Vaginismus and The Pink Kit Method for birthing better™
by Common Knowledge Trust
written by Wintergreen, trustee
(www.birthingbetter.com)

A brief background

Common Knowledge Trust produces The Pink Kit Method for birthing better™. This method of childbirth preparation, labour management and birth coaching skills evolved in the US in the 1970s. These child birth skills come from a compilation of birth stories from thousands and thousands of ordinary women and men. Although there was a huge diversity in our life style, belief, birth options and health issues; we wanted to have childbirth skills that worked in all birth situations. As women and men, we also wanted our birth coach (usually our husband, friend or relative) to really be effective in helping us cope with the pain of labour contractions.

When Common Knowledge Trust writes articles, we are passing on the knowledge and childbirth skills from women and men to other women and men like your self. Common Knowledge Trust is not a professional organization. Each of our lives was so different that we could only focus on our birthing body … the only thing we shared. As pregnant women we share being pregnant, a changing body and a body which has to birth a baby.

The Pink Kit Method not only passes on the positive birthing preparation and childbirth skills that have worked in all birth situations for 35 years, it also teaches the birth coach how to recognize the behaviours women use when they are finding birth challenging. The birth coach can play an instrumental role in helping a birthing woman to maintain her positive birthing behaviours.

The Pink Kit Method works well with all types of birth preparation and in all birth situations. Preparing for childbirth for several months before birth (and sometimes between pregnancies) with The Pink Kit Method has gone a long way in reducing or preventing potential birth trauma to ourselves and our children.

Vaginismus is not common

Although spasms in the vagina are uncommon, if it's a problem you have then you want to know if there is something you can do to reduce it or  'cure it'. This article passes on the stories of several pregnant women who suffered from this condition and successfully used The Pink Kit. Women with this condition are often told by their doctor or midwife that they are likely to have a caesearean delivery. All the women who used The Pink Kit had vaginal births.

Although having vaginal spasms is not common, having very tight vaginas is very common and can lead to delayed second stages, tearing badly in delivery or having an episiotomy and possible problems with the baby.  Women tear very badly, been cut and sown up poorly often experience painful sex after giving birth which lasts for years.

Only you can make change

You might seek medical, natural or alternative health solutions for vaginal spasms. Since The Pink Kit Method focuses entirely on our birthing body, then you can learn these skills as well … The Internal Work … doing internal vaginal massage.

The Internal Work (CD or Cassette talk) is part of The Pink Kit … which covers the first two cornerstones of The Pink Kit Method (www.birthingbetter.com). This CD talk will describe to you how to work with your vagina to prepare for childbirth or how to heal previous vaginal injury. The women who have successfully stopped their vaginal spasms,have tight vaginas or damaged crotches have all done this work extensively over many months.

That's right. Their success came from their own efforts, no magic bullets. However, some did use homeopathic remedies as well which we'll discuss although homeopathics are not part of The Pink Kit Method.

The women's stories

One young woman was having her first baby. She not only had vaginal spasms, she also had severe panic attacks which occurred 4-6 times/hour. She planned a home birth and worked through The Pink Kit with her very supportive partner. Instead of waiting until 32 weeks (as recommended to start The Internal Work), she and her husband decided to start at 28 weeks. At first he tried to do it on her but that only caused more spasms. So, she had to decide whether she would give it a miss or do it herself. She took the responsibility of doing in herself which took a lot of courage. She was 21 years old and had lived with both vaginal spasms and panic attacks for many years.

This is how she explains her experience which is very common of many women. At first, she just rested her hand on the outside of her vagina and accepted the spasms. Once she could accept them, although they got more intense at first, she found that after about 15 minutes she could relax a bit more. She also used these homeopathics: kali phos … nervousness both in the nerves and emotionally, calc. fluor … connective tissue support, mag phos and calc phos … for muscle twitching.

She sucked 4 each before she started with the Internal Work. After a week, she found that she could insert one finger partly into her vagina which then spasmed again. She just held her finger still until the spasms stopped. By the end of the 2nd week, she was able to gentle massage part way into her vagina without spasms. She continued for another month on her own. She commented that every few days she was able to put either more of one finger deeper into her vagina or work the tissue more vigorously without the spasms returning.

At this point, she wanted her husband to help her. At first the spasms returned, but they took it slow and easy and within the week, he could put one finger into her vagina and do the massage without the spasms returning. She continued to use the homeopathics and her panic attacks reduced some degree. One side benefit, always reported, is that sexual intimacy becomes easier and more enjoyable.

She did give birth vaginally at home, although second stage was a bit slower. She also had a 9 lb 4 oz baby. She tore slightly, healed very quickly. Surprisingly her panic attacks stopped all together once she became a mother. One year after giving birth her vaginal spasms are greatly reduced.

A story that speaks for itself

This story is the voice of the woman directly … in two parts … when she was pregnant and after her birth. She did have vaginal spasms from a very damaged vagina from a previous birth.

This is the first part of her story:

‘I have now been trying the internal work for nearly two weeks and can mostly touch my insides without pain (though still very tender and uncomfortable, the spasms are lessening.) I find the morning the best time, and playing relaxation music while I massage helps take the focus off the discomfort.  I only manage about 3 minutes so I am doing it at least twice a day to try to make up for shorter sessions. I got the pink kit today and the audio tape made a lot of sense to me. I think it will help my husband too.

I feel hopeful that the spiral of negative reactions to any touch in my private parts is at an end. Thanks to the Pink Kit I think I have started the healing that I needed.  No matter the outcome at the birth of this baby, my husband and I have had our first pain free sexual encounter since the birth of our daughter – so I feel that no matter what happens, I’ll be able to get back on track after the birth and we might one day regain the intimacy we shared when first married. I am hopeful that I will not tear this time – but either way I’m better off already – and I feel as if I’ve barely started.

Can you tell me, when I massage the scars inside my vagina – am I expecting that they would eventually become flat and no longer tough like rope?  (ed. Note: no the scars don’t go away, the tissue just becomes more pliable and less tense)

This is the second part of her story:

As you know I used the pink kit in preparation for the birth of my second child, subsequent to a traumatic first labour which resulted in a nasty tear which never healed properly and caused me significant pain.

Our son was born at home on 2/1/05. I had been booked into the family birth centre at the M. hospital for Women. However a few days before my due date, there was a fire at the hospital and the hospital was closed. Although alternative arrangements were in place to attempt to accommodate women who went into labour during the closure they could not promise the facilities and staff whom I had chosen in my plans. We contacted the midwife who was to be my extra support person (as well as my husband). She suggested a homebirth and I agreed readily as I was concerned that the hospital in general (outside the culture of the birth centre) had not been particularly supportive of my having a vaginal birth given my condition (vulvar vestibulitis). We organised another midwife who was an experienced home birth midwife and planned to go to my parent’s place where there is a big triangle bath and no cream carpet!

Labour began at 2am with strong a regular contractions. I called my support people at 3:30am and they arrived by 5am (both midwives were on holidays at the coast). As soon as the bath was full I got in and found labour much more comfortable in the water. Our son was born at 9:30am and the placenta was delivered naturally about 30 minutes later.

I did tear, however our son was 2 pounds heavier than my daughter had been and the tear was much smaller. Also, from the internal work I had done with the Pink Kit, I actually expected to tear, because I could feel the scar from last time and boy oh boy was it a hack sewing job! The doctor had pulled all the tissues into a big bunch and also the scar zig zagged all over the vagina. As planned with my midwife, we decided to go to hospital for a professional suture job. When the surgeon got in there she was shocked by what a rotten job had been done last time too. She has repaired the area by removing the old scar entirely and repairing the new tear with a lot less sutures than last time – using non-dissolvable ones this time. My midwife then removed the stitches a few days later.

Now, only a few weeks after the birth I am better than I was 2 years after my first birth. I also know, that if I do suffer any residual pain or discomfort I can use the internal massage to help myself recover fully, as it was very helpful in making progress on my vaginal pain before the second birth. Some people might say the Pink Kit obviously didn’t work, that I still tore. I would say to them that the Pink kit did work. It empowered me to know my own body. I am glad I didn’t have to rely on others to tell me what was happening in my body. I would never have had the courage to birth to our son at home if I had not done the work (and I was really glad I had a home birth – felt much safer and more gentle and calm than even in the birth centre). I did my own internal checks during labour which saved a lot of pain which would have resulted from others doing it. When his head was crowning I was glad of every bit of work I had done. Also, I am not just taking the surgeons word for it that I needed the repair done – I knew it myself and so when she told me what she could see of the old scar in the surgery instead of feeling shocked I was able to say “I know”. I know the aim of the internal work is to stop women tearing altogether, and I think I could have achieved that if I had used it for my first birth.

Anyhow, that is my story – and the story of my son’s birth.

This woman used homeopathic Lobelia during 2nd stage. Lobelia 200 helps the vagina to relax and can be taken several times in 2nd stage if necessary.

Third story

This woman had such intense vaginal spasms that getting pregnant had been a chore. She used the same homeopathics at first the first story. After a few weeks she also include Aconite 200, Borax 30 and Lobelia 200. The aconite is for anxiety, borax for fear of downward motion and lobelia is specific to the perineum.

This woman was told by her midwife and doctor that there was no way she would delivery vaginally with the extent of her vaginal spasms and her emotional reaction to any attempted vaginal exam. She was absolutely determined to have a vaginal birth. Her mother and two sisters had all had caesareans.

Like the first two women, she committed her time and effort to pay attention to how she could do the internal work. It was a struggle for a month but suddenly her birth hormones kicked in and she had a noticeable and positive change. After another few weeks, she commented that at first it was so very tender but now she could knead it like bread dough. Her vaginal spasms stopped entirely during the last few weeks.

She and her boy friend had sex almost non-stop and she said she didn’t really care any more if she had a caesarean, she had achieved this other capability. She had a wonderful home birth, self dosing with Lobelia whenever she felt herself get tight in 2nd stage. She didn’t even tear and sex is great now.

Success is ours

The outcome is not always the benefit. Mostly it is the process, the self doing and the other accomplishments that are all part of the changes that occur when we prepare for the birth of our body. The Pink Kit Method will become the skills parents to be use more and more because they work again and again in building our confidence and our capability.

Vaginal spasms are as much a pain in the butt (forgive the pun) as any type of uncontrolled twitching, jerking or muscle cramping. Fortunately for us, vaginal spasms can be effectively managed over time with our attention. Some people have to live with twitching, jerking and trembling.