What is Biomechanics and Why Do I Need to Know About It?

So what is Biomechanics?

Our bodies are capable of giving birth naturally and physiologically, and Biomechanics is simply learning how to support this to happen comfortably and smoothly. With understanding, knowledge, movement and optimal environmental conditions, biomechanics techniques allow for the creation of balance and space within the pelvis for a more easeful labour and birth.

Why Do I Need to Know About Biomechanics?

If you're expecting a baby, you may have attended some form of antenatal education class already, which is a fantastic step towards becoming informed and prepared for birth. But what a lot of courses neglect to teach is how managing your pelvic mobility during pregnancy and labour can assist the birth of your baby and make it less likely for you to need interventions. Logically speaking, understanding a little bit about the bony structure of your pelvis, the inlet and the outlet, and your babys journey through this structure, is only ever going to help you to feel empowered and in control of your experience. Understanding that dilation of the cervix isn't the be-all and end-all of birth is a crucial tool in managing your own expectations for how birth should look. The modern maternity services in the UK use dilation as a marker of progress of your labour, and this perceived progress will go on to shape your clinical options and offerings, and ultimately, your birth. But this is not the whole story. Opening the cervix is a large part of labour, but if you're in a bed on your back the whole time, your baby is going to struggle to navigate through your pelvis and all the effort your body has put into opening your cervix will have been in vain.

Knowledge is all well and good, but surely I can't change the shape or size of my pelvis?!

Yes, very true. Our pelvises come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but generally speaking, the female pelvis has certain characteristics built-in to aid the passage of a baby through birth - I find this fascinating enough in itself to be honest! Whilst we can't physically change our skeletal structure, we can learn how to use our bodies in a way that maximises the space in our pelvis and manipulates the flexible attributes of our skeleton to create room for our baby. If you were to sit on your hands right now - put your hands underneath your bottom, palms up, so that you can feel your sitting bones - and move your legs into different open and closed positions, you will feel those sitting bones are also opening and closing in response to what your legs are doing. This is a simple excercise to help illustrate how we can effect the inlet and outlet of our pelvis: these are both spaces through which our baby needs to pass to be born.

How can I learn more about using biomechanics to support my birth?

In a world where natural birth is becoming rarer and intervention and c-section rates are soaring, more and more birth professionals are having to go out of their way to learn about how birth can and should look. Biomechanics is slowly making it's way into mainstream care, with lots of midwives now choosing to take themselves on courses and workshops to supplement their knowledge and enable them to better understand and support physiological birth. A midwife who understands biomechanics isn't guaranteed though, but hiring a doula or engaging in an antenatal course with an emphasis on physiological birth and supportive movement is something you can choose and control. Lots of doulas have educated themselves with this knowledge and you can seek them out to find one who is right for you. Furthermore, things like specialised pregnancy pilates goes hand-in-hand with biomechanics, and it's a really good idea to join up to a class with a qualified instructor ahead of the birth. Having just co-hosted a biomechanics event with a local pilates studio, I can attest to how naturally these two things go together.

I have supported many births where I have witnessed biomechanics knowledge in action - sometimes, it's myself or a midwife gently suggesting helpful positions and movements to the mother, and sometimes it is the mother instinctively adopting those

positions which I can observe as being part of the biomechanics knowledge. In every instance, this knowledge has shaped and improved outcomes and I cannot recommend highly enough, the power and confidence that it brings into the birth space.

Recommendations:

Pregnancy Pilates classes at Be:Poised Pilates in Lavant (https://www.bepoisedpilates.co.uk/)

Attending the next Birth in Motion event (a perfect combination of biomechanics education and pregnancy pilates)

Follow OMP (Optimal Maternal Positioning) queen on instagram, @danaebirthdoula