7 Ways to Love Your Labor

by Stephanie Larson

Are you thinking, “Love my labor? How am I supposed to do that?” 

If so, you’re not alone. Many people associate the word ‘pain’ with labor, not the word ‘love.’ But loving your labor is entirely possible! Loving your labor is the ultimate catalyst to loving the new you―the you that emerges transformed after giving birth. 

To love your labor, it’s key to create an oxytocin-rich environment to labor in. 

Oxytocin is the ‘love’ hormone. It gives you feelings of love, trust, openness, happiness, and euphoria. It’s also the hormone that causes your uterus to contract to birth your baby. It’s no coincidence that the ‘love’ hormone is responsible for birthing. With oxytocin flooding through you and your baby, your strong love-bond is established right from the start. Can you imagine a birth that’s saturated with love, bliss, and pleasure for you and your baby?

Here are seven ways to bring more love and oxytocin to your labor:

1. Stand up.
   
   Lying on your back can make you feel vulnerable and can lead to stress. Stress inhibits the release of oxytocin. Being up on your feet grounds you so you feel powerful. While on your feet you can easily move your body to find comfort and ease. Lean slightly forward from the waist and rest on the wall, a piece of furniture, or someone on your birth team, whenever you need support and want to take some weight off of your legs. Standing up also allows gravity to facilitate your baby moving down and out, which helps labor progress, and promotes pleasure instead of pain and strain.
   
   
2. Dance.
   
   Dancing produces oxytocin, so you feel happy and blissful. As an added benefit, dancing raises your pain threshold and helps you feel connected to those you’re dancing with. Put on your favorite music with great beats and dance your baby out. Try this: with your feet separated about hip-width apart bend your knees and move your hips in continuous circles. Not only does it feel good and create comfort, it also helps your baby make the necessary rotations to navigate through your pelvis.
   
   
3. Protect your frontal cortex from stimulation. 
   
   This part of your brain inhibits oxytocin release when it is stimulated. To prevent this, get into your ‘feeling brain’ instead of your ‘thinking brain’. Your birth team can help you with this. Let them know you don’t want them to initiate conversation, or ask you questions, especially about numbers or time. Questions like “What’s your pain level on a scale of one to ten?” or “What was the date of your last menstrual cycle?” may appear helpful, but they can actually interrupt your labor progress. If you have moved your attention inward, following your birth instincts and becoming less verbal and more primal, your birth team should avoid drawing you out of that liminal state through things like language, eye contact, or relocating you.
   
   
4. Make your environment conducive to love. 
   
   A little advanced planning regarding where you will give birth can go a long way. If your birth space isn’t one you’d want to make love in, then it can inhibit your oxytocin and your birth. Love-making and birth are best when they are intuitive and guided by primal instincts. Set the mood to your liking, for example, dim lights, warmth, and especially—privacy. Protection from intrusions, distractions, directions, strangers, and being observed allows you to be fully in your body and to follow your birth instincts.
   
   
5. Get close to someone you love and trust.
   
   Dance together in a close embrace. Or face them and sit on their lap, straddling them and keeping your feet on the floor. Lean forward, rest your head and chest on them, and enjoy their arms around you. From this position you can still move your hips and body as needed. When you’re ready to dance again you can easily stand up. Try this during active labor: in between contractions lap-sit, close your eyes, and rest fully on your partner, letting go of your muscles. During contractions stand up, lean on your sitting partner, and rock your hips side to side with your knees bent.
   
   
6. Touch.
   
   Skin-to-skin contact increases oxytocin flow. You can do this for yourself, for example touching your belly.  At your invitation, your birth team can provide hugs, hold your hand, or massage you. If you have a significant other present, kissing and sensual touch are great ways to make your birth pleasurable, and to love your labor. 
   
   
7. Let your sounds and emotions flow.
   
   Birth is about release. You are releasing your baby from your womb into the world. This is not the time to hold in anything. Involuntary sounds are a sign that you’re fully in your birth zone. It's perfectly ok to be loud. Allow your voice, your needs, your laughter and tears, your fears and epiphanies to emerge along with your precious baby.
   
   

   Birth is a transformative experience that resonates far beyond the day you give birth. 

   It's a liberating truth that loving your labor is possible. You can feel all kinds of sensations during birth, including euphoria, pleasure, and bliss. With these seven strategies to love your labor, you have the opportunity to invite the 'love' hormone, oxytocin, into your birth in a big way, and envelop yourself and your baby in the warmth and strength of love. Boosting oxytocin is a win-win for your birth, because not only does oxytocin create contractions that progress your labor, it's also beneficial for bonding with your baby.