EMFs and Birth (And a Personal Story): A Calm EMF-Environment for a Safe, Healthy Pregnancy
Why a calm EMF environment is fundamental to creating healthy life
How do EMFs affect mothers in particular?
Water
Light
Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)
Birth teachers and the human spark
If you are pregnant or preparing to conceive, clearing your personal spaces of artificial electromagnetic fields, or electro-pollution is essential. Removing subtle cellular stressors in your personal environment allows your body to dedicate its resources towards the work that is pregnancy and labour.
This is especially if you seek a natural physiological birth, commonly called gentle birth*, to welcome baby and mother in the best health possible.
Clearing artificial EMFs is one of my pillars during home assessments and consultations.
A quick personal story
My first birth was a waterbirth at the hospital and my second child was born at home. Both pregnancies and births were a journey and practice into getting back in touch with my body and its biological needs.
You can read more here about how I learnt to prioritise a healthy home environment.
During pregnancy, many things were part of my preparation and at their core were the principles of Building Biology to focus my habits and routines throughout pregnancy to prepare for birth as well as postpartum recovery.
Why a calm EMF environment is important for a healthy pregnancy
A calm electromagnetic environment lays the groundwork for health conception and pregnancy.
Our cells communicate by electromagnetic energy — a fact well recognised in the scientific fields, and any disruption to this affect the development of new cells.
In particular, our hearts and brains are regulated by important bioelectrical signals.
Did you know that the heart of a baby begins forming around Week 4? This is before many women know that they are even pregnant!
Any exposure to artificial electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can interact with fundamental biological processes in the human body.
Eliminating sources of artificial EMFs is top priority if you want to ensure the most optimal environment that is free of very common, manmade EMFs.
This is especially important as pregnancy and birth is also a mental game. Feeling overwhelmed or fatigue at any stage in the pregnancy and postpartum period is so common that we tend to brush it off as normal. But problems like “mom brain” or brain fog (inability to concentrate or connect thoughts), muscle cramps, and tingling/numbness can be the symptom of a "low battery"—lacking the electrical impulse stimulus necessary to perform nerve and muscle functions.
As we get into “nesting” mode, we may look for items and gadgets to help us in our personal spaces. However, household electrical appliances like baby monitors and robot vacuums invariably introduce electromagnetic waves.
A lifestyle with zero appliances is unlikely and I’m not asking you to drop all gadgets. But as society continues to be ever more high-tech, and we must take matters into our own hands to protect ourselves from exposure electro-pollution. We must also take steps to repair the disruptions to our own biological electrical currents.
Thus, creating a grounding space is so important for the mother. It also provides a safe space for the baby’s delicate systems in the womb, and in his or her early days after birth.
Grounding…with people
I cannot overestimate the support of the birth teachers, doulas, and the many inspiring birth stories from mothers who have “been there”.
The human connection is a “grounding” support that kept me calm and trusting my goal.
At the end of this post, I share the birth teachers that we met, as well as the birth of my second child in gratitude for these generous sharings of the deeply physical and private work of birth.
How do EMFs affect mothers?
Exposure to artificial EMFs are linked to health issues that directly impact the health of mothers and those who seek to conceive, and can cause a wide variety of related issues:
Infertility, DNA damage, autoimmune issues
Lowered melatonin, relatedly sleep deprivation
Low energy, “brain fog”, “mom brain”, reduced executive function
Mood issues, such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and impulsivity
Increased stress
Affect sleep/wake cycles in babies through breastfeeding
Developmental issues (especially in young kids)
Cataracts, macular degeneration, and eye development issues in children
Brain development in children
Reduced ability to form social connections and relationships
Read this for what you need to do about EMFs and the potential impact on fertility, children, and brain health.
Water
My first pregnancy was a shock. It started off with debilitating nausea and vomiting all day that continued throughout pregnancy. It left me feeling weak, alone, and anxious that I would not be strong enough for labour, which anyone can tell you requires athletic endurance!
One thing that alleviated the all-day dizziness and fatigue was simply being in water, so into the second trimester, I mustered up enough energy to get up after five months and began swimming and breath exercises in the pool.
Swimming had been a regular exercise I enjoyed. Being able to go back into the water felt so incredibly calming that I knew if I could just have a water birth, I’d be well set up for a calm frame of mind.
In the last two months, sciatica flared in my hip. So, swimming as gentle movement and visiting a chiropractor who specialised in maternal health really reduced the pain.
Water is conductive, so swimming or standing in water is a helpful grounding activity. Later, I would take regular Epsom salt baths for a minimum of 120 minutes, which helps balance the body and replenish the magnesium that electrosmog depletes from the body. I’ll share more about Epsom salt floats in another post.
Only a few gynaecologists in Singapore supported water births then.
It turned out to be an intense 24h back labour that wound up in an ER trip and a bladder catheter. I was so sure that either the baby was coming in the car or I was going to pass out. Except my labour suddenly stopped cold as I was wheel-chaired into the hospital — still one of the strangest sensations in my life! — and awkwardly signed some administrative papers in my stained bathrobe.
It wasn’t until I was led to a room and examined that the nurse yelled, “She’s 9cm dilated!!!” that something came over me and my body turned itself around and I began baying bloody murder (or so it seemed). Stepping into the tub of water and having my husband and doula (she had rushed back just in time) with me (husband literally in the pool with me!) formed the bubble of support and focus I needed.
After the haze of months of nausea, the labour and birth itself was vivid. A burst of emotion flooded my world when our baby was finally born. Her bright eyes were alert and surveyed the room as we lay in the dark and quiet of the birthing pool. Then, she did the “baby crawl” and climbed onto my chest and latched by herself, which seemed like a miracle to me. Looking back, the quiet bubble of the birthing water with the nurses and doctor supporting at the side in the dark helped softened the sometimes harsh edged of a sanitised hospital environment.
Light
For my second birth, I wanted to avoid that “hormone hijack” (and any chance of needing a bladder catheter). Not a chance of a “These lights are way too bright!” moment. So my top questions to the gynaecologist included:
Can I turn the lights off if I want?
Can I KEEP the lights off if I want?
For my entire pregnancy, my guiding question for health was based around light as the primary factor:
Am I keeping to a natural, biological circadian rhythm that will help my growing baby, and prepare for the eventual birth?
I kept a relatively strict day/night routine to ensure a healthy naturally entrained circadian rhythms for my hormones levels. This was so helpful for my toddler too! No matter how tired I was, we would have our breakfast together outside in natural light.
This actually turned out to be one of the easiest habits to keep. Eating outside helped us set up our circadian rhythms every day, front load our need for movement, outdoors, and enjoy the day out while it was still cool. I could be productive if I needed. It was obvious my toddler was more settled and always slept better on such days.
At night, I rarely turned on the lights. I would be ready to hit the sheets most nights anyway by the time 9 p.m. rolled around, with a toddler going around. I wore blue-blocking glasses if I used my phone or screens.
I credit keeping a circadian cycle tight to the natural day/night cycle to a lot of my own health healing, including old issues such as poor digestion, constipation, and low blood pressure.
Our body’s inner clock changes our physiology according to the time of the day. If you miss the time, you miss the boat, so to speak. These effects on non-circadian processes were considered minor from 2005 to 2013.
In 2017, however, 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly for their discoveries of the molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm with great precision. This post shares more about potential oxidative threat to health via high-energy light-emitting diodes (LEDs) light in our domestic environment nowadays.
EMFs
During pregnancy, the mother’s immune system is in constant flux, and certain sensitivities can arise. Mine included environmental sensitivities, as I was living in a moldy apartment with high electrosmog from both near and far sources. (You can read more about this here.)
Most electrosmog are created by personal devices at home, rather than external sources.
These are commonly WiFi, mobile and cordless phones, baby monitors, any smart electronics, smart meters (which use 2.4GHz signal as WiFi).
As I nested, my choices were aimed at decluttering and eliminating toxins. I also looked to introduce supportive elements for a calm environment that would support birth, and then rest & recuperation postpartum.
This calm environment had to be free of electromagnetic influences:
Using anti-radiation material like a Belly Armor blanket (Assess your total environment to determine the true result.)
Hardwired all devices, including figuring out how my new router works. Here is a short guide here.
Replaced materials that built up electrostatic charge.
Daily earthing / grounding.
Getting a water filter that removes the chemical fluoride.
Birth teachers
My birth stories would not be complete without the extraordinary birth teachers and doulas whom I met.
I joined an intensive birth class* that helped prepare me for a waterbirth. I definitely enjoyed the short refresher with my second birth. Learning with other pregnant mothers and fathers in a convivial setting that inspires and invokes love, with an aim to address any anxiety, provides a calming space for what sometimes feels like what feels like a tiring marathon of pregnancy.
In such a space, I armed myself with real-life stories and knowledge about the pivotal periods in labour, birth, and after. The bones and muscles and organs that accommodate pregnancy, the “golden hour”, the month of intense rest, bonding, breastfeeding, the continual onward journey of now being a Mother and finding other Mothers… Those helped fill a personal gap.
My doula Keidi* massaged me during intense back labour for several hours straight! Amidst the hubbub and waiting for the tub to fill, I could hear her quiet voice telling me to “breathe... just breathe...”.
Breastfeeding turned out unexpectedly tough, as my first had a tongue tie. Keidi came by to visit and coached me on breastfeeding, as well as providing the nudges and encouragement for days after.
For my second birth, after we moved, I knew my triggers better and wanted a doula who could support me in that — especially if it turned out to be another exhausting back labour. I ended up asking Nadine all sorts of questions, including a lot about bladders(!), but she was always patient, informative, and willing to work with me.
That support went a long way to create a positive mind space for me. The week before I gave birth, I was all nesty and reading birth stories—I knew the time was near! When I began to actually feel uncomfortably achy, I texted my husband and Nadine. No need to panic, they said, and I agreed most of all because I didn’t want to lose the calm I had carefully built up.
So I focused on putting my toddler to bed (and putting groceries to the fridge), feeling more and more achey. I never made it into the tub for the labour waves as my hips could not “make” the climb. In between waves I knew I had little time to get to something that would take me through the next one. I ditched the tub and blasted the hot shower instead, which took the pressure down enough for me to talk to myself and the baby.
I had set my mind up for a 24h labour like my first—pretty grim, but he came within 2h!
For a time, it was my body moving me instead, and I had zero thought except to follow what my body thought were the positions to get into. It was complete and utter focus in the dark shower with the hot water on my back. Compared to my first birth, this time there was no confusion and no multitude of voices. All I heard was my own mooing and prayers to get through this with the baby. Then came an incredible pressure, which knelt my body onto the right leg, and he slid out perfectly.
Nadine arrived soon after the birth, and to me it was a blessing to have someone, a birth friend, grace his first moments on Earth. She kept me company until my husband finally made it home.
These lovely doulas were the human connection we did not realise we had been seeking for our new journey as parents — I now count them as the spark of human connection necessary in my personal EMF toolkit for mothers.
Holistic minded childbirth classes* were instrumental in both my pregnancies. Not only did I learn about what my body needed, my mind was opened to all the possible support that mothers are so often missing today.
*Resources Mentioned in This Post
My Gentle Birth, Malaysia: https://www.mygentlebeginnings.com/services.html
Berkey Singapore: http://berkeywatersingapore.com/shop/
Blue light blockers for devices: https://iristech.co/Iris/
Four Trimesters, Singapore: https://www.fourtrimesters.com/
Pinnacle Chiropractic, Singapore: https://mypinnaclechiropractic.com/
Belly Armor: https://bellyarmor.com/products/anti-radiation-blankets
Bioinitiative Report: https://bioinitiative.org/participants/why-we-care/