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The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS, a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA

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Prenatal Perineal Message


The federal government now says it's OK for pregnant women and young children to be
injected with mercury in the H1N1 vaccine.
However, if there were more mercury-free vaccine available, they would recommend that pregnant women and young children get that instead.
Don't be fooled!  Thimerosal is a form of mercury!
Autism rates dropping in California—is phase-out of thimerosal the reason? [from 2005]
Current thinking is that only genetically vulnerable babies will be affected by the thimerosol . . . maybe even as low as 1 out of 200 or 0.5%.
But if it's your child, it's 100%.  Read this mother's story about her children's recovery from mercury-related autism.

This is for the woman who wrote and wanted to know more about Perineal Message.

Note: I had a 9# baby (first born), born at home with no tear and no episiotomy- thanks to perineal message and a wonderful midwife- my mom!

Prenatal Perineal Message

Prenatal perineal message is a technique which slowly and gently stretches the skin and tissues around the vagina and perineum. The perineum is the area between your vagina and rectum. Perineal message helps reduce the risk of tearing during birth and the need for and episiotomy.

Directions:

  1. Wash your hands
  2. Find a private, comfortable place and sit or lean back in a comfortable position.
  3. Put a lubricant such as KY jelly, cocoa butter, vitamin E oil or pure vegetable oil on your thumbs and around the perineum. ( I used vitamin E oil)
  4. Place your thumbs about 1-11/2 inches (3-4 cm) inside your vagina. Press downwards and to the sides at the same time. Gently and firmly keep stretching until you feel a slight burning, tingling or stinging sensation.
  5. Hold the pressure steady at that point with your thumbs for about 2 minutes or until the area becomes a little numb and you don't feel the tingling as much.
  6. keep pressing with your thumbs. Slowly and gently message back and forth over the lower half of your vagina, working the lubricant into the tissues. Keep this up for 3-4 minutes. Remember to avoid the urinary opening.
  7. As you massage, pull gently outwards (forwards) on the lower part of the vagina with your thumbs hooked inside. This helps stretch the skin as the baby's head will stretch it during birth.
  8. Do this message once a day, starting around the 34th week of pregnancy. After about a week you should notice an increase in flexibility and stretchiness.
I wrote this down from a pamphlet I have on Perineal message. It has more info and drawings. It also has directions for a partner message. (I found this much more successful for me.)

This Web page is referenced from another page containing related information about Perineal Protection / Avoiding Tears and Episiotomy

 


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