The Holistic Birth Podcast

Brigitte 0:17
Welcome back to the Holistic Birth Podcast. Today is episode 19 and we are going to be talking about stage three of birth, which is birthing the placenta, which is still birth. It's a wonderful thing. Birth is still happening. It's also a very special moment. So yeah, we're gonna get into that process and just give you some insight and tips and all that kind of stuff.

Allison 1:11
So stage three of labor was all about the placenta. That's a star of the show.

Brigitte 1:16
It deserves its own stage!

Allison 1:18
It really does. So at this point, baby is in your arms, you are doing skin to skin. Your uterus is working differently now. It is so it's you might, you might be seeing different cramping still. But some signs that your placenta might be ready to be birthed would be if there's a gush of blood. And usually it's like bright red. Or if the umbilical cord is lengthening, so if it seems like it's kind of like it seems like there's more you length? It's more visible and the tension isn't really there as much.

Brigitte 2:02
Yeah, it's kind of like loose, loose and a little more like, stretchy or thin, I guess.

Allison 2:09
That's exactly it -- lengthening. Your provider might check to see if the placenta is ready by providing a little bit of cord traction. This is when they provide a tiny bit, a little bit of tension to cord to see if like, is the placenta coming? Or is that still attached? They should not be pulling on it. They should not be yanking on that. That would be a liability for them anyway, so yes, they're not they're not going to be doing that.

Brigitte 2:35
No, yes. And they should not be doing that. Because might be causing serious problems. And I've definitely seen placentas born without any tension at all, they will just sometimes you'll feel like the urge to kind of push, and you'll feel that, you know, like fullness, feeling around your tailbone and some pressure and then it will come out. And most people are very relieved when it comes out. It's just like everyone, I've heard everyone say, oh my gosh, I feel so much better.

Allison 2:59
It's a huge relief. You definitely can feel that pressure again. And sometimes it's, it can be a little intimidating because you're like, I just went through this pressure. Yeah, this baby's now on my arms. And And why am I feeling this? Like, you know, blood pressure again? Yeah. And so yeah, sometimes you can feel that pressure in your cervix or like at your like in your vagina. Like you said, your tailbone. But yeah, you could choose if you want to plus, like birth the placenta on your own. Or if you do want the support of a provider, some people start one way and then switch to another if needed. Though, remember, there are no bones in your placenta. So it's a little different than birthing your pets a lot different. But yeah, it's a huge relief. So many people are like, ah, for sure. Like, there's just big sigh of relief.

Brigitte 3:46
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So usually it takes about five to 30 minutes for it to come out. So really, everybody's a little bit different on on how soon their placenta comes out. So, you know, don't worry if it hasn't been like an immediate thing. It does take a little bit of time. And your uterus will also still tighten in contract to kind of help with getting pushing the placenta out just like it kind of goes with your baby. So again, your uterus is still working a little bit hard to process the placenta so yeah, you know, your uterus after that will shrink at once the placenta is out it will start to shrink back to size so so usually I feel like a lot of people are concerned about like hemorrhage happening after this. It's usually kind of when you know it will it's you know, a special cases there. It does happen. It can happen before that, but this is usually the time that it might happen. So there are definitely ways to help prevent that such as like the fondle massage is one thing that's offered which we will get into more detail in another episode because there's varying opinions on whether it's necessary or not. So we're just going to talk a little bit more about that at some point in another episode, and then skin to skin of course, which we talked about in our I believe it was our last episode. Yeah, the golden hour. So having a golden hour the skin to skin is also ways to help prevent the the hemorrhaging and having like the breast crawl to is another thing apart in addition to the skin, the skin.

Allison 5:13
The oxytocin hormone that helps, like with that contraction. Kind of. Yeah. state of being for your placenta for your uterus rather. Any any addition to oxytocin is really gonna help so skin to skin does promote that hormone. Yeah, same thing with a golden hour in the breast, the breast crawl, or if your partner's nearby. I mean, we're not saying that like, oh, well, if you're if you're nursing, and if your partner is holding you, then that's all the oxytocin you need. Sometimes you have plenty of that. And maybe there's something else going on? Sure. So good to know that there are potential ways to help support that, that potential, like decreasing the risk.

Brigitte 5:53
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, you know, breastfeeding, of course, is another thing that can help prevent that, that hemorrhage. So but yes, like Allison said, there are some times that there might be something going on where it does still happen. But yeah, these things do kind of help prevent homeopathics, as everyone knows, I'm really into there are actually remedies to help with postpartum hemorrhage. One of those is of which is Pulsatilla. works really, really well, from what I found. And yeah, so it's Homeopathics. And then yeah, we talked about the risk of breast call and all that. So I think we've covered pretty much all the, like, natural ways of trying to prevent so yeah.

Allison 6:30
And they do, they would potentially offer Pitocin as well.

Brigitte 6:33
Yeah, we got to bring that up. Yeah.

Allison 6:36
They would potentiall offer Pitocin. So if it seems like the placenta is not coming, or if it does seem like there's some like, yeah, like risk for hemorrhage, then they would they could offer that sometimes it's either an injection, like intramuscularly, or it could be like through your IV. But yeah, that's, that's part of the Pitocin, you know, category.

Brigitte 6:59
Yeah definitely. Just another thought that popped in my head as far as like retained placenta. Of course, there's also Homeopathics for that, but on another level, to get a little woowoo on you guys. There is some thought around retained placentas. And like not being ready to let go of your birth and your baby, like so some people like energetically are just not ready to let quiet let go of that chapter of their life. So I love to check in with people if that's what's happening, like, you know, how are you really feeling right now? Or are you sad that you know, your your pregnancy is over? And some people will say like, Yeah, I'm feeling a little bit sad about it. And that's, once we kind of like, uncover that emotionally. They're able to let go. So it's interesting. Yeah, yeah, it's really interesting. So not heard of that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really kind of neat. It's like a little bit of an energetic thing, like just some people are just not quite ready to let go of the pregnancy and the birth experience. So they're kind of retaining the placenta a little bit. So I like to kind of check in to see how they're feeling and where they're at. And kind of neat.

Allison 8:03
Cool. So stage three, the placenta, we can just talk about a few different ways or things to do with the placenta. Sure. Yeah. Sure, the default in a lot of places could be send it to medical waste. Maybe you don't want it sometimes, like we were just talking about, it could be a texture thing. Again, what the heck am I supposed to do with this? It could be your baby's the prize. And that's all you care about right now. You don't want to deal with this organ. But other other people consider doing things like taking it home to plant. Some people just bury it a little deeper in the ground than you would like sowing some seeds. Yeah. But yeah, plant some people plant the placenta, you could even put like a rosebush or something on top. For others, they do want to consume. So there could be encapsulation. There could be like the raw consumption of it. There are a lot of like anecdotal pieces about how consuming your placenta can help reduce the risk of bleeding and, like restore some levels, which we'll talk about a later time to.

Brigitte 8:04
Yeah we're gonna get really into the placenta consumption, all that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Allison 9:12
But just some, just some thoughts. I had a client who recently was encapsulating her placenta and she wanted a piece of the placenta put into a smoothie. And she drank that and I mean, she didn't have any terrible bleeding postpartum. Maybe that was an effect.

Brigitte 9:35
Yeah. Was this like immediately after birth?

Allison 9:38
Immediately after, within the hour.

Brigitte 9:41
Oh neat, cool.

Allison 9:41
It was the tiniest like, size of a quarter.

Brigitte 9:44
Yeah, that was cool.

Allison 9:48
But if that weirds you out, maybe don't listen to our placenta consumption episode. Or maybe do because you're curious about why the heck, what's the whole deal with it? But yeah, there are some things to do with your placenta. It's your organ. It's your body so you can choose to take it home. I've heard that there are some, like legal, like hoops that some places have to jump through. And that to me sounds outrageous.

Brigitte 10:16
Yeah, it's crazy. I don't get that.

Allison 10:17
It's like they treat it as medical waste. And it's, it's fine if they, if they have certain like policies or like misunderstandings around it, but that's usually not law, like you then can still take your placenta and do something with it at home or whatever it is.

Brigitte 10:38
So I think that's it on the stage three of placenta birth. But if anyone has questions, let us know.

Allison 10:46
Yeah, we're here if you need anything. And we, we are still thrilled to be doing this with you. And we're coming up on the end of season two. So we're very, very excited to to have been here with you all these episodes so far. Stay tuned for more.

Brigitte 10:59
Yes, absolutely. We've got lots more coming so yeah.

Allison 11:04
Have a good rest of your day. Talk to you later!

Brigitte 11:06
All right, bye!

The Holistic Birth Podcast

Stage 3 of Birth: Birthing the Placenta

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