An exercise in pain management.

Here's a little exercise given to me by a physiotherapist whilst I was pregnant to help me think about my pain management strategies:

1. Hold your arms out straight at the sides of your body.
   
2. Bend your knees.
3. Hold for five minutes.
   

During the exercise I really wanted to massage my legs or grip something or move or groan or all of the above. So touch, movement and vocalising are part of my pain management techniques.

Unfortunately I can't say whether or not using these pain management strategies would have been enough to get me through labour, as I ended up having a caesarean. But I thought it was a useful exercise in starting to think about what sort of pain management techniques might work.