Your Five Senses in Labor - Sound
Average Read Time: 3-4 minutes
“Listening to music during labor really helped take me out of my body at times and also brought such a calm comfort during the process. I remember hearing the line, ‘Give me a minute to hold my girl’ by George Ezra while starting to push with [my daughter] and feeling such a connection to her in that moment and thinking ‘I can do this.’” - Lexi, reflecting on sound during the birth of her first child.
Labor playlists, special songs, sound machines - these ideas and tools are all over the internet algorithms of people planning their births. I think this shows a deeper importance when planning - what is your relationship to sound, and how can you utilize it to help create the labor environment that YOU need!
In this blog, the second in a series about creating a safe, loving, and respectful labor environment that is unique to each person, I will dive deeply into how to tailor the sounds of your labor room to help you stay in your own personal labor land.
Sounds in labor are much more than just music! I wrote this list of sounds I heard the last time I was at a hospital birth:
Nurses chatting in the hallway
The beeping of the IV machine when it was running low
The whirring of the blood pressure cuff going off automatically
The rain machine the client had on
My shoe squeaking on the floor accidentally
Me and the partner whispering about him getting dinner in a quiet moment
The cry of a baby in another room when they were born
Each person in labor is going to have a different opinion about these noises - some people can’t stand repetitive noises (absolutely thinking of my own mom here!), while others can block out those noises easily (myself included!). Some people are bothered by medical sounds, while others find comfort in the sounds (I had one client say that the sounds of the machines reminded them that they were somewhere dedicated to keeping them and their baby safe). What I’m trying to get at is - everyone has a different relationship to sound!
Music is a great example of where opinions matter greatly! I had the honor of being the doula for a dear friend of mine, and in the planning of her birth, she explicitly told me that Too $hort would not be on her labor playlist. While this was devastating to me, it just goes to show that each person has their own musical taste - both inside and outside of their labor land. I’ve had clients who know ahead of time that silence is their best option in the labor room, and some people who plan months in advance the special song that will be played as their baby is born. I once had the honor of watching a baby be born while the parents’ wedding song played in the background (which wasn’t planned, making it even more special!).
One other note on music: many people don’t think about the different vibes that are needed for the different stages and phases of labor. Dancing is a wonderful tool in early labor, so maybe a hyped up playlist is the thing that will help. Active labor and transition require deep concentration and endurance, so many people opt for calming music or sounds that will help keep them in the moment. I had a client who had created a playlist of songs that reminded her of her father, who had recently passed away. That playlist helped keep her head in the right mindset for her - she knew that thinking of her dad would bring her that feeling of safety that she needed to labor.
The other part of hearing is how people are talking TO you in your labor. Anna, a recent birth client of mine, shared, “Hearing the nurses, doctors and you (my doula) encouraging me, and telling me when to push, so I could then completely rest in between pushes [was the most helpful].” I’ve also been told explicitly to “shut up” during labor (a motto that my mentor Mel told me early in my career was to “take everything seriously and nothing personally” - so if you need to say “shut up” and add in your favorite curse word, go for it!). The talking (or silence) of a room is important to reflect on and plan for as well.
You may not know exactly what to expect for labor, but planning for what your ears experience is a helpful thought process to plan for. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you plan the hearing portion of your labor environment:
When you’re stressed out, what type of noises help? What types of noises make things worse?
When you’re in early labor, are there any TV shows, movies, audiobooks, podcasts, etc that would be helpful to have on in the background? What would be a helpful distraction?
What is your relationship with medical noises? Will hearing the noises in the hospital room make you feel more stressed out? Or do they not generally bother you?
Will hearing your baby’s heart rate feel comforting or would you prefer to have the noise turned down/off? (Yes, you can ask for changes to this! The machine has a way to turn the sound up or down depending on your preference.)
Will chatter (both with you and around you ) be more helpful or more stressful?
Have meditations or visualizations been helpful to you leading up to labor? Have they helped you in the past as you navigate stress, anxiety or other intense situations?
Do you sleep with a noise machine?
How can your birth support team (partner, doula, friend, parent, etc.) help maintain the sound environment that is most beneficial to you?
These are a few of the questions that I navigate with clients prenatally, so that when labor begins the birth team knows exactly how to support the ears of the laboring person. This isn’t exhaustive, but a good place to start when planning for your own birth!
Have other ideas of how to create a unique sound experience for laboring people? Have questions about navigating sounds in your own labor? Want to connect and talk about the ultimate labor playlist? Hit me up here!
