Brittany Sharpe McCollum brings a treasure trove of strategies for expectant parents. Her insights on pelvic biomechanics and the physiology of labor aren't just enlightening—they're crucial tools for personalizing your birth plan, whether you're considering epidurals, inductions, or aiming for a natural delivery.
Discovering the right birthing location goes beyond glossy brochures and hospital tours—it's about tapping into the wealth of community knowledge, from Facebook groups to the wisdom of doulas. In our heartfelt conversation, we peel back the curtain on hospital financial incentives and policies, emphasizing the power of informed questions and regional statistics in prenatal visits. And when the labor journey begins, the support of your team is more than comforting—it's scientifically shown to positively influence labor's pace and your satisfaction with the birth experience.
Understanding the importance of rhythm in movement and the soothing presence of a partner can turn the labor room into a haven of support. Embrace the wisdom and nurturing guidance that Brittany offers, and equip yourself with the confidence to navigate your unique path to parenthood with grace and empowerment.
Follow Blossoming Bellies, here: https://www.facebook.com/blossomingbelliesbirth
Visit our website, here: https://birthlearning.com/
Follow us on Facebook at Birth Learning
Follow us on Instagram at @birthlearning
Show Credits
Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier
Voiceover: Ryan Parker
Brittany Sharpe McCollum brings a treasure trove of strategies for expectant parents. Her insights on pelvic biomechanics and the physiology of labor aren't just enlightening—they're crucial tools for personalizing your birth plan, whether you're considering epidurals, inductions, or aiming for a natural delivery.
Discovering the right birthing location goes beyond glossy brochures and hospital tours—it's about tapping into the wealth of community knowledge, from Facebook groups to the wisdom of doulas. In our heartfelt conversation, we peel back the curtain on hospital financial incentives and policies, emphasizing the power of informed questions and regional statistics in prenatal visits. And when the labor journey begins, the support of your team is more than comforting—it's scientifically shown to positively influence labor's pace and your satisfaction with the birth experience.
Understanding the importance of rhythm in movement and the soothing presence of a partner can turn the labor room into a haven of support. Embrace the wisdom and nurturing guidance that Brittany offers, and equip yourself with the confidence to navigate your unique path to parenthood with grace and empowerment.
Follow Blossoming Bellies, here: https://www.facebook.com/blossomingbelliesbirth
Visit our website, here: https://birthlearning.com/
Follow us on Facebook at Birth Learning
Follow us on Instagram at @birthlearning
Show Credits
Host: Angie Rosier
Music: Michael Hicks
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood
Producer: Gillian Rosier
Voiceover: Ryan Parker
Welcome to the Ordinary Dula Podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy Dula practice helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Ordinary Dula Podcast. I'm Angie Rozier, your host. We are hosted by Birth Learning. Today, we have an awesome guest with us, somebody who is a guest speaker at all of our Dula trainings, and I love learning from her every single time. I want her to introduce herself and a little bit about what she does. She is doing some amazing work and making great changes for everyone, as she educates not only providers and people, but the birthing world about some very awesome, simple things we can do to make things better. So, brittany, I'm going to turn the time over to you to introduce yourself, and then we'll talk about what our topic will be today.
Speaker 3:Awesome, thank you for having me. Yeah, so my name is Brittany Sharp-McCallum. I own Blasping Bellies Holistic Birth Services based out of the Greater Philadelphia Pennsylvania area. I'm in South Jersey just over the bridge from Philadelphia, but all my in-person classes and workshops are taught out of Philadelphia. Let's see, I've been doing this work for over 16 years.
Speaker 3:I'm an educator, a Dula lactation counselor, a bio-mechanics educator, and my focus is really on labor physiology advocacy during both prenatal care as well as labor and inter-postpartum, and then understanding pelvic biomechanics, which is how we can create that space in the pelvis to keep labor progressing, to decrease intervention rates, to restore autonomy to the person giving birth. I work with expecting parents. I teach a lot of childbirth education and then also a medulla as well, so I go with people in labor and provide support, and then I also get to work with pernatal professionals, which is a really cool thing to be able to kind of see things from both sides. I get to travel all over to do workshops on incorporating effective movement into labor with and without an epidural. I also do some workshops on labor physiology, evidence-based decision-making and so forth. So, yeah, so I love what I do.
Speaker 3:I got into this work after my first son was born, so he's 17 now, and really my goal in getting into this was to help people know their options, to know how to effectively communicate with their providers and to kind of better understand how to navigate the system in which we're birthing.
Speaker 3:The system is really set up for a one-size-fits-all approach and a lot of our terrible statistics reflect that, and I think one of the things that can make a big difference in terms of outcomes is providing more of an individualized type of care to people laboring, and so that's really kind of at the heart of what I do to both provide education to parents as well as work with professionals is to kind of take more of an individualized approach to people's experiences so that they can feel more in control of the process and in control of the decisions that are made during the process, and also we can see that reflected in better outcomes and better statistics. Yeah, so that's what I do, and I have four kids now, so I have my oldest, who I mentioned, a 17, and then 18 and two as well, so full house every year.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I love that you have a caboose. I have a caboose as myself. It's so fun to do it all over again. Yes, with the different eyes so awesome, yes, so today we're going to be talking with Brittany about three tips for labor progress, and I'm excited to hear what these are. So tell us, share tips with us on labor progress.
Speaker 3:So when we were talking about topics, I was really thinking like I, labor progress is so important. We talk about this all the time I think it's educators as dual as we talk about this but a lot of the things that we hear are the same, which is super helpful still. But I was like what kind of tips could I provide that might be a little different than what people are getting somewhere else? So the tips that I have are maybe a little bit more unique than what you might get out of your, like, average social media account or something like that. But I think these are tips that are really helpful and should really support people, no matter how they are choosing to labor with or without an epidural induction, spontaneous labor, whatever. So my very first tip is going to be to understand the place where you're birthing. So this means understanding not only their statistics but their individual practices the volume of births they do, the number of rooms that are available, what your individual provider group does like, what is their common practice, because the more information that we have that can provide insight into maybe why certain interventions may be done more often or why people may be given more or less time in labor. All of this is going to really help us figure out how to navigate that system a little more easily. So, for example, I've been bringing this study up a lot recently. It's come up recently in a lot of conversations I've had.
Speaker 3:But there is this study that was done by Neil Shah. He's a Harvard professor and OBGYN. He did a study that looked at labor and delivery words around the country and the study was trying to determine whether the volume of births that were done at different hospitals correlated to the number of rooms that were available. And what the study found was that there was no correlation between the volume of births that a hospital was doing and the number of rooms that are available. And that might seem like, well, what does that matter? It matters because if we have a birth place that's doing a high volume of births and they have very few rooms available, there is definitely going to be a greater push for intervention, there's going to be less opportunity for time in labor and therefore we might need to think outside of the box in terms of ways to encourage labor to progress. And that might be where you find those more common tips, things like stay home, interactive labor, that sort of thing, or get an epidural, an X point in labor, those sort of tips. So when we understand things like the volume of births that are done at our hospital, the number of labor rooms that are available, what our care provider typically expects in labor and we can find those things out by asking lots of questions prenatally then we have a better understanding of what's going to be expected from us during the labor process and we can better gauge what other tools we're going to use to try to encourage either labor progress or to maybe postpone an epidural till a certain point or consider staying home until a certain point in labor. We can better utilize those more common tips if we understand what's happening in the place where we're birthing.
Speaker 3:And then I mentioned a hospital that might have a high volume of birth and very few rooms available. There's also the flip side of it, where you might have a hospital that has many rooms available and does a very low volume of birth, and then there might not be as much pressure to move things along quickly in labor. It might make more sense to get the epidural at the point where you feel like you need it rather than trying to wait till a certain point in labor, the epidural can often slow things down. So sometimes we hear, well, you don't want to get that too early on because it could slow things.
Speaker 3:But what, actually? What a lot of research is starting to tell us is that whether somebody has an intervention after getting an epidural an intervention like augmentation of labor after getting an epidural may have less to do with the epidural and may actually have more to do with how their individual provider practices. So that's what's so, I think, so interesting about understanding where we're birthing and what's common among our care provider, because it totally could impact things like when we decide to head to the hospital, when we decide to get our epidural, if we have a better understanding as to what's actually happening in that space. So that would be my first tip is ask those questions so that you can better navigate the place in which you're birthing and the care team that you're using for support.
Speaker 2:That is fascinating because I think in my practice a lot over the years some people want to birth at the biggest, shiniest, newest hospital right which might have a high volume but that may impact so many things where others might choose to give birth and I think people like bigger. They think bigger is better. There are some hospitals that I've worked in over the years I think I've been in nearly 40 hospitals at this point and some just are a quiet little place to have a baby.
Speaker 2:And if their staff isn't massive. People oftentimes look at the NICU status, right like after baby care, and what level of care that a hospital can provide with no real risk of having to use a NICU. A lot of people may choose their hospital space as much as insurance allows for choice, I guess based on that. But you're right, I have seen some really country hospitals, like rural hospitals, be pretty amazing or not. Some of those are a little bit backwards in policy and I've also just this last year it's been fascinating when I have folks who are scheduled for an induction. They if at a busy hospital, sometimes they are on call.
Speaker 2:Like they have to like we'll call you when a room opens up and one of the people's calls. It was seriously like 2.30 in the morning and she was not expecting it. I don't think her phone was on. She was pregnant and missed the call and therefore missed the induction. Oh my gosh, she missed her own induction, like, oh you know, time's up. We got to give it to somebody else, but I think that's fascinating, oh my gosh and Brittany tell us too.
Speaker 2:How do you go about asking these questions? I think if you were to ask your run of the mill provider at an appointment, they're not going to have those percentage. You know they're not going to have that information readily available. What's a good way to go about finding this information?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's a great question. So I think we have a lot more resources at our disposal now than people did 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I think I would maybe take this with a grain of salt, but I think going on Facebook groups and asking people what their experiences have been at hospitals in the area is helpful to an extent. I mean, I always tell people, like you know, have to be willing to let some things go in when you're out the other. But if you're trying to find out what's common at different hospitals in your area or let's say, you have like three hospitals that you're going to be choosing from to give birth, but maybe you have like given them a call or you went to the orientation and you asked them questions, but maybe the answers weren't that specific or they didn't know, like you said then I might actually suggest tapping into some of those Facebook groups, or even like doulas. You know doulas are going to give you really hopefully good, solid information without a whole lot of bias. You know, like actual information, whereas I think sometimes when you're, you know, asking people, they tend to share their stories more than necessarily the information that you're looking for, which sometimes can be challenging to hear as a pregnant person, but tapping into those community resources, like asking doulas, interviewing different doulas and, as you're interviewing them, ask them like what has their experience been at different hospitals? Also, though especially early on in the process, where maybe you know, maybe a doula isn't yet on somebody's radar, it might be helpful to reach out to like community resources like Facebook groups of other expecting families, but also other resources you might already be using, maybe chiropractors or massage therapists. Oftentimes, if somebody is a massage therapist, they might work with prenatal clients and they might have a little bit of insight to provide, but it never hurts to also like just set up a consultation with someone like a doula, where maybe you just pay them for an hour of their time just to kind of sort through the options that are available to you, because they'll definitely be able to provide you with some solid insight.
Speaker 3:I also think, though, that starting early in your prenatal care, asking questions, just bringing maybe five really most pertinent questions to you to each prenatal visit, and just like opening up those doors of communication, is really important, and if a provider says, well, I'm not sure what our statistic is, you could always say you know, could you give me a guess, like what do you think your practice's statistic is on this? Like if you had to guess, and then you could also say, like, well, where can I find this information? Can you point me in the direction of the right person to give me this statistic? So yeah, so I think you know, using the community resources that are available and really being willing to like ask questions at prenatal visits, but not just settle for a I don't know or yes or no. Try to ask those open-ended questions and really have conversations rather than being just like a list of things that you're asking.
Speaker 2:I love that. Go prepared with questions. I think, like we know hospital systems track everything right.
Speaker 2:They're amazing statistics on things, but getting access into in a format that, into people who you know you use it to make decisions. I think other things we can check out is like, not your health departments of your state or your county. Your local health departments could be interesting as well for your regional statistics in general maybe not to a specific facility, but yeah, I think it's. That's a lot of good education people could gain and I think I totally agree, doulas get this bird's eye view of so many birthplaces and, yeah, we get to see the providers and the trenches. We get to see you know what certain providers behaviors are like when they delivery time and with the nursing, the culture of the nursing staff is like. Yeah, doulas can be a great resource for that.
Speaker 3:I love that. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think you know there's a lot of value in hearing the stories of other people that have given birth. And the reason I say take it with a grain of salt is that sometimes we hear bits and pieces of people's stories that maybe are their perspective on what happened, without all of the details, and sometimes that can really affect us in pregnancy and make us like feel more scared or anxious or something like that. So we want to be careful about that. But also, I think you know, if you hear overwhelmingly of like negative stories about ex-hospital, then maybe that's going to impact your decision to give birth there and that can be helpful too. So just tapping into those resources is helpful. I was thinking like along the lines of community resources and then you were like the health department, like yeah, that would actually make a good place. There's still a lot. It's interesting.
Speaker 2:I was just having it. I was working on some research for a group right now and how to decrease the cost of maternity care, specifically with NICUs. But there's a hospital we're looking at, great hospital, awesome set of midwives, it's a good culture from a doula standpoint. But they had for several years they were pushing visits to the NICU for their bottom line, right. So their parameters of like here's the babies that need to go to the NICU got really narrow. So you know, maybe at another hospital the baby with this respiratory rate or this apgar score or whatever was fine to stay in room with the parent, but at this hospital they narrow their parameters to increase their bottom line because NICUs oh my gosh they can make a lot of money when a baby's in a NICU for any period of time. So I think digging down to that is you know, that's in the responsibility, the consumer, the information's out there and digging to it a little bit and find I love that. I love we could do a whole visit on that Fascinating yeah.
Speaker 3:And one of the things I know you've heard this saying before I think we hear in the dual community all the time is that people spend more time like researching how to renovate their bathroom than they do researching about their birth, and a lot of times people are like well, I love my OB, so I'm just going to go wear my OB catch his babies, which is a good starting point, but your OB may very well not be the person that catches your baby All the time that happens all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and then you are, you know, subjected to people that you don't have relationships with, and now it's like you know you could have gone somewhere else and had maybe a more positive experience and developed a relationship with a provider. So, yeah, we got to kind of start thinking outside the box a little bit in terms of where we choose to give birth and really understanding that place of birth that we're headed to. Perfect.
Speaker 2:Great tip, thank you Okay.
Speaker 3:What's next? Yeah, so next, and this is one of my favorite things to talk about. So this is redundant for you, I'm sorry but move often.
Speaker 3:Frequency of movement is so important and, like we say all the time, you know, people think that if they have an epidural they can't move. Could not be further from the truth. Movement needs to be part of all labor experiences and we're not just talking about, like you know, big movements like all fours or squatting. We're talking about simply doing things in any capacity to shift pelvic space. So changing how the thighs are positioned, changing how the lower back is rounded or arched, creating asymmetry on one side and then asymmetry on the other side. Asymmetry could be side to side, it could be front to back, it could be up and down. There are so many options and if we think about utilizing props, particularly with an epidural things like peanut ball, the squat bar, the cub if that's available where people are birthing then we actually can really change up the position pretty significantly. But even without a whole bunch of fancy props, you can still do different things with your legs, you can still do different things with the angle of the hospital bed and if somebody's unmedicated, then they can move in whatever position feels right to them. And sometimes I find that when people don't have an epidural, they have a tendency to find a position that's comfortable and stay there for a long time. So, even in a position that's comfortable, let's think how can we shift the thighs a little bit? Can we stagger the legs? Could we open the thighs out, could we tuck the thighs in, could we elevate a knee up on a yoga block or a folded pillow or something like that, creating some type of movement?
Speaker 3:And I would suggest every five contractions, which I know sometimes people are like well, that sounds really frequent. What depends on where you are in labor. In early labor, five contractions could be like every 30 minutes or every hour even, and most people are moving their body in some way every 30 minutes to 60 minutes normally, even, especially in pregnancy. So doing that in labor shouldn't be a stretch. And then, as things progress into labor, like you move into the, let's say, the transition phase, where contractions are coming every two to three minutes.
Speaker 3:Well, that could be changing position every 10 to 15 minutes. But it's not that we're necessarily exhausting ourselves, just position changes, we're just focusing every five contractions. I'm doing something subtle but different than what I was doing before and that's again super beneficial, with or without an epidural induced labor, spontaneous labor, and not forgetting to keep moving during pushing, because so many times people get into one position and stay there for a long time, and movement needs to be part of pushing too. Babies are still working their way down and out. We need to keep changing that space for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that, and movement is such a. When I ask my clients what tools they want to use during labor, movement is one of the top tools, both for comfort and it has a very practical purpose too.
Speaker 3:So movement, is good all the way around.
Speaker 2:Very cool yeah.
Speaker 3:And I would add to that too moving rhythmically with the contraction. So not only changing up the position, but also when you're having the contraction, rocking your hips side to side or rocking, doing pelvic tilts front to back, or if someone is in a lunge position, like leaning into and out of that lunge. Or we talk about a lot with the peanut ball moving the peanut ball when it's between the legs, so rocking the peanut ball, circling it, so that we're incorporating some rhythmical movement during the contraction. So when the uterus is squeezing around the baby and the baby is incrementally moving down, we're shifting that space for the baby to make the most out of every contraction. So that's an important piece of it Not just changing position often, but actually incorporating rhythmical movement with the contraction.
Speaker 3:That was like a two for one tip.
Speaker 2:Love it, we'll take it. Yeah, perfect, ok, what's tip number three?
Speaker 3:OK. So my third tip and this is another one that's, I think, a little bit outside the box because I'm trying to not give you the same tips you hear everywhere else, but this would be to make sure that your primary support person is well educated about birth. I know it's probably like well, how the heck does that relate to labor progress? It relates in a huge way because if they understand the physiological labor process, what labor looks like from the outside at different phases, what people do, how they respond to their contractions, then they're going to be better able to understand why it might be a good idea to stay home until active labor is established. They might be better able to tell when someone's an early labor versus active labor. So they can just be a better guide for the process and be a lot more calm in their approach if they have that education behind them.
Speaker 3:Sometimes people will ask me does my partner come to birth class with me? Yes, absolutely, because they're going to need to have all of this knowledge. Because if they have zero knowledge about birth or only what they've seen in TV shows and movies, they're probably going to be freaking out when they're in labor and that makes everybody feel more stressed and they're going to head to the hospital a lot earlier than they were going to otherwise. And then, as soon as they get there, if things aren't moving along, they're going to have to make a decision Do they head back home, where everybody was stressed and freaking out, or do they stay and then have that pressure to augment labor or even induce, depending on where they are in the process? So having a partner that understands labor physiology is huge, but not just labor physiology.
Speaker 3:I think the partner also needs to understand how they can be a support person during labor. So they'll come for techniques that they can help employ, the way that they can provide guidance for movement and things that are physical, like counter pressure and massage, are great to understand too. But if somebody doesn't want to be touched, they also have to have other things in their toolbox. They need to be the reminder to go to the bathroom frequently, the reminder to stay hydrated. They need to offer snacks here and there, because research totally supports being able to eat and drink freely in labor, with or without an epitome.
Speaker 3:And again, most people don't know that if they're not actually seeking out education about birth. So a support person that is well-versed in the labor process and what their role looks like is important. And then a big piece of that, too, is having discussions in advance about what the person is giving birth like, what their expectations of their support person are, and then talking openly about whether that was what the support person thought they were going to be doing. Right, because sometimes people are not aligned they think they are, but when they actually start talking about it they realize, oh wow, we're not on the same page.
Speaker 2:You expect me to do what?
Speaker 3:Right, having those conversations early on in pregnancy to the best of your ability, if you don't necessarily have a whole lot of knowledge just yet, but having those conversations, taking a birth class together so that then the conversations can continue, and then starting to maybe even write down a birth plan, whether you actually plan to hand that to your provider or not, but together writing down your preferences, talking about what the partner's role is going to look like, what the expectations are on both sides.
Speaker 3:I think that's really important. And I know again, how does that relate to labor progress? Because if you feel like you're not being supported well during labor, that is totally going to make you start to feel overwhelmed by the process, and then that engages the thinking brain and then the thinking brain overpowers the primal brain that's releasing oxypocin and the labor process can slow down. Then we can wind up in a situation where we're accepting interventions that may not have been necessary and then that brings potential risk. So if we have a solid support team around us that is knowledgeable and educated and feels confident in their role, then it can put us at ease as we're laboring, which can help to allow those hormones to flow and keep labor progressing. So it does all tie into labor progress.
Speaker 2:Yes, it does, I think too, the experience of the partner. We don't all. Oftentimes we don't give that enough credit.
Speaker 2:The partners have an experience, and I think a well-prepared partner is going to have some tools to use, going to understand and be able to anticipate, because I'm sure you can say the same. But a lot of times partners will have birth trauma and as a doula you know we want to provide, we want to excuse, we want to prevent that for anyone. But when partners are well-prepared, that can be a great tool and make it easier for both of them, both of their experiences, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:There's a series of surveys that were done in California, called the Listening to Mothers Surveys, and one of the things that they looked at was birth satisfaction, which is so interesting because so much research does not take into account birth satisfaction, and they actually found that when partners were more involved in the laboring process in terms of providing support and being part of decision-making, that it improved birth satisfaction for the partner and the person giving birth.
Speaker 3:And birth satisfaction, like that's huge. Birth is such a life-changing, transformational event that to kind of ignore the emotional side of it is really unfortunate, because it has the potential to either create trauma that you then have to work through in the postpartum or, more ideally, to create this empowering experience that you can kind of look back on and be like, yeah, that might have been totally crazy and maybe the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but like, wow, I totally did that and I feel really great coming out of it. And you know that's often not something that we do alone. Like, our perspective on our experience has a lot to do with the type of support that we have surrounding us and again, though, also to tie it back to partners, like partners feel more satisfied with the experience when they feel like they had tools to use and felt confident.
Speaker 2:They didn't feel helpless, but they're part of the process, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that can be a hard thing Good, that emotional piece too.
Speaker 2:our systems are not set up to address emotional needs very well. Anyway, during labor they're, you know, they're all about the medical needs, the life and death of the situation, but not the because we sit with that. You know, anyone who delivers a baby sits with that experience for the rest of their lives. So the emotional part, I mean that's a doulas, you know, kind of one of our specialties of course. But even folks without doulas can go in much better prepared and have a hopefully a better emotional and physical experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, absolutely Absolutely. And you know, it's a hard thing, I think, for partners to feel helpless, and it's a hard thing for people that are laboring to like feel like their partner is like kind of feeling helpless, like it's a hard, that's a hard dynamic. One of the things that I talk a lot about in birth classes is how, even if you're at a point in labor as a partner where you feel like you're doing nothing, like nothing quote, unquote right, just simply by being there and like not leaving their side, like you are there should they need anything, you're doing everything. Right, like that sometimes that is all it is. And like the second you leave the room, everything's gonna fall apart, so you need to stay right there. But like there's so much value in just this, just that simple presence, even if that partner is like, well, you know I can never get the back rub right, or she doesn't want any of the water I'm offering, well, that's all right, like just simply being there. She knows you're there. That's so, so important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think being present, not just physically present, but completely present, right Emotionally present, being attuned to those needs, which sometimes that you know I've had partners I love it when they say this like labor's boring, like you know, this is, it's hard to be patient for a day or two, sometimes Hard, but yeah, that completely present is a huge tool. So what a great tip, brittany. I love that, and those three tips are so different from each other, which is awesome.
Speaker 3:I love it.
Speaker 1:That's what I was aiming for.
Speaker 2:They're all hitting on important pieces for folks to know about and prepare for, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then hopefully you can tie in the other more common tips like you know, staying home until active labor and things like that. You can find those things anywhere. So I love this. There's a little more insightful. Okay, stay in one more time, give us two more, okay.
Speaker 3:So our first one is truly understand the place where you're birthing. So that means not only, like you know, oh, it's on, like you know, spruce street or whatever. No, like we need to understand actually, like what's happening in that place, how, what is their volume of births, how many rooms do they have available? What is my provider's kind of common way of practicing? So really gaining insight specifically into the place where you're birthing. So that could be statistics that could also be talking with doulas and other community resources about you know what is actually happening within those walls. So that's a huge one truly understanding the place where you're giving birth.
Speaker 3:The next one is move often. I usually suggest every five contractions, but also not only moving frequently like that, but also focusing on rhythmical movement within each contraction to really maximize the effect of position changes. And then the last one is make sure that your support person is well educated when it comes to birth, that they understand the physiology, that they have a toolbox full of ways to help you manage the labor discomfort and then also a whole toolbox full of advocacy techniques as well. And hopefully, based on you know, having that good, solid foundation of information, they feel confident in their role as a support person also. So all of those things will help with labor progress, like movement.
Speaker 3:Like physiologically, movement helps with labor progress. But the other two pieces are a little bit more of that emotional side of things which is going to help the process to unfold in a way that is positive and empowering, but also literally to help keep the process unfolding so that that big thinking brain doesn't have to get in the way and overanalyze things in labor but instead you feel comfortable in the place where you're birthing, you feel comfortable with the choices that you've made and also you have a support person that's by your side, that it has a full toolbox ready to you know, ready to use for your labor, and also they feel really confident in that role. So that helps that person that's laboring to feel a lot more at ease and let all those good hormones flow.
Speaker 2:Perfect, awesome. Thank you for these great tips. That's going to help our listeners be able to have that positive, empowering birth experience, which is so important for us that we want everyone to have that kind of experience. So, brittany, thank you. Tell us again where we can find you.
Speaker 3:Sure, thank you for having me today. You can find me on social media at Blossoming Belly's Birth, so I'm on Facebook, instagram and TikTok, and then you can also check out my website, which is BlossomingBellysBirthcom, and there's lots of resources on there, from webinars, many of which are free, to childbirth classes. We have in-person classes in Philadelphia, we have live virtual classes which people join from all over, and then a bunch of self-paced courses as well, and then I have workshops for perinatal professionals on there too. So lots of good stuff to check out on there. Yep, great resources.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the work you do in our community. It's important we appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, you too. Thank you so much Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Dula podcast with Angie Rozier, hosted by Birth Learning. Episode credits will be in the show notes Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth.