The Ultimate Guide to Comfort Measures for Labor
Planning for an unmedicated birth and wondering how to manage labor pain naturally? In this blog post you’ll discover five powerful techniques that harness your body’s natural pain responses, helping you stay calm, confident, and present during birth.
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If you’re considering an unmedicated birth, you’re in the right place. Labor without medication can be an incredibly empowering experience, but it often comes with questions about how to manage the pain.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the core comfort measures for labor—5 practical tools that work with your body’s natural pain responses to help you manage discomfort and stay present in mind and body through it all.
By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how each method works and how you can use each to create a more positive, empowering birth experience.
Let’s dive in.
Five Types of Comfort Measures for Labor
There’s so much information out there on how to stay comfortable during labor it can get overwhelming. To simplify, I like to think of comfort measures in five main categories:
- Gate Control Theory
- Focused Redirection
- Conditioned Pain Modulation
- Continuous Support
- Education
Some of these categories sound technical, but they’re actually quite simple at their core. Let’s break each one down so they’re easy to understand and remember.
Gate Control Theory
Gate Control Theory is a way of understanding how the human body naturally handles pain. To understand Gate Control Theory we first need to understand how we experience pain.
Pain happens when a stimulus—like a hot stove—affects nerves in our skin. Those nerves then send a signal up our arm, through our spinal cord, and into our brain to tell us that the stove is hot, and the brain processes that signal as pain. Our brain then tells us to move our hand to avoid getting hurt any further.
If you noticed in that explanation, signals from nerves go through the spinal cord. Those signals are filtered or “gated” by the spinal cord. The idea of Gate Control Theory is that if we can close the gate, we can experience less pain.
We close the gate by applying other, positive stimuli.
How to Use Gate Control Theory During Labor
When talking about comfort measures for labor, this is the broadest and most inclusive category. You can use Gate Control Theory during labor by thinking about each of the 5 senses.
- Touch is a common way to use Gate Control Theory during labor. It can include massage and counterpressure, getting in warm water, using cold washcloths on your forehead, changing positions, holding hands with your husband, and more.
- Hearing is another application women commonly use. This could include music playlists, hypnosis soundtracks, or guided relaxations. It could also be white noise, your partner talking to you, or hearing yourself moan or grunt. Of course, you may also want to hear nothing at all.
- Smell can also be used as a comfort measure. Maybe it’s your favorite essential oil or a candle you love. It could even be just the familiar scent of your home rather than the sterile smell of a hospital.
- Like smell, sight is a comfort measure that has to do with where you are. Are you seeing a familiar environment with people you love? Or is it a new place with strangers? Sight as a comfort measure also includes watching a movie or show you love, looking at images of beautiful scenery, and looking into your husband’s face during contractions.
- Finally, taste can be used as a comfort measure during labor. We all have comfort foods that help us feel calm and safe, so that’s one way to think about it. But taste is also a way to control that gate of signals. If you are chewing on or drinking something yummy, your brain is focused on that rather than the sensation of contractions.
Using positive stimuli related to each of the five senses can help you stay comfortable and manage labor well.
Focused Redirection
Focused redirection is the next type of comfort measure you can utilize. It’s a bit like distraction but is different in important ways. Distraction is usually not a very effective way to handle the intensity of labor. Don’t believe me? Try this:
First, set a timer for one minute. Turn on a movie or show that you like and turn up the volume. Then get an ice cube and hold it in your left hand, gripping it tightly. Focus your attention on the movie, trying not to pay attention to the ice in your hand. Hold the ice cube for the full minute, or as long as you can.
Now, reset the timer. Turn off the TV. Get a new ice cube and hold it in your right hand, gripping it tightly. This time, focus on the sensation of the ice in your hand. What does it feel like? Is the sensation staying in one spot or radiating out through your hand? If the sensation had a color, what would that color be and how would that color feel? Breathe in and out slowly, keeping your body relaxed. Focus your attention on the feel of the ice in your hand. Hold the ice for a full minute or as long as you can.
Was one of those easier? Which helped more: focusing on the movie or focusing on the ice?
For me, focusing on the ice made the minute go by a lot faster. I still felt the pain, but it seemed easier to handle.
The principle here is similar to Gate Control Theory in the sense that your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. With Gate Control Theory, you are using positive physical stimuli to shut out the pain.
With Focused Redirection, it’s all mental. You are choosing to focus your mind, rather than letting the pain take over.
How to Use Focused Redirection During Labor
This practice of intentionally focusing your mind on something other than the pain can be used in multiple ways as a comfort measure for labor:
- Visualization: When you feel a contraction coming on, visualize pleasant experiences or locations, like being at the beach. Imagine as much detail as possible—the feel of the sand between your toes, the smell of the salt water, the warmth of the sun on your neck, the cool of the water washing over your arms and legs—and your mind will begin to believe that it is actually on that beach.
- Repeated Mantras: Repeating words or phrases to yourself (or having your birth team say them to you) is another way of redirecting your focus away from the intensity of labor. Mantras or affirmations like “I was made for this” or “I can do anything for 60 seconds,” can help you focus on your innate ability rather than the pain.
- Breathing Techniques: Focused breathing, like equal breathing (inhaling for the same number of slow counts you exhale) gives your mind something to zero in on. Counting your breaths occupies your mind so you aren’t so focused on contractions.
- Relaxation: Intentional relaxation, whether that’s done through touch, talk, meditation, or breathing, can also be a way to use Focused Redirection. If your mind is concentrated on telling each of your muscles to release tension, you’ll have less mental space to process pain.
For some women, focusing their mind on what is actually happening in their body is another helpful way to utilize Focused Redirection (just like in the ice example).
Imagining the muscles of your uterus shortening and pulling your cervix open and visualizing your baby kicking off the top of the uterus gives your mind something to think about rather than the sensations of it all.
This, of course, requires education, which we’ll talk about in a moment.
Conditioned Pain Modulation
Put simply, conditioned pain modulation is the idea that “pain inhibits pain.” Ever dug your fingernails into your palm to distract yourself from a stubbed toe or some other painful thing?
That’s conditioned pain modulation. It’s like your brain has a set bandwidth of how much pain it can take in.
So if a lesser pain (fingernails in your palm) is added to a greater pain (labor contractions), you feel less pain overall because your brain can’t take it all in and chooses to take in the newer stimulus, pushing out the older one.
The process also helps release endorphins, which are natural pain-relieving hormones.
It is similar to Gate Control Theory and Focused Redirection, but the nuance is worth making it its own comfort measure for labor.
How to Use Conditioned Pain Modulation During Labor
This is where some more intense comfort measures come into play. Some examples of how to use the “pain inhibits pain” idea for labor are:
- Electrical pulses, from a TENS unit
- Lots of pressure, such as deep massage
- Acupressure, like using a labor comb or pressure points
- Sterile water injection
- High heat, such as a heated blanket or a hot shower
Continuous Support
Having someone with you who understands your needs, provides reassurance, and helps you stay focused can significantly reduce the pain you experience in labor. Studies have found evidence that women who receive continuous support during labor tend to have shorter labors, fewer interventions, and a more positive birth experience.
I mean, just think about it: hard things are easier when you have someone holding your hand or telling you you can do it, right?
Continuous support usually comes from either your husband/partner or a doula.
A support person is primarily there to provide encouragement and emotional support, which in turn helps you manage the physical sensations better. Of course, your support person (or people!) will also be the one to help with physical comfort measures like those we’ve talked about in this blog post.
How to Use Continuous Support During Labor
Doulas are trained to know what to offer and how to support women in labor, emotionally and physically. If your primary support person is your husband or partner, however, they might need a little training of their own.
Your partner is likely going to be most helpful if you talk about how they can help you before labor begins. Invite them to take a birth prep course with you so you can learn together.
Then practice! Throughout pregnancy, especially in the third trimester, try out different comfort measures and do them regularly so they come easily to mind when needed during labor.
Education
Finally, understanding what’s happening in your body—and why—is a powerful comfort measure. When you know what to expect, you can face each contraction with confidence rather than fear.
I am a firm believer that fear thrives in uncertainty and truth sets us free.
Learning about the physiology of birth and the options available to you will help you dispel fear and feel empowered as you approach the time of labor and birth. (And less fear means less tension which means less pain.)
This is related to the concept of changing how you think about pain in labor—i.e. getting to a place where you view labor pain as positive. If you want to explore the idea of pain in labor, check out Is Childbirth Painful? (The Answer Might Surprise You).
How to Use Education as a Comfort Measure for Labor
Prenatal education comes in many forms. There’s nothing wrong with learning from (trustworthy) sources on YouTube or Instagram. (Obviously, since I’m on Instagram. 😉 ) But I highly recommend two things:
First—and this is SO so important—hire the right care provider…one who understands birth as the normal and natural process it is AND who has the time to educate you about it. Most of the time, this is going to be an independent midwife.
OBGYN clinics are just too busy to allow doctors the time to educate you in the way you need.
If you are considering switching to a midwife, download my free ebook Midwife vs OBGYN: Which is Right For Me? to get 15 questions (and explanations) that will help you understand if a midwife is a good fit for you.
Second, take a (non-hospital) birth class. A high-quality birth course is 100% worth the money. Even a fantastic midwife doesn’t have the time to teach you everything you need to know in prenatal appointments.
My absolute favorite birth course available is from Beautiful One Midwifery. Their Childbirth Education Course covers everything I could possibly think to include in a birth course and does it all from a holistic, midwifery perspective that views birth as a normal, happy event in a woman’s life.
Plus, it’s all online and self-paced so you can learn throughout the whole pregnancy or binge it during your third trimester.
If you want to learn more about Beautiful One Midwifery’s course, go here. (And use code GIVELIFE10 for 10% off!)
Conclusion: You Were Created For This
To sum up, if you want to give birth unmedicated, you need to know how to utilize comfort measures.
You have lots of techniques to choose from and those techniques can be separated into five categories: Gate Control Theory, Focused Redirection, Conditioned Pain Modulation, Continuous Support, and Education.
Learning these comfort measures and practicing throughout your pregnancy will help you go into labor confident that you can have a great experience.
Through it all, remember three things: trust God, trust yourself, and trust your body…because you were created to do this.
Until next time,
Allison
READ MORE:
How Not to Be Scared of Giving Birth
