Ina May's book - snogging and nipple stimulation during contractions?

[devotion]

I'm really enjoying reading it and all the birth stories are great but I love she encourages snogging and nipple stimulation during contractions.

dh is really looking forward to labour now

i have to say i can not imagine doing either of those during my last two labours, dh would have got a smack rather than a kiss

but they were both hospital births and not exactly a romantic setting, this time i plan a homebirth and my outlook is totally different so we'll see. we can at least have a snuggle alone in our bedroom while the mw's are in the lounge.

anyone else snogged during a contraction?

I'm glad that your DH likes the idea of it... mine was absolutely horrified when I told him about it... I did add (for my own amusement) that I also wanted him naked in the pool for "skin on skin" with me and the baby and that this was recommended too! He still hasn't recovered from this thought....

ha ha!

my dh did say "As long as the mw is not in the room!"

nipple twiddling definitely works.

i kept contractions with ds1 ging y twiddling and everytime i stopped the contractions slowed down.

very odd but god knows what i would have done if it hadn't worked, labour was 18 hours as it was!

i didn't try full on snogging but i'm pretty sure at some point in the 42+ hours of my life i've been in full on labour i have kissed dp possibly anyway

18 hours of nipple twiddling - yikes!

my little ones will fall off!

well whatever works I am up for it, i will be holding dh by the neck snogging his face off.

had to stop about 12 hours in as my mom had arrived to mind dd

still though.... endurance nipple twiddling, i wonder is there olympic sport potential there?

I had a very long labour with my enormous back to back baby. When my second midwife started her shift she told DH and I to snog and she left the room and my contractions suddenly became amazingly strong. She even got the consultant in to see all the bars going up and down on the machine. She was an older Yorkshire woman and a big fan of Ina May Gaskin.

i find it a bit weird tbh.........

Would it be rude to take a Rampant Rabbit in your hospital bag, seems to work along the same theories ?

I don't think it's weird at all - it makes total sense. It's not something that appeals to me, but it's not weird.

Saying that, if my labour was slowing and I wanted to ramp it up I would probably do anything to get it on track again.

Very interesting Tatty. It makes sense doesn't it? What gets it in there, gets it out

well i guess whatever gets the baby there in the first place will help birth the baby too.

i like the idea of it and makes the experience even more personal and special... as long as you are not being observed and would probably be a bit tricky if you are strapped with monitors etc to a hospital bed.

at home in your bedroom, dim lights and cuddled up with dh would feel totally natural. but i will have to find this thread after i give birth for my more experienced review on it

That's just what the midwife said moveit! It did feel a bit wierd, but it worked so quickly, that it was obviously effective. BTw, she did leave the room, we weren't snogging in public