Does the midwife help, er, prepare your fanjo for crowning with hot towels/oil or something?

[LoveInAColdClimate]

I recall reading something about Olden Day (v specific, I know...) births where the midwife used hot towels and oils to prepare the woman's fanjo for the stretching of crowning. Does this still happen? If not, why not? Does it just not work? It seems logical to me that it would help, but I could be wrong... am desperate to minimise the risk of tearing/being cut. Thanks.

Mine applied some lidocaine anaesthetic gel (at my request, and I had to provide it) but I don't think they do anything routinely.

They did lots of strange things in the olden days - shaving, enemas etc.

Erm...no!

You can do perineal massage or purchase an epi-no if you want to try to prepare your perineum, however it's not really necessary :)

Really really not! It is not a spa treatment!

Hahahahahahaha....no! Nice idea but not a hope. Sorry :)

So basically the Olden Days are not the place to draw my conclusions about modern day delivery practices, then? Fair enough .

Perhaps I should take a spa therapist and a supply of warm towels with me and be the hospital's biggest diva ever .

Ina May Gaskin says in one of her books something about midwives at her birth centre using oil (or the woman doing it herself) to help with the stretching during crowning. No idea if it would make any difference, but I remember at least one woman in the birth stories part of the book says it helped.

Zimbah,
I also read that. Ina May seems to do it routinely with a lot of success. But then look how many midwives they usually have at a birth and how dedicated said MWs are. Don't think that would happen here...

no it doesn't happen, unless you have an independent midwife and asked her to do it.

there is no reason why your partner shouldn't apply oil or a warm towel if you want to give it a go though

I did Perinieum [sp] massage with almond oil daily for a few weeks before birth with all of mine and never tore.

I may just have been lucky, I did have both large babies and v fast labour and still no tearing. so id say its worth a try.

There's two things here - one is perineal massage with oils during late pregnancy to improve general elasticity. The other is placing a very warm compress against the perineum at crowning. I never bothered with the massage. My MW with my second did the warm compress thing and it definitely helped. It relaxes the whole area just when you need it.

If you were to give birth in water, how would that be? Does it have the same effect?

i've read that water helps.

i laboured in the pool with ds2, and gave birth to ds3 in the pool (just) and didn't tear with either of them. they were big babies too.

but that's just anecdotal