My favorite things: Golf balls
For 2020, I am writing a series of all of my favorite things! This will include my favorites for supporting people in childbirth, doula life and recovery, small business owner hacks, books and resources, and more. With just a few exceptions, you will NOT find links to purchase these products in this blog series. I trust that you can search for these and like items if you would like to purchase them on your own.
I do not want this series to give anyone FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) though! You do not need all of these things to be a great doula, or have a satisfying birth! However, as with everything humans do, tools can be helpful and help you to work smarter, not harder, especially when you find yourself doing the same things over and over in professional birth work, or you find something particularly helpful for increasing your own comfort in pregnancy, birth, and general life.
Today is all about golf balls! Golf balls are small, easy to clean, and firm, making them a great massage tool to bring to births!
Massage and counterpressure are often the bread-and-butter of supporting people through childbirth. Golf balls and other massage tools help to provide firmer pressure and can help the support team to use their energy more efficiently, so they can provide the massage and counterpressure for longer periods of time.
Massage and other pleasant touch help increase comfort and decrease sensations of discomfort and pain by using the Gate Control Theory. In the Gate Control Theory, the idea is that your nerves can only send a finite number of signals from your body to your brain. By combining pleasant sensations with uterine birthing contractions, you overload your nerves and essentially dilute the discomfort signals. I use golf balls to help provide more rolling massage than I can do with just my hands. Often I use golf balls on either side of the spine on the low back, below the lumbar curve, and roll them in small circles to the birth-giver’s comfort.
Firm, intense massage and counterpressure uses the Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Control (DNIC) method of increasing comfort. This long fancy name just means you are adding an unpleasant (noxious) stimulus to a different area of your body than where you’re experiencing discomfort (diffuse) to increase your body’s release of endorphins and other natural pain relieving neurotransmitters to help control your pain. Examples would include biting your tongue or lip when you are stressed or in pain. While these tools can cause harm if you use them habitually (like biting your nails until they bleed), using them therapeutically can be an effective comfort measure for birth. When a client wants firmer massage and counterpressure, using a golf ball to press on the desired area is a great alternative to using my thumb or knuckle to provide the pressure.
Why are golf balls one of my favorite things? They are lightweight, easy to clean, easy to use, easy to teach a birth partner to use when I need a break, and effective massage tools. They are inexpensive and easy to find locally. Golf balls are small, and great for providing firm, localized massage and counterpressure.
I hope this was helpful for Parents and for Birth Professionals alike, and that you enjoyed learning about why The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin is one of my favorite things in my doula work!