Labor Playlists: Music can help you no matter what type of birth.

Just like the music playing during t.v. shows and movies, music sets the emotional scene for what the producers and writers want us to feel and experience. It can create the space for you to ‘let go’, feel ready, boost energy, instill courage, settle in, release tension, fight hard, dance baby out, focus inward, connect with your baby, master the rhythm, ride the waves, find our strength. We connect to our milestones, life events and memories with our senses. 

You may feel strongly about having music to play during your labor or haven’t thought about it at all. Regardless of your inclination one can find energy and the spirit that music brings to us all. I have observed the peace brought into the chaos of birth with the soulful voice of Adele, seen Grateful Dead bring baby’s first out of the womb listening experience, it send a woman into a birth trance with drums of …..,  it connects a woman back to the joyous milestones in her life with some Jack Johnson, stepping into dancing with our partners with Ed Sherron’s Think out Loud.

Moving with the shifts of labor can be heightened with the use of music. Whether you are giving birth at home, birth center or hospital, your birth team and doulas are there to support your process.

Doulas can recognize the need for transition often before you do and can be an important asset to help you find your new jam (or position). Whether you desire an unmedicated or fully medicated birth you will still have hormones and discomforts with childbirth. We see parents at their most vulnerable and realize the value of shifting on the fly. You might find that your labor picks up very unexpectedly or it is going slower than you’d hoped. There are many points along the way where playing the right songs can help you to get through that moment or those hours.

You don’t need to be a music lover to find it helpful in your birth. Sometimes as doulas, we just grab your Spotify or iTunes and play your ‘liked’ songs. If you are a planner and want to create a list that includes songs that you love, begin by searching through your liked songs, look at already existing labor or birth playlists that others have created and use ones you like in your own labor playlist. In your third trimester you may begin needing to find relaxation techniques to get through back pain, discomforts and Braxton hicks contractions. 

When it comes time to push your baby out or meeting your baby in the OR, there may be a need to quiet or it may be a time to pump up the volume (Roar by Katy Perry or Push-It by Salt n Pepa).

Moving with the shifts of labor can be more smooth with the support of the right tune. Partners can be helpful in knowing what you like and you can skip the songs that you aren’t feeling. Always bring a charger for you phone or device that you are playing it on as well as if you bring a bluetooth speaker.

Spicing up your experience during labor can be as easy as hitting play on your liked songs or a planned as several different playlist for different moods of your labor. Just know you and your partner do have the options to bring music into the hospital or birth center just like your would bring your diffuser with essential oils or your laptop to play Netflix.

Have a blast jammin’ to you favorites during those strong contractions! The power of music is magical!