Waters broken but no labour? Bodywork can help!
By Gabrielle Brennan from G.LORRI LABOUR BODYWORK
NURSE/MIDWIFE & PERSONAL TRAINER | MALVERN EAST, VIC
Hello lovely people! My name is Gabrielle, I’m a Nurse / Midwife / Personal Trainer. I’m fortunate enough to be part of people’s peripartum journey from early pregnancy, birth through to the postnatal period. I get to see people go through incredible life events and witness the absolute pinnacle of our bodies abilities to nourish, birth and heal. There’s so much potential for us to understand our bodies, it’s the best way to work with them. And if we can learn to work with them, anything becomes possible!
Not many people may know this unless they work in the birth space, but not everyone goes into labour after their waters break. The routine medical management for this scenario is often an induction within 24-48 hours of your waters breaking. The most recent 2022 Mother’s and Babies Report from Australia showed us that during the year 2020, 35% of labours were induced, 41% were spontaneous labours and 23% had no labour (e.g. pre-labour cesareans). Of those who were induced, the main reasons for the induction were diabetes at 15%, pre-labour rupture of membranes 11% and prolonged pregnancy (>41 weeks) 12%. Considering that the third highest reason for inductions is for pre-labour rupture of membranes (or waters breaking), it’s curious that no one can give an exact reason as to why this happens. But just because we don't know the answer doesn't mean there isn't one. In my experience as a hospital midwife, the system tells us that ‘sometimes our bodies fail us’ but I have a different perspective. I believe that what we are missing are the skills to actually interpret what our bodies are trying to communicate.
Bodywork has showed me how poor the system is at understanding the physiology behind the birthing body and baby. That majority of the standard practice implemented is to aid the provider and not the birther. This to me is counterproductive, as we work best as providers when we work WITH women and birthing people. The way that bodywork has changed the way someone is experiencing their pregnancy or completely changes the birthing outcome proves just that. What I've seen would blow your mind! What I've seen would completely change the way that you would view your body. I've been in a birthing room where the person’s waters had been broken for a week and labour hadn't started. And upon feeling the position of the baby I could tell we were looking at malposition in an oblique lie. This means the baby wasn’t aiming straight down but instead off to the side so of course labour wouldn't start. With 30 minutes of bodywork her baby was perfectly aligned, and the woman was in labour the very next day! This situation taught me that the body knows contractions wouldn’t be very effective if the baby isn’t well positioned on the cervix and so intentionally withheld labour. This is a term I find myself using more and more. Our bodies are incredibly intelligent and will not force us into labour if all the feedback it’s getting isn’t quite right for an effective labour outcome. Our bodies don’t know the medical intervention we have these days, and will operate to achieve a vaginal birth in to the best of its abilities. Because of this, as soon as the body detects something that's not working well it will withhold contractions or slow down labour. Not because it ‘doesn’t know what its’s doing’, but because it knows precisely what it’s doing. It’s troubleshooting.
Our bodies are incredibly intelligent, they are communicating so much information to us. Our bodies aren't failing us. What's failing us is our ability as birth workers to interpret those messages. There's been situations where all I've needed to do to help someone’s labour progress was a few acupressure points. There's been other times where baby is malpositioned and we've had to work a bit harder through releases and stretches to get labour going. Providing we address the correct issue, there will be progress. The tricky thing is that the reason that labour's not starting or progressing can be unique for everyone, and so finding a skilled bodywork practitioner becomes imperative to influencing your birthing outcomes. Our bodies are perfectly designed for birth, so it's a no brainer that incredible things can happen when we start working with our bodies.
References:
Australian Government (2022, November 14). Australia's Mother and Babies. Australian Institue of Health and Welfare. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mothers-babies/australias-mothersbabies/contents/labour-and-birth/onset-of-labou
