20 April 2009

Standing up is better for labour

"A review of 21 studies involving almost 4,000 women concludes there is no risk to pregnant women from standing up when they start the delivery process and it may actually be harmful to lie flat."

Duh! Midwives and homebirthers have been saying this forever. The only reason women have been encouraged to lie down with their legs up (the lithotomy position) historically is because doctors it helped early obstetricians to see women's bits. Laying down works against gravity whereas walking around, squatting and standing help move things along. If you have an epidural, obviously, you have to lie down but it also raises your risk of having a caesar.

Read more: Taking a stand

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The Baby Bump Project by Meredith Nash is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.