Birthing Ball: Toy or Labor Tool?

Our current discipline of obstetrics owes a lot to the practice of Midwifery. In a previous episode, we covered “lessons learned from Midwifery” and that is available on our podcast archive. In this episode, we will discuss the data regarding a practice originally propagated by Midwifery: the Birthing Ball. What is the origin of this, and how did it make its way into obstetrical practice? Is there data for it’s use? Does it really help reduce labor pain? In this episode we will summarize the data of a soon-to-be released publication from the AJOG. In this episode, we will find out if the Birthing Ball is a toy… or a labor tool.