How Giving Birth on All-Fours Could Be Better for You
birthamiracle
birthamiracle, Yahoo Contributor Network
Dec 17, 2007
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More and more research is being conducted on the benefits of upright birth positions versus the semirecumbant and lithotomy birth positions. Although the latter have been most common in the United States for the past 100 years, success stories from other countries and minorities within our own have led researchers to question the common practice.
What other countries (with lower birth mortality rates than our own) have been finding is that women who give birth upright or in the all-fours position have less pain in labor and birth, have shorter labors and pushing times, less shoulder dystocia (where the baby's shoulders get stuck in the pelvis), and fewer perineal tears.
In addition to all of the above benefits, current American-based studies also suggest the following benefits to giving birth on hands and knees: fewer maternal and infant injuries and infant deaths related to shoulder dystocia1, less painful and more efficient contractions2, impressive rate of rotating posterior babies to anterior within 10 minutes3, shorter labor4, and the potential to decrease risk of both instrumental and cesarean deliveries5.