How to increase the chances of a natural birth…
Interventions during labour and childbirth are on the rise but a large proportion of pregnant women would like a natural birth but are concerned about pain relief. Against this back drop, a recent randomised control trial looked at the effectiveness of a two day birth preparation course in supporting natural birth.
The birth preparation course attended by both the pregnant women and their birthing partners, covered the standard medical advice and self-administered complementary therapies including
- visualisation, breathing, massage and yoga to enhance relaxation
- yoga and acupressure to facilitate labour progression
- breathing, yoga and acupressure to aid pain relief
Those in the control group received the standard medical care advice. In total 176 women took part in the trail.
The results showed a reduction in the use of epidurals and caesarean section in the intervention group when compared to the control group.
This trail shows clear evidence of the benefits of complementary therapies to support natural childbirth.
Reference
Levett KM, Smith CA, Bensoussan A, et al (2016). Complementary Therapies for Labour and birth study: a randomised control trial of antenatale integrative medicine for pain management in labour, BMJ Open 2016
Related Posts
Can exercise help reduce blood pressure?
High blood pressure is known as the silent killer becuase of its the link to heart attacks and strokes. The causes of high blood pressure are: Mental stress: Stress can have a severe impact on blood pressure, especially when it is chronic. It can occur as a result of both socioeconomic and psychosocial factors. Some aspects of sex: In general, high blood pressure is more common among adult men than adult women. However, after the age of 55 years, a woman's relative risk of hypertension increases. A recent study compared the impact of medication and exercise for reducing high systolic blood pressure. The researchers reviewed 197 exercise randomised control trials and 194 randomised control trials looking at medication. While anti-hypertensive medications achived hight reductions in blood pressure that exercise. Researches concluded that modest but consistent reductions in systolic blood pressure can be achieved with exercise. Reference
Myofascia – part 1
What is Myofasci? Fascia is the main connective tissue of the body. Fascia surrounds every cell, muscle, bone, nerve, blood Bessel in the body, creating a three-dimensional web. This is one continuous network from head to toe. Myofascia is the fascia that surrounds all the muscle. Why it is important? In its normal state fascia is fluid and pliable, allowing full, pain-free movement. However, fascia is vulnerable to trauma from
- Accident
- Infection
- Injury
- Surgery
- Repetitive Movement
- Habitual Poor Posture
- Poor biomechanics
- Altered structural alignment
- Compromised blood supply
- Pain
- Reduce flexibility and stability
Forget what you think you know about Parkinson’s …
There seems to be a trend at the moment of researchers discovering that chronic disease starts in the gut. A theory was proposed in 2003 that was that Parkinson’s which is seen as a brain disease originates in the gut. Now researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark have confirmed that Parkinson’s migrates from the gut. Another important discovery is that the hearts of people with Parkinson’s can also be affected. In fact, the protein alpha-synuclein starts in the gut, then damages the heart before moving on to the brain. They also discovered that it’s in the heart where the damage to the nervous system begins. Researchers now say that a build-up of the protein alpha-synuclein in the gut can be detected up to 20 years before the disease manifests. Researcher Per Broghammer says that understanding where Parkinson’s originates is the first step towards preventing the disease and developing an effective treatment. Reference https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00401-019-02040-w
