If you have read the first two articles of this series on birth opinions (Feed the Mother and Rest During Labor), you will know that food, fluid and rest are elements that must be present in most births for them to flow smoothly. I call them "friends of birth". Birth does have a few natural enemies though. One enemy is very subtle. An enemy that sits in everyone's homes and watches, and we watch it. Our births are so dependant on it, that we could not imagine not having it. So useful in everyday life, but so destructive in birth. This menace to birth is, of course, THE CLOCK.

Not so long ago, in a land not so far away (Ireland to be exact) some one decided to chart how long it took the average woman to birth a baby. This person came up with the average of 12 hours for a first time mother and 6-8 hours for second and subsequent births. Labor was charted on a curve (the "Friedman's curve") that would show that a woman should have cervical dilation that progressed at least one centimeter an hour. If she was not doing this naturally, she would be given labor stimulating drugs to promote this dilation whether she needed it or not. The system included the mother presenting to the labor unit with labor in progress. She was given a support person (student midwife in most cases, a doula by any other name), to remain with her for the duration of the labor and birth. If her membranes were not ruptured, they were ruptured artificially, and she was started on pitocin drip to have labor stimulated if she was not progressing sufficiently on the "curve". With all this the mother generally birthed her baby within the 12 hour limit. This method was called active management of labor. This method was very effective for the running of the unit, as then the staff could function in an orderly fashion.

Across the ocean in the good ol' US of A, they saw this and thought "what a wonderful idea! So they adopted the method. To a point. The charted women's labors, they gave labor stimulating drugs, they watched the clock to make sure the labor stayed the course. Except they left out one vital (the most vital) element of this method, the constant, continuous support of another woman trained in the ways of the birth process. This has caused active management to go awry and therefore has necessitated much more intervention to keep labor within the confines of the "Friedman curve". By placing a time constraint on the birth process, you do not give credit to the woman who has naturally longer labors. We watch the clock and do cervical checks: to make sure the curve is being held to, so that "we" the caregivers, can plan and time our next move, so that "we" know when to interfere, and place labor back on track.

So basically what we have here is a bunch of clock-watchers, trying to make birth happen on a time schedule. Which is about the worst thing you can do for the process of birth. With lack of birth support by a consistent, knowledgeable person, we do not acknowledge that birth may stall due to the ever changing caregivers as the clock brings about shift changes, differing nurses, and residents and doctors that come and go. We do not honor that, during labor, the human body has a problem with this man-made object. The added stress of not birthing on schedule can keep a body from progressing in labor. Never acknowledging that placing our strange fingers in this laboring woman's most private of places could be the thing that is keeping her from dilating, from staying on track. But yet we watch the clock and expect this woman to birth on schedule.

Birth is not an event to be timed. In some cases time is an important element that must be figured into the care (ruptured membranes is a legitimate reason), but not during the normal birth process. Clocks should be covered, time should not be a factor. The birth sensations will come, and they will go and eventually the mother will birth. The mother will be able to tell you that the birth sensations are longer, stronger and closer together. She does not need a clock or machine to tell her that. She will know when a contraction starts and when it stops. It does not matter that the birth sensation was 60 or 90 seconds long. She will tell you exactly what she feels (as in "whoa that was a big one" or "yeesh, I barely got a break in between those, they are coming closer together now"). She does not need to look at her wrist-watch to tell herself what she already knows. She may want confirmation at some point, but she does not need to be tracking every birth sensations length and duration. If an on looker is curious let them keep it to themselves. Time need not be announced. Birth happens with the rising of the stars, moon and sun, not the ticking of the second hand on the bright clinical wall.

So cover your clocks and let the birth begin. Try letting the birth happen and not tracking time, let your body move to it's own inner clock. Don't let time interfere with a million year old process that has been perfected over the millennia. Let go of time and dive into the wonder of birth. You will be amazed at what you can do. You will find to your great delight that birth is timeless.