Labor, the Hardest Work You'll Ever Love?

Labor and lovemaking hormones are the same (oxytocin and prostaglandins). Increasing the release of these hormones during labor can help speed your labor.
The increase can be accomplished through kissing, "making out," breast or nipple stimulation, stimulating the clitoris or having an orgasm, just "simply lying naked in skin contact with your partner will help increase oxytocin." (Intercourse is okay as long as your bag of waters is intact.)
Physical closeness can, also, relieve pain. (p 43-44)

"Once active labor is reached, labor is more similar from woman to woman, and the baby will probably be born within the next five to ten hours." (p 45)

"...in response to the effort and pain of labor, women's bodies produce extremely high levels of endorphins (natural painkillers and mood-boosters)." (p 47-48)

"While practicing on the toilet, if you feel you must strain or you will not be able to have a bowel movement, take a break and wait until later in the day when the urge to push feels stronger. Because pregnancy can be a time of increased constipation, you may have the perfect opportunity to try this out!" (p 50)

"These sensations will build up until the baby begins to pass the pubic bone, at which point the urge to push will become an overwhelming force." (p 52)

"Let your early bearing-down urges simply be there, while neither resisting them nor adding extra force to them." (p 52)

What Every Woman Needs to Know About Cesarean Section booklet.
Three reasons to have a doula if having a VBAC:
1 Having "a doula lowers the rate of cesarean,"
2 "doulas lower the use of epidurals and medications to stimulate labor,"
3 "giving birth after a cesarean involves restoring your confidence that you can do it." (p 57)

"A Canadian study of thirteen hundred women showed that mothers with higher motivation for a VBAC were much more likely to achieve one." (p 58)

Doulas Are Great Pain Relief; For Fathers, Partners, and Other Loved Ones; Labor, the Hardest Work You'll Ever Love?

Before I get started...
If you are reading this blog, considering a doula, and live in Nebraska, please, visit http://www.doulasource.org/

Okay...
"epidurals lower the blood pressure of one in three mothers, and therefore lower blood flow and oxygen to the baby. This can create changes in the baby's heart rate which may be seen as "fetal distress," a cause of further interventions and cesareans." (p 7)
"mothers with doulas are more likely to give birth without needing epidurals, yet they still report less pain." (p 7)

Want a good way to speed up labor without Pitocin?
"Current estimates of the use of Pitocin are as high as 50 to 60 percent of births in the United States...With a doula, the use of Pitocin has been shown to be reduced by 40 percent...the use of a doula results in labors that are 25 percent shorter." (p 9)

"Without a doula, epidurals are used in the U.S. by approximately 85 percent or more of first-time mothers." (p 13)
"Studies show fathers participate more when a doula is present." (p 28)
"one result of childbirth is that athletes who've gone through it become faster at their sport." (p 40)

REFERENCES
The New Essential Guide to Lesbian Conception, Pregnancy & Birth by Stephanie Brill
Attending Your Grandchild's Birth: A Guide for Grandparents by Carolynn Bauer Zorn