Holistic Biomechanics as Preparation for Labor

“Birth is an inherently safe physiological event”

Let’s be honest: most people have never heard of “Holistic Biomechanics.”

But, you probably have some familiarity with it’s components.

In this case, “Holistic” refers to the whole system, or whole person. “Biomechanics” refers to how the body moves and functions. When we put it together, Holistic Biomechanics refers to the way that the human body moves and functions when we observe it as one interconnected system, rather than by breaking it into small parts.

How do we do this? Through the lens of the Nervous System.

The Nervous System is the master system that connects the dots between what’s going on OUTSIDE of you, and what’s going on INSIDE of you. It determines first, if you’re safe, and second, how all of your other systems are going to respond, function, and move, based on that safety or lack of safety. It’s composed of your brain, spinal cord, and nerves.

For example, if you’re cozy at home with family, it can perceive safety, and cause your body to respond accordingly. If you’re crossing the street and a car zooms towards you, it can perceive a lack of safety (or a threat), and cause your body to respond accordingly. Neither is good or bad, better or worse. Both are appropriate responses to the situation at hand.

Here’s the thing: birth is an inherently safe physiological event. That doesn’t mean that there are never risks or unideal outcomes. That doesn’t mean that it unfolds in a safe way 100% of the time. It simply means that given the right conditions (conditions where Mom is perceiving safety), the hormonal and movement patterns during physiological birth more closely reflect the hormonal and movement patterns that we experience in other, more pedestrian moments of life, rather than reflecting “threatening” moments of life. If birth wasn’t an inherently safe physiological event, our species would never have survived as long as it has!

Here’s the challenge: modern women (and people in general) are having a harder time accessing the “safety state” (also known as the Parasympathetic state) of our nervous systems in the day to day, for a variety of reasons. This leads us to primarily operating from a “threat state” even when there is no threat present, physiologically speaking. Unsurprisingly, this dominant threat state doesn’t just go away during pregnancy or during labor. This can transform the inherently safe physiological event that is birth into a riskier experience than it needs to be.

So how do we bridge this gap, and get support as modern women to access this “safety state” during labor?

By training adaptability in the Nervous System. 

When our Nervous Systems are adaptable, they are better able to accurately perceive the safety around us, and thus, direct the rest of the body to respond with a “safety state” cascade: with all the hormones and internal skeletal, muscular, and fascial movement necessary to birth your baby into the world. Remember, Holistic Biomechanics: the way that the human body moves and functions when we observe it as an interconnected system. Your body cannot be separated from your consciousness, from your environment, from the way that you perceive your environment, from the stories and fears you may carry about labor, etc.

By approaching your pregnancy, labor preparation, and birth through this holistic lens, we are honoring and tending to the WHOLE of who you are, and who you get to be, during your transition from Maiden to Mother (or to Mother of many). Should you choose, you have the opportunity to use these tools to strengthen the resilience of your Nervous System, and to set the stage for your resilience during labor and your postpartum period. And, as a beautiful reflection of your healing, you get to influence your baby’s health, who will begin their life mirroring your own Nervous System.

If you’d like to learn more about the nuts and bolts of how Holistic Biomechanics is practiced, I hope you’ll reach out for a free call to learn more. You can also read more about it here.