How to Reduce Adrenaline in Labour: 4 Evidence-Based Ways to Keep Birth Moving
Upright positions and mindful breathing improve comfort and hormone flow during labor
Experiencing high stress or fear during childbirth triggers your body’s “fight-or-flight” response, releasing adrenaline (epinephrine). High levels of adrenaline can directly inhibit uterine contractions, causing labour to slow down or stall.
Reducing adrenaline allows your body’s natural oxytocin to take over, promoting regular contractions and supporting smoother labour progression.
Here are four evidence-based ways to lower adrenaline levels and create a calm, supportive environment during labour.
1. Optimize Your Birthing Environment
Gentle partner touch and a warm environment encourage oxytocin flow, helping create a calm and supportive birth space.
Your brain needs to feel safe to let labour progress. When you feel observed or rushed, adrenaline spikes. As a result, managing your birth space is one of the most effective first steps.
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Dim the Lights and Keep It Quiet: Bright lights and loud noises stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. Keeping the room dark and quiet signals to your nervous system that it is safe to relax.
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Maintain Privacy: Limit unnecessary room visits or interruptions. Feeling watched triggers vigilance, which increases stress hormones.
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Keep the Space Warm: Cold environments increase tension. Warmth supports physical relaxation and hormone flow.
2. Use Acupressure for Pain Relief and Nervous System Regulation
Acupressure is a non-invasive technique that stimulates targeted reflex points to relieve pain, ease anxiety, and shift the body out of “fight-or-flight” mode into a parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) state.
Calming the Mind: Kidney 1 (KD1 / Yongquan)
Kidney 1 (KD1 / Yongquan): Applying firm pressure to the depression on the sole of the foot helps ground anxiety, lower adrenaline, and calm the nervous system during labour.
Located in the depression on the sole of the foot (between the two pads under the toes), Kidney 1 (KD1) is considered the most grounding point on the body.
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How It Works: Firm, downward pressure on KD1 draws excess energy down from an overactive, anxious mind. It acts as a natural reset for the nervous system, rapidly reducing acute fear, panic, and circulating adrenaline during intense labour phases.
Easing Contraction Pain & Elevating Oxytocin
Applying firm pressure to key acupressure points (such as LI4 on the hand or SP6 on the lower leg) during contractions stimulates sensory nerve fibers.
Spleen 6 (SP6 / Sanyinjiao): Stimulating this point on the lower inner leg helps relieve contraction pain, induce endorphins, and promote natural oxytocin release.
The Hegu point (LI4) is commonly used in acupuncture and acupressure to relieve pain and assist with labor progression.
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The Hormone Shift: This stimulation triggers the brain to release endorphins—your body’s natural opioids. Endorphins directly dampen pain perception, which shuts off the pain-induced adrenaline spike. As adrenaline drops, the body produces oxytocin more freely, helping contractions stay strong, rhythmic, and effective without increasing fear or stress.
3. Practice Mind-Body Relaxation Techniques
Utilizing both acupressure and partner-supported breathing techniques can significantly help manage pain and lower adrenaline during labor.
Non-pharmacological relaxation techniques actively alter your nervous system response, lowering heart rate and reducing circulating stress hormones during labour.
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Vagal Breathing (Slow Exhalations): Controlled breathing—such as inhaling for 4 seconds and exhaling for 6 to 8 seconds—engages the vagus nerve. Consequently, this parasympathetic trigger lowers heart rate and reduces adrenaline.
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Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR): Systematically releasing tension in your shoulders, jaw, and pelvic floor prevents muscle tightness from signaling fear to the brain.
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Guided Mindfulness or Music Therapy: Listening to repetitive, comforting music or guided imagery helps redirect your focus away from fear during contractions.
4. Utilize Effective Pain Management Options
Gentle partner touch and a warm bath create a calm environment, encouraging the release of oxytocin to support a smoother, more comfortable labor.
Pain is a primary physiological trigger for adrenaline release. Effectively managing labour pain directly halts the spike in stress hormones.
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Epidural Analgesia: Regional analgesia quickly relieves severe pain. Research shows this leads to a rapid drop in plasma epinephrine levels, which can subsequently restore regular uterine activity.
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Hydrotherapy (Warm Water Immersion): Soaking in a warm birth pool or shower eases muscle tension, provides weightlessness, and drastically lowers physiological stress responses during active labour.
Summary: Balancing Your Hormones for Birth
To keep labour moving, the goal is simple: minimize adrenaline so oxytocin can work. By dimming the lights, using grounding acupressure like KD1, practicing slow breathing, and exploring pain relief options like hydrotherapy or an epidural, you give your body the best environment for birth.
Written By Julia Bartrop – Registered APHRA Chinese Medicine Practitioner.
DR Julia Bartrop (Chinese Medicine)
If you are currently pregnant and would like to fins out more about our pregnancy services and birth preparation joint couple appointments – please give us a call on 0412 789 772.
References
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Abera, M., et al. (2024). Effects of relaxation interventions during pregnancy on maternal mental health, and pregnancy and newborn outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS ONE, 19(1), e0278432.
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Segal, S., et al. (1998). The tocolytic effect of catecholamines in the gravid rat uterus. Anesthesia & Analgesia, 87(4), 864–869.
