S is for Sacral Press
Do you know where your sacrum is?
Or why it’s important?
How about how giving it some love can help when you’re in labor?
The sacrum is located at the base of the spine; right above the tailbone. It’s nestled between the pelvic bones and is a set of fused vertebrae that forms a wedge shape.
Your sacrum is super strong. It basically supports and acts as a foundation of the spine for your upper body; I like to think of it as a secondary core for balance, distribution of weight, and alignment.
During pregnancy, these issues are so important. Your sacrum works double time as the weight forward from your growing baby and uterus increases, and it can distribute tightness and tension to other areas of muscle and tissue in your lower back.
As labor begins, intensifies and progresses, the tension in these muscle groups and how your sacrum adjusts to the descent of your baby can cause some serious discomfort. It’s helpful to support the sacrum with counter pressure to not only redirect from tension and tightness, but also to assist with your baby’s movements as baby works towards engaging in the pelvis.
Sometimes, head against bone can be uncomfortable. Luckily, using a comfort measure called the sacral press can alleviate sacral pressure during contractions and create space for your baby!
Here’s how to execute the sacral press:
A support person simply needs to apply even, steady and strong pressure with a flat palm right over the sacrum. I like to instruct partners to find the sacrum by finding the slight dimples in the lower back right above the coccyx (or the crest of the gluteus - the ‘butt crack’).
Taking a flat palm, a heat pack, a rolling pin or tennis balls, press firmly down on the sacrum and hold steady. It helps to have the laborer leaning forward, either over a bed or a ball, or on hands and knees to take pressure off of the spine.
Adding more weight simply requires leaning with even pressure from the support person; using body weight to add instead of going from the hands.
During the beginning of a contraction, apply hands for the sacral press. After, lightly release, and apply heat or massage the glutes and muscles interwoven in the back.
As labor progresses towards baby, sometimes the counter pressure from sacral press can become dramatically more intense. As a doula, that’s a great sign to me that baby is starting to engage into the pelvis!
The sacral press can give a lot of confidence to a birth partner when they’re needing a hands on approach to labor! A great, tool-free addition to any birth bag of tricks! And, of course, if your hands get tired, you know you can rely on the steady hands of your labor doula to help with physical comfort measures too (and it never hurts to have your doula perform sacral press on partners as well for physical relief from helping with labor!).
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