Relaxation....

[spencerbear]

I have been told by midwife to make a point of relaxing for at least 30 mins every day. Anyone know the best natural ways to achieve this?

 

[Rmar]

There are some amazing relaxing techniques in the book Birthing From Within by Pam England. The number one is breath awareness and visualisation. It isn't about changing your breathing but being aware of how you breath. It can be added with visualisation such as a flower opening slowly as you breath out, waves coming to the shore or even your pelvis opening slowly to prepare for your babies head to decend.

Another technique is to be aware of what is going on around you without judgement. Simple things like:

A car going past...clock ticking...a voice....shadow...crickets...bright moon

rather than:

That car is annoying...the clock is ticking fast...that voice is frustrating...the shadow is dark...the crickets are quite loud...

If you are feeling really relaxed you could even try and incoporate it into how you might use relaxation during labour by holding icecubes and coping with the discomfort. If the relaxation is working, you might not even notice the ice cubes or they wont be of much discomfort. The more you focus on the ice cubes themself, the more discomfort they become.

Relaxation is a great took to get the blood flowing and good hormones flowing and to cope with any kind of discomfort or pain.