How "Effective" is Your Contraction? - An L&D Nurse Trick

In the hospital with one of my clients, an L&D nurse shared a little trick for her to use to determine if her contraction was a really "effective" one. She told her to tap her forehead, and notice how hard it was. Then she said to tap her nose, which feels softer. Finally she told her to tap her chin, which is somewhere in between the forehead and the nose in firmness.

She explained that when a mom is having a contraction, she can tap her stomach and compare it to the forehead, nose, and chin. If it feels hard like the forehead when tapped, it is a very strong and effective contraction. If it is soft like the nose, it is not a very strong one. If it is somewhere in between, like the chin, it is not as effective but still getting work done. I had never heard this before and thought it was a neat little trick.

How else does a mom know when a contraction is strong and effective?
 - It is 45 seconds or longer. 1 minute contractions are especially effective at opening and thinning the cervix.
 - Mom can't talk through them and needs to use her relaxation techniques

That all being said - this was told to the mama in order to help her to know if she was in active labor or not and whether or not she should come back to the hospital. I share this with a grain of salt as well, because a woman can be having contractions that don't seem effective to textbook standards, but is progressing very nicely. Therefore, this is not something that I think a laboring woman should be dwelling on. She doesn't need to be tapping her stomach and forehead through every contraction to see if it is "strong enough" ;-).

In fact, The Midwife Thinking's Blog wrote a post about "the effective contraction". It is very well done and worth a read.

So mamas... no obsessive tapping of the bellies, but maybe once or twice just for kicks :)