3 Mechanisms to Change Labor Pain
As you continue to read through the GentleBirth book you’ll have come across ways that you can intentionally change pain perception. If you don’t have the GentleBirth book it’s free in the GentleBirth App (and the new companion workbook). Your brain training changes your pain experience as well as reduces your chances of having a cesarean and other interventions but there are two other mechanisms that you can tap into during your labour. Even if you’re planning an epidural understanding how your brain processes pain and what you can do about it can help you stay calmer and more comfortable while you wait for your epidural to be administered.
The Gate Control Mechanism
If you’ve ever banged your your elbow or stubbed your toe. What’s one of the first things you automatically do (after you swear?) You rub it frantically. This stimulation is thought to activate large afferent fibers in the skin and tissues that block the smaller fibers transmitting the stimulus message. Massage, being in warm water, movement, sitting on the ball are all aspects of this mechanism. Any kind of safe touch triggers oxytocin release and cultivates a sense of being cared for and the sends of a signal of safety to the brain. The opposite of safe touch is any kind of procedure during labor that can make you feel stressed - vaginal exams are usually top of the list but you can decide If you want them and when you want them.
Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Control Mechanism (aka DNIC)
Although it sounds contradictory there is a phenomena of intentionally creating pain elsewhere to reduce pain in another part of the body. This is called DNIC.
This mechanism is activated by stimulation likely to create discomfort or pain usually far away from the painful area. So, in labour this approach is used during a contraction to create an uncomfortable sensation elsewhere in the body. As endorphins are released (your natural pain killers) the body’s chemistry changes as does the physiologic status of the nervous system, resulting in a state interpreted as safer and closer to homeostasis by the brain. As such the pain experience is changed. This mechanism is activated primarily with from pressure over selected and known acupuncture points, ice massage and sterile water injections or holding a comb tightly during a surge. If you’ve ever read reports of women getting those sterile water injections they’ll say how painful it was for a few seconds and then they had complete relief from back labor for several hours. So in this case no pain no gain is really true.
CNSC (Brain Training)
The Central Nervous System Control mechanisms is the last and final mechanism and arguably the most important as it significantly changes birth outcomes and it’s the one you have the most control over. It is the mechanism the GentleBirth brain training approach is based on. In a nutshell the GentleBirth approach acknowledges that the brain has a powerful ability to change physiology and thus the resulting pain experience. How we think about labor, our preconceived ideas, our mindset and then our ability to tap into intentional strategies are what are key to leverage this powerful mechanism. This is the mechanism that explains why the same two women might seem to look like they had the same labor experience initially – but one suffered greatly and experienced high degrees of pain and the other had a positive experience. Sure there was certainly hard work and intense sensations but nothing she would describe as “unbearable pain” or “suffering”.
In 2018 - The Canadian government launched a clinical guideline based on these three mechanisms to educate clinicians on this safe approach to facilitating physiological birth. So although you are at the leading edge of the new science of the biology of pain medical staff need this education too.
Keep up your daily practice and start using the app right from the beginning of labor while you’re resting. There’s lots of great content to use in the Labor Playlist or create a list of your favorites for the big day.
Tracy
