Aromatherapy can have a several benefits during childbirth, from improving uterine muscle tone to helping you relax, says nurse midwife Paula Greer. Watch the video to learn which specific scents are most helpful in the deliver room.
Aromatherapy is used during the pregnancy to promote relaxation and relieve stress off mom, but this even carries into the labor process. I have noticed that all I have to do is put a gentle smell in the room and the coaches calm down, the family calms down the nursing staff calm down and so does the patient.
There are specific smells that enhance the relaxation process then that caries over to massage using those aromas in massaging mum can actually help with pain relieve, increase the uterine muscle tone so many of us who use massage and aromatherapy in labor have quite a bag of creams and oils and special blends that we use knowing that rose for example actually helps to increase the utering tone sage actually helps increase mom's clarity and decreases her tension, lavender is great for relaxation and really helps with pain.
So if you choose a provider who knows about aromatherapy, ask which blend of massage creams or oils would be best for you and your labor.
Paula Greer is a graduate of the nurse midwifery program at Georgetown University and currently working for Baltimore Washington Medical Center in a faculty practice.
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