A message from Cilia…

Welcome to the home of the deBy Birth Support!

I would like to introduce you to an exciting new way to support the women in your practice. They will give birth more efficiently and powerfully when they are unable to stand or squat for long periods during their labors and births.

As a woman who has given birth on the deBy birth Support, and a professional who has worked with women as a midwife doing home births, I am excited by the possibilities the Support offers birthing women and their families. I hope you will learn to share my enthusiasm as you read on about the deBy Birth Support. I can tell you from personal experience: it’s great!

The deBy Birth Support is a new variation on an old theme, as you will see. It is a sleekly designed aid for labor and birth, designed by my dear friend Conny deBy (pronounced deh-BEE), a midwife from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and brought back to the United States by me. In the Netherlands, the c-section rate is under 15% and vertical birth is the norm in most settings.

This aid to laboring and giving birth vertically is a sturdy, lightweight, simply elegant stainless steel frame designed with the comfort of the laboring woman and the practitioner in mind. It promotes faster and more natural labor and births and thereby helps avoid long, exhausting labors.

The deBy Birth Support is different from other birth chairs you may have seen or used, in that it supports the forward-leaning position, using hand grasps that add other vital dimensions to the birth chair idea. Its lightweight, open design allows the practitioner easy visualization and access to the woman and baby for monitoring and emergency birth maneuvers.

About the Original deBy Birth Support

The Support was built with laboring women in mind.

Forward position most effectively simulates a true squat:

  • The Support is designed so the woman can sit back and lean against her partner in between contractions, lean forward on her hands, or put most of her weight on her feet. The added advantage of leaning forward on her hands is that sustained pressure is put on the pelvic acupressure point near the thumb. Activating these pressure points stimulates strong, coordinated contractions.  She can intuitively adjust her body to most efficiently move her baby toward birth and maintain good blood flow to her own body parts.
  • The woman’s legs are spared the stress of true squatting, yet the benefits of squatting are maintained.
  • The support is low enough that the woman’s feet can be firmly placed on the floor for grounding and balanced support, while relaxing her pelvic structures as needed.

Open design for easy access:

  • The Support is open on all sides, allowing the practitioner easy visualization and access to the woman and baby for monitoring and emergency birth maneuvers.

Active women have a healthy sense of well-being:

  • Being securely supported to give birth in the upright position, with both feet on the ground, encourages a sense of strength and well-being in women, and therefore promotes positive birth outcomes for both mother and baby.
    The psychological advantages of the vertical birth have not yet been formally researched, but Dutch practitioners and others who have used the deBy Birth Support or studied the vertical position for birth agree that:

“Giving birth in the supine position often makes women feel passive and helpless. This sensation is sometimes compared with the helplessness of a beetle on its back. The erect position not only functions optimally because of its positive effect of gravity… but in particular because of its positive influence on the woman’s mental state and well-being.”

– Saskia van Rees, Beatrijs Smulders, Astrid Limburg, Prof. Dr. GJ Kloosterman in “Giving Birth,” 1987

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Gravity Works!

Using the deBy Birth Support can aid your clients in the following ways:

  • Increases the mobility and size of the pelvis.
  • Favorable effect on contractions - no wasted energy!
  • Relieves compression of the pelvis and great vessels.
  • Enhances pushing naturally.
  • Less need for perineal massage and episiotomy.
  • Promotes rapid and efficient delivery of the placenta.

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Cilia carrying the support

Technical Details

Carrying the Support

• The lightweight construction makes the support easy to carry for anyone.
• It can be put over your shoulders and carried like a backpack, keeping your hands free.

Construction:

• Fabricated of lightweight, sturdy, easy-to-clean Surgical Grade Stainless Steel.
• Smooth, one-piece design – no screws or joints to get in the way during carrying or usage.

Dimensions:

• 19″ long by 17″ wide by 16″ high
• The Support is a comfortable fit for just about every woman, short or tall.

Weight:

• 5.5 pounds including the cover, 5 pounds less than similar models sold elsewhere.
• The Support is lightweight and very easy to carry.
• Supports up to 300lbs

Customer Comments