Dilation, contractions, all those hours when the body is preparing to give birth, generate anxiety and pain. A pain that comes and goes and more or less can be endured but that, when it adds to fatigue, can lead many women to the point of "I can not more" and despair if they tell you that there is still enough to be born baby.
All help is little and when a woman decides not to make use of the epidural, she must manage to control the pain by other means, getting abstracted from her surroundings, staying in a place with low light and without people disturbing her, adopting the position more comfortable and receiving a massage from another person, which has been proven effective in controlling pain. So effective that it seems incredible that this method is no longer used and that is why I ask you: Nobody really gave you a massage while you dilated?
To the third, massage
In the first of the births I was with my wife, neither massage nor freedom of movement, nor anything. There was what the midwives and gynecologists said and spent the day lying on a bed with a monitor. In the second he had more freedom of movement, but I did not do any massage because, nor did I know it would do anything, he didn't ask me. In the third, because the third time is the charm. He began to dilate at home and immediately saw that the thing was going to be fast, because the pain was the most intense. He asked me for a massage, during contractions and I gave it to him in the best way I knew, noticing a lot of relief. Then the contractions slowed and I ran to get dressed and prepare things, for which I had about 3 minutes each time. Then he went back to the massage during the contraction and so on until in a moment I couldn't and she asked Jon, who was 6 years old at the time, to massage him. And the "midwife" got to work to help mom in an anecdote that they still remember today and that makes Jon happy for having collaborated in the birth of his brother.
What the studies say about it
There are studies for everything, and for this it will not be less, especially if when someone starts to massage a pregnant woman in active labor, there are those who think that "that is of no use". In this case, as in so many, it seems that yes, since studies express it.
For example, in a study carried out in 2013, 46 pregnant women of a baby were studied, who began labor spontaneously and with 4-5 cm dilation, who had not yet received any medication or anesthesia. To a group of them a physiotherapist gave them a 30-minute lumbar massage and in the other group a physiotherapist was that time helping to manage the pain only verbally.
Through a survey and through the subsequent data (satisfaction of the mothers, received dose of epidural and the time they received it, etc.), they saw that on a scale of 100 points those who received massage had a pain scored at 52 by a 72 pain in which they only spoke with the physiotherapist. The researchers concluded that massage helps reduce the intensity of pain during childbirth.
Another study dating from 2012 investigated 77 women in their first birth. One group was massaged and the other group did nothing beyond normal care and analyzed what the pain was when the dilation was 3-4 cm, 5-7 cm and 8-10 cm. They saw that the women in the group who received massage scored a pain of 13.3 versus 16.9 being 3-4 cm, 13.3 versus 15.8 being 5-6 cm and 19.4 versus 28.3 being 7-8 cm.
Although there are differences, the researchers considered that they were not statistically significant, but still concluded that the massage performed by a professional can be effective in pain control and that this could be associated with a later use of the epidural, thus reducing the number of risks associated with this type of anesthesia.
The Ministry of Health and Social Policy, in its Clinical Practice Guide on Normal Birth Care says the following:
Massage and reassuring physical contact is recommended as a method of pain relief during the first and second stages of labor.
So during pregnancy, because I doubt very much that in a hospital there is a physiotherapist for each pregnant woman, giving her massages, you can already instruct (or ask her to learn) your partner so that, on the day of delivery, I help you with caresses, massages and contact to take the highest moment of dilation, the most painful, in the best possible way.
