Can grassfed raw milk reduce childbirth pain? While conventional practitioners would poo-poo the idea, the fact is that it is possible with more and more women drinking it regularly and opting for a natural birth in the face of over-medicalization of the birth process.
It is already known that pregnancy diet can play a crucial role in how much childbirth pain a pregnant woman experiences during delivery and whether or not she is successful in withstanding the tremendous physical effort and stamina required to have a natural birth.
So why not raw milk specifically?
The picture above was taken while I was transitioning at 9cm dilation. I was literally minutes from pushing my baby out. Most women in a similar situation are begging for drugs at that point or are already on an epidural IV and completely numb from the waist down.
As for me, I was totally comfortable other than feeling the amazing intensity of the pain free contractions. Here’s my story.
I was fortunate to experience three natural births. Â The difference between them in the level of discomfort experienced was profound, however, and I can attest that my diet during each of the pregnancies played a key role in the amount of pain I experienced during labor.
During my first pregnancy, I ate completely organic and hormone/steroid free. Â I ate what would be termed a stellar diet in almost every way. Â I had a complication-free, natural, and fairly fast delivery although it was a pretty painful experience.
During most of my second pregnancy, I improved my whole organic diet by several notches by adopting a fully Traditional Diet. Â I took high vitamin cod liver oil and consumed plenty of grassfed meats. Â I prepared my grain based foods properly by sprouting, soaking and/or sour leavening. Â My second birth experience was way faster than the first (as is fairly typical for most women), but it wasn’t really that much less painful.
During my third pregnancy, however, I had a Traditional Food available to me in unlimited quantity that I did not have as an option in the previous two pregnancies.
That food was raw, grassfed milk.
I drank raw grassfed milk with abandon with my third pregnancy. Â It kept my morning sickness at bay during the first trimester due to my propensity for low B6. Â B6 deficiency can cause morning sickness and raw milk is loaded with this nutrient in highly bioavailable form. Â B6 supplements did not produce the same excellent results.
Sipping raw milk all day long kept my tummy very happy during those early weeks. Â Incidentally, pasteurization destroys B6.
What ended up being the most surprising, however, was how completely pain free my third delivery was. Â The birth of my third child was slower than the second birth, so speed was not a factor.
The picture above is me at 9 cm dilation, completely comfortable and without any discomfort. Â I told my husband to snap a picture as I couldn’t believe it at the time! Â I even chatted with my Mom on the phone while I was in transition (she was in the car on her way to the birth center).
Calcium Status Greatly Affects Childbirth Pain
What was the difference? Â Science will tell you that a women’s calcium status greatly affects the pain she experiences with the uterine contractions during labor.
However, it is much more than just calcium intake as I was consuming plenty of calcium during my first 2 pregnancies and both labors were quite painful as is the norm today. Â I should note that the calcium was from natural sources too as it was typical for me to drink 1-2 cups of nettle tea during all my pregnancies and nettle is high in calcium and a known uterine tonic. Â A pain free delivery is not just a matter of popping calcium pills, eating foods that are factory fortified with calcium, or even consuming natural foods high in calcium like nettle.
Why was the delivery of my third child so comfortable and even (gasp!) an enjoyable experience by comparison then?
The bioavailability of the calcium in the diet is an all important consideration that some in the scientific community have not fully grasped yet but a growing number of researchers are emphasizing and certainly something the effects of which I experienced firsthand.
You see, raw grassfed milk is loaded with calcium but it also has something special that pasteurized dairy, calcium supplements, and calcium fortified foods do not.
That something is the enzyme to absorb the calcium!
Voila!
What good is consuming calcium if your body simply does not know what to do with it or can’t do anything with it?
In other words, to experience a comfortable and even pain free labor and delivery requires not just getting enough calcium but getting it in a form that the body can absorb!
To make a long story short, if you think you are getting enough calcium in your diet and you are pregnant, think again. Â Not all calcium is created equal!
Examine your pregnancy diet and make sure it is loaded with plenty of raw grassfed dairy so that you are getting the bioavailable form of this important nutrient in copious amounts!
Worried about consuming raw dairy while pregnant?  Don’t be. Raw grassfed milk is one of the safest foods you can consume and CDC data proves this as shown by the research of Dr. Ted Beals MD.
Interested in following a completely Traditional Diet during your pregnancy and potentially experiencing significantly reduced childbirth pain as a bonus? Â Here’s an article which outlines the ideal pregnancy diet as recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation. Â This is the diet I followed during my second and especially my third pregnancy with the addition of raw grassfed milk.
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It could be a wonderful experience, painfully beautiful ! unless the cord is wrapped around the baby, pulling on you then not so much
I wish I had known this with my two children!
Wow! That is an amazing picture of you at 9cm. 🙂
We really need to drink raw, grassfed milk. It would be helpful in so many ways.
Sandra Stehly I’m not talking about mind over matter. I’m talking about a truly enjoyable birth experience that you don’t have to do anything with your mind to achieve.
I have learned so much since the 90’s and hope to pass on this knowledge to my children so that they can have pictures like this with stories like yours. Thank you for always bringing hope through knowledge to me!!
I had four pain-free natural births. The mind is a wonderful tool!
Hi, Thank you so much for the great information! I was wondering, what else can we take if we’re lactose intolerant?
Ferment the milk with either kefir grains or a yogurt culture, this is what we do on GAPS as lactose is not allowed. But you’d need a 24-hour fermentation to ensure that all the lactose has been digested by all the yeast and bacteria.
Most folks who are lactose intolerant have no trouble with raw dairy. Lactose intolerance is really pasteurization intolerance.
I can attest to that. I was highly lactose intolerant growing up, the past few years I have been drinking raw grass pastured milk. I am not reacting at all. It is simply amazing.
i definitely can’t tolerate any dairy- raw or not. i’ve tried it all- cow, goat, sheep, etc… any other options?
Raw/fermented takes care of lactose intolerance for me, but since I’ve developed a casein intolerance, all dairy is out — except camel (!). Finding raw cow’s milk was hard enough; I suspect it will be a while before I’m back on dairy again…
I’m curious about alternatives to raw dairy if you have none available in your area? I’m sure most veggies would have some calcium, but as you said you were following an eating plan with your second as well, that had all that good stuff, but still had pain. Would it just be a matter of forking down a ton of spinach or something instead of milk? Woykd it be tge same kind if calcium? Thanks!
Dr Natasha Campbell says that if one cannot get raw dairy products the best thing to do is to find a good source of organic pasteurized dairy and ferment them.
According to her fermentation “revives” the milk providing important enzymes needed for digestion (eg lactase).
She also argues that a pregnant woman should have as much dairy fat as possible especially in the form of ghee, butter and sour cream.
I’m pregnant (3rd month – 3rd baby) and I’m on the GAPS diet and so far I have not experienced a single morning sickness incident and I feel great, although I’m having trouble eating all the recommended foods of the WAPF!
But I trust Dr Natasha as she argues that a pregnant woman should always follow her food desires because that’s what the baby needs (as long as it a real food of course 🙂 ).
Bone broth every single day … even a small cup with every meal would not be too much.
I started getting into making bone broths but recently read an article in fluoridedetective that bone broths can be a source of high fluoride amounts, because if the animals were raised with fluoride in their environment (which almost all of our water is fluoridated, plus pesticides and herbicides that contain fluoride), the fluoride collects in their bones. Great, another thing to worry about. How can we tell? I try asking the people selling at the farmers market questions, but get a lot of ‘I don’t knows’ and not satisfactory replies. They say try to get the know your farmer, but it’s a lot harder in reality to do that.
So now I worry a little about the fluoride when making soups and broths from the chickens and the beef bones, and wonder if I should skip double and triple boiling the bones and joints.
Also, I got my last cuts of beef from Tropical Traditions, but I felt a little scratchiness from my throat to the rest of my digestive, system after eating the beef soup with all of the fat in it.
My first midwife told me to only drink 1 glass a milk a day to keep weight gain at bay. Have a new midwife and she suggested that I take chocolate calcium chews. I’m looking for a new midwife!
As a midwife (certified in a few months!) I beg my clients to drink whole milk! I would prefer they were all drinking raw milk, but I’ll settle for organic whole. It amazes me that ANYONE would ever suggest skim milk. There are also people out there who believe they will have “fat” babies that can’t be pushed out if they eat any dairy at all. Of course, most of these folks consider 7+lbs to be too big. sigh
Sarah,
I am so happy to hear about this! I have had five natural births and the last one was very painful. I know I am not done having babies so this gives me hope to go natural again. I am also wondering if perhaps it is the magnesium in the raw milk that helps as well. In the HealthThy Mouth summit that is going on right now, online, all this week, Pam Killeen mentioned yesterday in her presentation that magnesium helps relax muscles. She said that calcium and magnesium have to be in the proper balance of I think it was, 2.5 to 1. Or was it 4 to 1? I can’t remember now but I wonder if raw grassfed milk has this perfect balance.
No wonder I LOVE my magnesium baths so much! I usually get kind of bored taking a bath; but the magnesium baths are amazing for me!
Sarah, raw milk from grass-fed animals may have more magnesium than regular milk, but I don’t believe it has the perfect balance. Milk consumption needs to be balanced with magnesium rich foods like whole grains, nuts, avocados, seaweed, etc. Vitamin D also plays a role in calcium absorption (this is why synthetic vitamin D is often added to milk), so eating foods rich in vitamin D and taking cod liver oil is also important. I don’t agree with the implication that raw milk is the magic bullet. The body needs a variety of nutrients from different foods in the right balance to be healthy. My second delivery was so much easier than my first delivery and I actually drank less milk than I did during my first pregnancy.
Sorry, that last comment was meant to be addressed to Celestia.