NEW THINGS: @23:00, 5/31/17

"Instead of medical interventions, a variety of non-invasive methods are employed during natural childbirth to ease the mother's pain. Many of these techniques stress the importance of "a mind-body connection," which the techno-medical model of birth does not. These techniques include hydrotherapy, massage, relaxation therapy, hypnosis, breathing exercises, acupressure for labour, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), vocalization, visualization, mindfulness and water birth. Other approaches include movement, walking, and different positions (for example, using a birthing ball), hot and cold therapy (for example, using hot compresses and/or cold packs), and receiving one-on-one labor support like that provided by a midwife or doula. However, natural childbirth proponents maintain that pain is a natural and necessary part of the labor process, and should not automatically be regarded as entirely negative. In contrast to the pain of injury and disease, they believe that the pain of childbirth is a sign that the female body is functioning as it is meant to.
Birth positions favored in natural childbirth—including squatting, hands and knees, or suspension in water—contrast with the lithotomy position (woman in hospital bed on her back with legs in stirrups), which has consistently been shown to slow and complicate labor.^[7]
Methods to reduce tearing during natural childbirth (instead of an episiotomy) include managing the perineum with counter-pressure,^[8] hot compresses, and pushing the baby out slowly."