The Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices are the foundation of Lamaze. These practices are designed based on years of research to simplify your birth process with an informed approach that helps alleviate your fears and manage pain. Look for the six dot symbols in this book to learn more.
1. Let Labor Begin on Its Own
Letting your body go into labor naturally is usually best, ensuring your baby and body are ready. Labor typically starts when your baby, uterus, hormones and placenta are prepared, leading to better outcomes. Every day in late pregnancy helps. If your labor is artificially started, or induced, it becomes a medical event and proceeds quite differently from spontaneous labor. Unless you or your baby has a health problem that necessitates induction, it makes sense to wait patiently for your labor to start on its own.
2. Walk, Move Around and Change Positions Throughout Labor
Moving in labor serves two very important purposes. First, it helps you cope with increasingly strong and painful contractions, which signals your body to keep labor going. Second, it helps gently wiggle your baby into your pelvis and through your birth canal.
3. Bring a Loved One, Friend or Doula for Continuous Support
In childbirth, like many life moments, we thrive when surrounded by trusted people who encourage us and affirm our efforts. Good labor support isn’t about watching the clock or checking IVs and monitors. It’s ensuring you’re undisturbed, honoring labor’s natural timing, and reminding you of your birthing instincts. Your helpers should create a protective cocoon—a safe, secure space where you can focus on the hard work of labor without worry.
4. Avoid Interventions that are Not Medically Necessary
To support a smoother birthing process, avoid unnecessary medical interventions, which can often disrupt labor and make it more challenging. Opt for a birth setting known for low intervention rates and proactively ask your care provider if they routinely use interventions. During labor, don’t hesitate to inquire about alternatives to proposed interventions, ensuring your birth plan aligns with your preferences and needs.
5. Avoid Giving Birth on Your Back and Follow Your Body's Urges to Push
When it’s time to push your baby out, remember that instinct, tradition and science are all on your side. Current evidence shows that letting you assume whatever position you find most comfortable, encouraging you to push in response to what you feel, and letting you push as long as you and your baby are doing well are all beneficial practices.
6. Keep Mother and Baby Together—It's Best for Mother, Baby & Breastfeeding
Experts recommend that right after birth, a healthy newborn should be placed skin-to-skin on your abdomen or chest and should be dried and covered with warm blankets. Any care that needs to be done immediately after birth can be done with your baby skin-to-skin on your chest. As midwife Ina May Gaskin says, you’re entitled to "keep your prize."
No one is more invested in your labor and birth experience than you are. Throughout your pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum, you should be the author of your story and at the center of the decision-making. No one should coerce, manipulate or force you into or out of anything against your will, nor do anything to you or your newborn without your knowledge and consent. You have the right to autonomy, to receive information, and should always be given the opportunity to provide informed consent or refusal for care. Taking the lead will provide you with the best opportunity for a positive experience.