Counter Pressure
Let’s talk about counter pressure, one of my personal favorite labor coping strategies!
With each surge, your uterus works on pulling its lower segment upwards, which thins and opens your cervix and helps move your baby out. This pulling creates tension on the ligaments that attach to your pelvis, causing discomfort. Applying counter pressure in the right spots helps to decrease this tension and provides enormous relief.Depending on what labor positions are working for you, we can try counter pressure in all kinds of different ways! A few that often help...
Hips: your birth partner can put their palms on the most prominent ridge of your hip on both sides and squeeze together firmly (I tell people to imagine they are trying to fold your pelvis in half!). It sounds intense, but this often provides SUCH relief. This technique works well if you are standing, kneeling, sitting backwards on a stool or the toilet, or in hands and knees position.
Sacrum: your partner can place the palm of their hand or a closed fist over the hard, flat surface of your sacrum (right above your butt crack) and push forwards your belly button. You can use this in all of the same positions as hip squeezes, and is also a really great one to try if you are laboring in water and it's hard to get a good grip on your hips.
Knees: while you are seated in a chair or on the edge of the bed with your knees forming a 90 degree angle, your partner can gently press just below the kneecaps, like they are trying to drive your femurs straight backwards. This is great for relieving low back pressure! If baby is working on rotating through the mid pelvis, we can also apply pressure to one knee at a time to help create a little extra space to make the turn!
Sitz bones: this often feels SO good during pushing, but can be tried any time! With the laboring person in a hands and knees or semi squatting position, your birth partner can place the flats of their hands or closed fists against your ischial tuberosities, or sitz bones (the big, prominent bone under each butt cheek). During each surge, you can use your own force to push back against your partner's hands, which lets you control the amount of pressure. This is great to use during pushing because it still allows your sitz bones to spread to create the maximum space in your pelvic outlet.
