vocal training that may be used to help women with pain management during childbirth.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have been studying the application of the Fitzmaurice vocal technique, originally developed by a U-M alumnus for actors, to help women have a more positive birthing experi
I Sang Through Labor to Manage the Pain
Turns out, women have been singing, chanting and humming through childbirth for centuries. But can it actually provide relief?
Credit.Lily Snowden-Fine
March 9, 2021
Back in the summer of 2016, when I was about to give birth and enduring one debilitating contraction after another, I was struck with an idea: What if I were to sing through the agony?
With a karaoke YouTube video pulled up on my husband’s phone, I began belting out lyrics to Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” straight from my hospital bed.
“Nibblin’ on sponge cake,” I began singing, uncertain, wondering if I was in some sort of labor-induced mania. I kept going. By the end of “stepped on a pop top,” the waves of torment had somehow diminished. I wasn’t on pain medication, but I felt like I had been transported to a more calm, pleasant place where I wasn’t counting every second of discomfort as I had been. Time seemed to pass more quickly.