Electronics in the Birthing Room

Yeah, I'll probably step on some toes here in the birthing field. Even with doulas. But I have a theory, and I operate in that theory.

Electromyography, aka EMG, is the the recording of the electrical activity of muscle tissue, or its representation as a visual display or audible signal, using electrodes attached to the skin or inserted into the muscle.

We know through medical advancements that we are, in fact, products and producers of electrical currents and energy. Muscles are stimulated by signals from nerve cells called motor neurons. This stimulation causes electrical activity in the muscle, which in turn causes contraction.

Radio waves, such as those used by cell phones, are forms of electromagnetic waves (RF radiation). These waves are present in our air/surroundings at all time. Who's to say that using our cell phones during labor does not inhibit or disrupt labor patterns?

Remember, this is only theory, but I can tell you one thing from my many years of doula work; the more cell phones in use during a woman's labor, the more her labor pattern is disrupted or intervened upon. This can take many different forms:

• irritating the mother as she is trying to work in her birthing space
• move attention away from the laboring mom and her partner and onto a device
• cause unnecessary discomfort and irritation to mother because of the above
• disfunctional labor patterns, including stalls in dilation and slowed pattern

Bottom line, while I am in the laboring room, I have resolved to hang up my note apps, my cell phone camera, my doula apps, my charting apps... if I need to take a call or a text, I head out to the hall. A woman in labor deserves my undivided attention, emotionally and physically.