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Having a Ball
Using Birth Balls to Ease Labor
By Kelly Burgess
Livingston, who always recommends birth balls to her patients, says they are particularly helpful if the baby is ascynclitic, or coming down the birth canal in a slightly crooked position. Often, this position can lead to failure to progress, but using the birth ball can help open the pelvis and give the baby space to correct itself.
Furthermore, the birth ball supports a laboring mother in a variety of positions as she progresses in labor and increasingly needs to move around, says Ann Douglas, author of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books: The Ultimate Guide to Conception, Birth, and Everything in Between (Wiley, 2002).
"A birth ball allows you to find a really comfortable position to labor," says Douglas. "You can sit on them or lean over them and support your torso. It allows you to move around but gives you support."
Janet Douglas* was so comfortable laboring on the birth ball that she would have given birth on it if the doctors hadn't objected. Her only regret was that she hadn't used it for her first two births.
"When I used the birth ball, it was back in 1997, and it was used so rarely that it wasn't even ready to go when I got to the hospital," says Janet Douglas. "I had to stand and wait while they sanitized this big, awkward thing. But it was so comfortable I hardly felt like I was in labor until they made me move to the bed."
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