Prodromal Labor, Oxytocin & Pitocin: What Your Body Is Actually Doing | Birth, Baby! Ep. 211

You’ve been having contractions for hours. You’re convinced this is it. Then you finally fall asleep, wake up the next morning, and they’re gone. A few nights later, it happens again.

Welcome to the confusing and sometimes incredibly frustrating world of prodromal labor.

In this episode, I’m joined by Angela Horn, a doula with 27 years of experience and host of the Doulas of the Roundtable podcast, to talk about what prodromal labor actually is and why we may need to stop treating it like something has gone wrong.

Angela explains why start-and-stop contractions can be a normal part of the body preparing for labor, what may be happening to the cervix even when you cannot see measurable progress, why contractions often pick up during the evening, and why the answer isn’t necessarily to find the right position or exercise to “kick” your body into labor.

Then, in true birth-worker fashion, we follow the physiology down a rabbit hole. We get into oxytocin receptors, melatonin, prostaglandins, cervical ripening, Pitocin, induction, pain perception, and what happens in the brain when someone feels safe and supported during labor. We also talk about why doulas need to be careful about the way we discuss interventions. If we have spent an entire pregnancy teaching a client that Pitocin, epidurals, or inductions are bad, what happens when that client ultimately needs or chooses one of those tools? Does our bias make her feel as though she failed?

Angela and I discuss why interventions are better understood as tools, how informed consent changes the conversation, and why a doula’s role is to support the birth the client wants rather than the birth the doula personally prefers.

We also get into the power of the doula-client relationship and why trust matters so much during labor. Sometimes the person giving birth is so focused inward that their doula becomes the voice they can actually hear and respond to. That creates an incredible opportunity to support someone, but it also comes with responsibility.

Angela has been a doula for 27 years, with credentials as a childbirth educator, breastfeeding counselor, and infant feeding specialist alongside her labor and postpartum doula work. 

She's the founder of Tucson Doulas, a full service doula agency, and she hosts the podcast Doulas of the Roundtable, now in its eighth season. 

For the past decade she's written curriculum and trained doulas and doula trainers through an international doula certification organization, and she's now branching out to build her own professional development platform for birth workers, including a communication-based training program called the CARE Framework, plus mentorship and business consulting for doulas building their own practices. 

Angela lives in Tucson with her husband Gil, she is the mother to three grown kids, Nana to one granddaughter and one grand puppy, and surrounds herself with 2 dogs, four cats and two rabbits. 

Website: www.tucsondoulas.com

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The information provided on this podcast is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. Reliance on any information provided here is solely at your own risk.

Birth, Baby! Podcast was originally produced by Ciarra Morgan and Samantha Kelly.

Ciarra Morgan:
www.EmpoweredBeginningsATX.com
www.BirthBabyAcademy.com

Samantha Kelly:
www.beautifullymadedc.com