought the baby to an occiput anterior position, such as LOA, and yet the baby remains too high. The baby is in the optimal, ideal position. That’s fine, so long as the mother and baby are both okay. We want to see if the labor is advancing by bringing the baby lower, even if it’s so gradual that it takes a few vaginal exams to notice. Sometimes the uterus works incredibly hard, trying its best to get the baby to rotate and descend-and the mother gets no break. Add body balancing as described in Spinning Babies® Three Principles of Balance, Gravity and Movement. This pattern can be considered an “invitation to act”. Spinning Babies ® is the active side of patience.Ī couple days may pass with this unpredictable pattern as the baby seeks a way down on to the cervix and through the pelvis. We can choose to be patient or we can try to rotate the baby. If labor is slow, we should hope the baby fits. If labor is moving along readily, we can assume it will continue to do so. We don’t usually get to know this, so an educated guess is required. Is the baby known to be posterior ? When the baby is coming into the pelvis in the posterior position, we want to know if the baby will continue to fit in the posterior position or if we need to rotate. We begin to wonder if baby is facing forward in the pelvis. The intensity may not match the dilation of the cervix compared to the regular pattern. Sometimes a cluster of big contractions will come between a period of not-so-strong contractions. There is not a predictable increase of intensity and frequency of contractions rewarded by increasing dilation.Ĭontractions may come in double peaks (one big one with a lingering second peak). Mild contractions can occur when the uterus rests at 7 cm after a period of strong contractions. Alarmingly strong contractions can occur at 2 cm but calm down for a while as the uterus rests. Contractions intervals can be unpredictable. The contractions are pretty steady, but the cervix opens slowly. These are contraction variations that tell us the uterus is working to fit the baby through the pelvis. Spontaneous urges to push come on gradually and increase in length and strength in this 2nd stage of labor.A pause is common at 10 cm to let the pelvic floor adapt to the next stage of labor.2-3 minutes (helping the cervix open past 5 cm to 10 cm) and lasting 100-120 seconds.3-4 minutes from start to start and lasting 60-100 seconds long and often moving the cervix to 5 cm after an hour or two of 75 second long contractions.Gradually increasing to about 5 minutes apart and 45-70 seconds long.This is the labor pattern in which the contractions come at fairly regular and increasing intervals: Gail explains labor patterns at a Spinning Babies Workshop (Credit: Crystal Garcia Photography)

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Contraction timing labor