Map

Pain Coping: Finding the Center

Finding the Center is a process that asks parents to dive directly into the center of the sensation. This is different from Breath Awareness or Non-Focused Awareness, where they are bringing their attention to their breath or noticing the other sensations happening around or within them.  

With Finding The Center,

we purposefully locate the intensity

and move directly into its center.

When to use this process: 

The intensity of active labor may challenge the effectiveness of pain coping practices that focus on distraction. Because it deals with these later parts of labor, we usually save Finding The Center for use in the later parts of our work with parents. (In other words, generally not in the first session.)

Imagination

This practice incorporates the use of imagination and visualization in leading parents. The suggestions below include a variety of images that illustrate “the center.” You can choose one from this list, or find another image to introduce.  

• A hurricane, where the sensation is the force swirling around them and they are within the calm, safe center.

• A rock thrown into a pond and the concentric circles that ripple out.  

• An arrow releasing straight towards the center of a target.

What to have in advance:  

•  Each parent will need a bowl with a few ice cubes and a hand towel.

•  Chimes/bell for marking the beginning and end of ice-holding “contractions.”

•  Watch/timer to time “contractions.”

To begin this practice:

Offer parents suggestions for two or three images/visualizations that they use during the process. You do not need to lead them through one specific image, allow them to navigate to what works best for them.

Encourage the parent(s) to sit in a forward-leaning position. This helps them to be more alert and to embody the feeling of having to cope actively, leaning into the sensation and their labor.

After picking up the ice, tell them to imagine “seeing” their breath as they breathe directly toward the center of the  sensation and “through” the sensation. Breathe down into the center of the pain, or breathe “through” by sending your breath strongly to the “other side.”  

In between contractions, guide them in resting their mind and body.  

Leading this process using the image of staying in the eye of the hurricane may sound something like:

Bring your full attention to your outward breath...As you breathe into the sensation, find its center...With each breath out, notice how both the center, and the sensation, are in constant movement...  Focus your mind’s eye on the Center...

See yourself “flying” your mental “plane” down into the hurricane and sending your breath down into the center of the pain.

Imagine “seeing” the pain and distractions as the periphery of the hurricane and the center as the place of stillness amid the storm.

Acknowledge the courage it takes to face the strength of later labor. It is possible to use this practice without judgment by re-committing to the  process at each contraction. Don’t judge success or failure, just keep going!

Try this:

Using ice, approach this exercise in two ways and notice the difference:  

• First Ice Contraction: Create an ambivalent internal mindset, in which doubt and an  intention to avoid pain cause your breath to “bounce off” or resist the sensation.  

• Second Ice Contraction: Approach the sensation with an unwavering commitment  to move through it without the slightest doubt or hesitation.  

How were these different?

Journal:  

What happened for you during this process?  

Keep going.