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.
More Information
Hi,
In Sweden the government has banished raw dairy product and it is against the law for farmers to sell it. I am now pregnant so how can I boost my pregnancy without the raw milk?
This article just made my day! I’m at 35 weeks, so labor is just around the corner, and I’ve been consuming raw goat’s milk all during my pregnancy.
I am convinced that magnesium has a lot to do with it. My third birth was natural, rapid, and painful, especially compared to my second. I had classic signs of magnesium deficiency — though I didn’t know it at the time. It was just…so much more intense, and the afterpains especially were bad. I did make a batch of ice cream everyday (using only 1/4 c. maple syrup, hardly any) and eat a big bowl so I was getting quite a lot of raw milk this way. Still, it was rough.
I am pregnant with my fourth and I know a lot more about this now. I still consume raw milk in various forms — yogurt, ice cream, soups. When I do make ice cream I usually top it with crispy walnuts, another excellent source of nutrients.
However. I use a topical magnesium lotion, and if I don’t, I notice. If I miss a few days, I have trouble sleeping and I get more sore. Last night I was sleeping fitfully and when my 3-year-old woke up I couldn’t fall back asleep. I went to get the lotion and put it on, and immediately was able to sleep well for the rest of the night. Not only that, but the Braxton-Hicks I’d been having (I’m 33 weeks along) felt much milder. I still felt all the tightness, but they were noticeably less intense and less painful. I haven’t had as many today as usual either.
I’m convinced magnesium is important! (I make the lotion myself so I know 100% that it is safe and has no preservatives at all.) I plan to have some around during labor so that if I need anything, my husband or midwives can put it on me or use it as a massage cream. I also drink red raspberry leaf tea when I remember to do so, and of course take my FCLO. This combination, plus an herbal multivitamin tincture I made myself, made morning sickness extremely minor too.
Kate would you be willing to share how you make your magnesium lotion?
Herbal teas like nettle tea are not high in calcium at all. Studies have shown a lot of the important minerals like calcium or iron in nettles are not released into the tea and others that we don’t really want that much of like copper are.
not dissing the natural diet but it can be difficult and expensive to maintain
excuse me too nauseated and with muscle contraction
after 10 natural childbirths I can tell you that simply taking a calcium magnesium supplement (High calcium seems to be the salient point in the links related to pain in childbirth) will help greatly in childbirth. With my later pregnancies I would even take an extra CA/mg pill every 2 hrs or so in labor until I was tool nauseated to take them. The rational is this. You use up your available calcium ions muscle contraction (labor pains). Magnesium works with calcium and helps with relaxation and should always be supplemented with calcium at a rate of half as much as calcium. Notice she does not say Pain-free, but pain free by comparison.
i can tell you, she meant pain free. i know this, as i had a completely pain free labor and drank PLENTY of raw milk during my 3rd pregnancy. My diet was not great because I had horrible morning sickness, so all i could keep down was organic cereal (i know, yuck). But the delivery was so amazing I couldnt sleep all night, although my baby did!
So I live in a developing country which is great for grass fed meat, fresh food from the bazar, etc. However, burculosis is endemic here so most people boil their milk. We buy it from the farmers but it is not refrigerated and even from the farm their is a risk of burculosis. The other alternative is to buy “milk in a box” – that stuff is terrible, it is boiled four times which kills anything good. I really want the nutrients of raw milk – an ideas?
Hm, now you’ve got me thinking about planning the third baby around the best cow milking season i.e. spring and summer for the highest vitamin milk lol 🙂 Raw milk is $8/gallon here, but I think it is worth spending that much each week – most people spend way more on junk coffee!
Wow im so impressed that you stayed with clean food all through your pregnancies. I was a junk eater with my first one, improved with second one and really improved with third one. All three natural birth, with third one water birth and completely off pain killers it was amazing how smooth my third pregnancy was. Unfortunately moving to WA state raw grass fed milk cost $10/g its out of our budget to buy milk for that price.