Human Response to Pain

When you think about it, we humans make noise in response to pain…the last time you were hanging pictures in your living room, and accidentally hit your thumb with the hammer, did you respond with a breathy “he-he-hoo-hoo?” I don’t think so. You uttered a few choice words, and made a loud “aghhhhh!” sound. Which is exactly why McMoyler Method recommends moaning in response to labor pain; patterning what we do in response to other kinds of pain in our lives.

Does moaning take the pain away? No. It does, however, give the brain something to do in response to the pain. Left with no clue how to respond, women will often end up screaming, which can trigger the Fear/Tension/Pain response. Grantley Dick Read is credited with this cycle of events in labor: she becomes fearful of the pain, which increases the tension in her body which increases the perception of her pain. Allowed to continue on this cycle, she is likely to whirl into something that looks like panic. Panic looks and feels like out of control-which is often an expectant woman’s biggest concern.

Expectant parents can practice the moaning response; start by humming, you will notice a reverberation in your chest, now allow your jaw to unhinge, so that your mouth is slightly open, now when you hum, it comes out as a soft moan….

Moaning is a natural phenomenon. Think about the morning after the New Years Eve party, when you sat in the privacy of your bathroom with the NY Times for half an hour. Or the Mexican vacation that ended up with Montezuma’s revenge-these were not necessarily silent situations; they are often accompanied by a moaning of sorts, which is the body’s response to discomfort or pain.