Help for the Second Stage of Labor

As a doula, I have attended many births in the hospital and at home. When midwives are setting up for a homebirth, they always have warm compresses ready, usually in a crockpot. The warm compresses are incredibly soothing for the laboring mother.

I believe that this simple comfort measure should be part of the standard procedures during hospital births as well. This is another one of those situations where, "if you don't know what your options are, you don't have any." Parents have to ask for warm compresses when the mother is pushing. They are generally not offered. Sometimes the staff is not familiar with warm compresses.

Midwives and labor nurses are the most likely to provide warm compresses when asked. Physicians don't often use warm compresses. A few times that I set up them up for a mother, in hopes that the doctor would try it, the purpose was lost. I think that their viewpoint was that with the baby is about to be born, so there is no need. I was disappointed, because the mothers were really feeling alot of burning and it would have been so simple to resolve!

I think that warm compresses help the mother to push better, because it is more comfortable and less scary. Warm washcloths have no side-effects, either. Why not offer this to every woman?