Another exquisite illustration from @duvetdays highlighting the beauty of our bodies.

This image depicts the 'crowning' stage in labour, also known as the ‘the ring of fire’. This is the stage in which your baby’s head stretches the vaginal tissue.

It can feel like an intense stinging sensation that brings on a feeling of numbness and in many ways provides you with a natural anaesthetic to assist your vagina and perineum in stretching to allow your babies head through.

There are quite a few things that we often suggest to women to assist them in this phase of birthing.

• Birth in Water. The warm water can soften all the tissues around the vagina and perineum and allow everything to stretch with more ease
• Warm Compress. If you are not birthing in water, then a warm face cloth on your perineum can also promote blood flow to the area and allow the tissues to soften
• Upright Positions. Utilizing gravity and allowing the body to use its natural pushing mechanism can assist in breathing your baby out gently so everything stretches
• Breathing your Baby Out. Let the body do the work of pushing and focus on keeping a soft jaw and loose lips to also help the pelvic floor and perineum relax. We recommend breathing in through your nose and then slowly breathing out through your mouth over your bottom lip. Like you were going to play the flute. This allows the pelvic floor to soften and let the body do the work of pushing. I always recommend to my clients to practice when they are pooing. Breathe your poo out!!
• Touch your babies Head. We often suggest to Mummas to place their hand on their babies head as they are gently breathing and crowning so they can feel what their body is doing and stay in touch with their body and baby
• Love your Vulva. Yep, send it love and praise throughout the pregnancy for the job it is going to do. You can gently massage the tissues around the perineum and vulva. I am not a fan of stretching the skin before you labour as you can sometimes create micro tears and when in labour we have the benefits of hormones and all that blood flow to allow everything to stretch. Be gentle with your body and thank it for the job it is doing

Our bodies love it when we love them :)