Have you ever wondered what is happening inside your body when you are in labor? While it can be hard to wrap your head around what is actually happening in the moment, it's actually a really cool experience that your body is going through.
As a mom of a two-year-old daughter, I remember going into the delivery room not really knowing what to expect. I let the nurses and doctors guide me through the birth of my baby and luckily for me, it went off without a hitch. I'm not going to pretend that the 26 hours of labor that I experienced was like a walk in the park, but after hearing horror stories about childbirth, it could have been a lot worse.
Now that I am embarking on my second journey into the labor and delivery ward, I can't help but notice guides and tips on childbirth online.
This one demo is a great visual about what happens to your body while you're getting ready to deliver a child.
What You'll Need
- Ping Pong Ball
- Balloon
Directions
- First thing you do is get the ping pong ball inside of the balloon. Do this by stretching the opening and getting your fingers to the bottom of the balloon to hold it open to fit the ping pong ball inside.
- Then inflate the balloon half way.
- Allow the ball to rest at the base of the balloon and tug on the neck to prevent the air from escaping.
- Now if you squeeze the size of the balloon you can see that not much is happening to the ball and the neck of the balloon. This simulates Braxton Hicks contractions that happens in the late-stage of pregnancy.
- Real contractions start at the top of the balloon. As the contractions start, the muscle fibers at the top get shorter and thinner which squeeze the top and pull on the side of the uterus.
- Just like regular contractions, if you squeeze and let go slowly you will see the next the balloon get shorter and thinner. This is like your cervix during early labor. The focus is on shorten and thinning instead of dilation.
- Once the neck of the balloon is short and thin, that's when you work on dilating the cervix.
- Just like actual labor, you squeeze the balloon gently and then one more push...and the baby is here!
Having gone through childbirth once before doesn't change my outlook as I prepare to head back into the hospital in a few weeks to welcome my baby boy. It merely gives me one more story about how to bring a child into the world.
This is a great visual to show your partner, friends or family members so they can actually see what is happening to the body when a baby is being born.
