Abstract

AYURVEDIC REVIEW ON PRAKRUT PRASAVA (NORMAL LABOUR)

Dr. Shrikant Atmaram Dighe*, Dr. Komal Balwant Kothawale and
Dr. Bhagyashri Khot

ABSTRACT

Pregnancy is really a great boon given by the god to a woman. Main aim of pregnancy is to give birth to a healthy individual. Labour is important part in this process. Normal labour is nothing but, the labour which occur through vagina without any fetal or maternal complications. Mechanism of normal labour and stages of normal labour are very well explained by modern science. Ancient Ayurvedic acharyas also explained stages of normal labour along with specific regimen which is known as prasav paricharya. According to acharyas, Prasav paricharya should follow not only by patient but also the doctors or nurses, who are conducting normal delivery of patient. Ayurvedic description of stages of normal labour is much similar to that of modern description, but few differences are there. In today’s world different advance techniques are available, such as episiotomy delivery, vacuum extraction etc. Even after all the efforts of doing normal delivery are failed then there is an option of caesarian section available today. But in ancient time there was no other option than normal delivery. After some time, acharya sushruta discovered the method of Udara patana (caesarian section) to deliver the baby. But before that discovery, only method available was normal delivery. So it is important to understand the stages of normal labour in the view of ancient acharyas along with their skills of delivering the baby normally. In this context this article contains normal period of labour, causes of onset of labour, position of baby during normal labour, stages of normal labour and specific regimen which is to be followed during labour, according to Ayurvedic literature.

Keywords: Normal labour, Prasav paricharya, Ayurveda.