focal point...
i heard all about focal points when i took the lamaze type classes with my first baby, but it was all about pictures or points in the ceiling or my partners face... i found that none of these were distracting enough to help, or were too distracting in the case of hubby, cause he was going through the same emotional roller coaster as i was... not exactly calming that.... what helped me most with my most successful birthing experience was an electrostatic ball... you know one of those lightning balls that follow your finger or else have random lightning effects inside? Yeah, that.... when the hardest and longest contractions would hit i would concentrate on the lights and kind of unfocus my eyes so that all i could see were the streaks of lightning in the ball... the way i know most that it was helping is that when someone accidentally stepped in front of it i lost concentration for a moment and my vocalization went up about two octaves until my doula pushed the errant nurse out of the way :) (i say doula but she was really just a good friend who acted in that capacity... im gonna miss her this time around... i highly recommend having a somewhat uninvolved party there to cater only to mama.... maybe ill make that another tip if you guys arent sick of me yet :). ) I hope everyone is reading the comments to these entries and not just the entries, cause its causing other women to open up about what helped THEM the most and im getting just as many good tips (and more) than im giving out here and thats just what i was hoping for... if this kind of thing didnt or wouldnt work for you, tell us what did or would... afterall im about to do this again and i can use the tips lemme tell ya... YMMV