Comfort Measures Doulas Use to Ease Labour Pain
Comfort measures are simple, practical tools that work with your body and nervous system to reduce tension and increase your sense of safety. Labour is powerful, intense, and deeply transformative. As doulas, our role isn’t to eliminate sensation, but to help you move through it feeling supported, steady, and safe. Many of the comfort measures we use are not random techniques—they are grounded in what we understand about the nervous system and how the body processes pain.
Labour unfolds most smoothly when the body is in a parasympathetic, or “rest and release,” state. When you feel safe, supported, and undisturbed, your brain signals the release of oxytocin—the hormone responsible for contractions. Oxytocin works best when adrenaline (the stress hormone) is low. If fear or stress rises and the body shifts into a sympathetic “fight-or-flight” response, adrenaline can temporarily inhibit oxytocin, tighten muscles, and increase the perception of pain. This is sometimes referred to as the fear–tension–pain cycle: fear increases muscular tension, tension amplifies pain, and pain increases fear.
Continuous support is one of the most evidence-backed ways to calm this stress response. Research, including large systematic reviews such as those conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration, has shown that continuous labour support is associated with reduced use of pain medication, shorter labours, and higher satisfaction with the birth experience. When a calm, reassuring presence remains with you, it helps buffer stress and supports nervous system regulation.
Breathing techniques are another powerful regulatory tool. Slow, rhythmic breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which plays a key role in activating the parasympathetic nervous system. When breathing is steady and intentional, heart rate and blood pressure can decrease, muscles soften, and the brain receives signals of safety. This doesn’t remove intensity, but it can change how the body experiences it.
Touch works in a similar way. Firm counterpressure on the sacrum, steady hip squeezes, massage, and reassuring physical contact can stimulate sensory nerve fibers that compete with pain signals traveling to the brain—sometimes explained through the “gate control theory” of pain. In simple terms, comforting touch can reduce how strongly pain signals are interpreted. At the same time, supportive touch encourages the release of endorphins—the body’s natural pain-relieving hormones.
Movement also supports nervous system regulation. Swaying, rocking, kneeling, or leaning forward can reduce muscular tension and encourage optimal positioning for baby. When muscles are less rigid and the pelvis can move freely, discomfort often feels more manageable. Movement also reinforces a sense of agency, which can reduce fear and improve coping.
Hydrotherapy—using warm water in a shower or birth tub—has been shown to decrease pain perception and promote relaxation in many labouring parents. Warm water helps reduce muscle tension, lower circulating stress hormones, and create a sense of privacy and containment. The environment matters deeply; dim lighting, minimal interruptions, and quiet voices all reduce sensory overload and support oxytocin flow.
What all of these comfort measures have in common is this: they help the body feel safe. Safety is not just emotional—it is biological. When the nervous system is regulated, muscles can soften, breathing deepens, oxytocin rises, endorphins increase, and labour often progresses more efficiently.
Comfort in labour is not about promising a pain-free experience. It is about supporting your physiology. When you feel protected, steady, and never alone, your body can do the work it already knows how to do—with your nervous system working with you, not against you.
