3.1 Comfort Measures: Manual Pressure on the Bottom of the Sacrum

3.1 Comfort Measures: Manual Pressure on the bottom of the sacrum

At some point during labor, most women will experience discomfort in their lower back as baby is making its descent down through the pelvis. Where she feels the discomfort in her back would usually be in relation to where baby is and what baby is trying to do.

So when in early labor and the baby’s head is still high, women tend to feel this discomfort in their upper sacrum and when we use counter pressure with the intent to massage away her discomfort, we could potentially be closing the space available to her baby instead.

So when the baby is still high, one of the comfort measures used would be to place our hand on the lower sacrum and apply counter pressure which in turn will ‘push’ the outlet pelvis to close, causing the inlet pelvis to open. This creates more space for the baby to enter the pelvis and may relieve the pressure on her upper sacrum.

This is most comfortably done with the mother either in a standing position or kneeling position with her birth supporter behind or beside her.

You can use this technique in a non-problematic labor and/or to modify the pelvic opening and create more space in the inlet pelvis.

For OMP Active Birth Positions , OMP Pelvic Mobility Protocols and OMP Comfort Measures to be effective, it has to be done during contractions and used for 5-10 consecutive contractions to see if it is effective in enabling labor to progress.