#AyurvaidWay: Management of Prasava in Ayurveda

Hello I'm Dr Swetha S Suvarna, Lead consultant in Stree roga and Prasuti tantra at Apollo AyurVAID hospitals, Bangalore. Well talking about labor; labor is a natural
process. So Ayurveda has designed a designated places which provides that natural atmosphere for the mother to be comfortable as well as to be having her privacy but equally equipped to take care of the pregnancy if the complications any and also the comfort of the mother. Such a designated place is called as Sutika Gara in Ayurveda which is totally equipped for the emotional support that the mother requires the privacy the mother requires also all the emergency management. So the place is set to be equipped with the herbs which can manage emergency, the diet and nutrition that the mother requires and emotional support and emergency management. So the herbs are classified into three varieties which needs to be taken care of the infection control in form of say the surface disinfection or the area disinfection in terms of fumigation, the herbs which are used for fumigation which can bring about the total infection control in the area and also the herbs which can induce labor. So in case of delay in labor or delay in contraction then there are herbs which can be given in form of decoction or given in form of fumigation or know tied to the waist of the mother so which can induce the labor contraction. These are the herbs that needs to be stored in the place and also there are certain herbs which can be used for fumigation which can relax the mental status of the mother to bring down the nervous it reduce the stress that the mother is having. So there are the next set of things that's to be stored is to take care of the nutrition or the diet part of the mother which are highly high sources of nutrition for the mother but very light for digestion. Food like Shashtika shali which is a special variety of rice which should be cooked with milk with some amount of masma rasa or the meat along with some of the herbs to be processed and ghee which provides for the nourishment of the mother. Next comes the medicines which takes care of the emergency. In case of Labor there can be some emergencies that can come at the last minute in terms of heavy bleeding that the mother under goes or tears and cuts and tears which can happen leading to bleed. So there are certain drugs which are told or the some herbs which can prevent bleeding or arrest the bleeding, drugs which can prevent the emergencies like convulsions or the seizures with the mother has some seizures so that can be taken care through some drugs which are anti-convulsant in nature, some of the drugs which are anti-inflammatory to prevent any form of infection these are the certain drug categories which are told to be stocked in the Sutika Gara. Next are the equipments which are necessary for the resuscitation of the fetus. As soon as the baby is received there are certain resuscitation methods explained in Ayurveda in terms of cleaning of the vernix, there are certain herbs which needs to be mixed in equal quantity and rubbed over the body of the baby to get the vernix off and also certain drug ligation threads which are specially processed with herbs to cut the umbilical cord or a special scissors which is mentioned in Ayurveda to cut the umbilical cord. These are all the equipments to take care of pregnancy and the labor and the baby. Along with this the part of emotional support is also told that the mother requires a lot of emotional support when she's going through the phases of Labor. So it is advised to have experienced family or friends who can help the mother to guide her through the labor phase in terms of telling her when to bear down or when to have a proper breathing in between the contraction which will help in the natural process of labor as well as will not give rise to any complications to the baby in terms of being asphyxiated or not having a proper oxygen supply. Along with this there is usage of Mantra and music that is it can be either chanted by people or it can be played through the background. So this basically there are a lot of research which tells us that the music or the mantras help in reducing the stress in the mother and reducing the anxiety that the mother goes through the phases of labor. So also it helps in release of endorphins in the mother which can help her to overcome the anxious as well as the pain management. So these these are the emotional support that has been told to be provided to the mother at the time of delivery with a fully equipped Sutika Gara where mother can deliver, stay there when she is nurturing her child till the whole phase of her postpartum.