uki Nishizawa was in labor with her second baby when she took to the dance floor — or rather, the floor of her hospital room.
Subtitle: Pregnant mom can still do a mean ‘Tootsie Roll’ even in the middle of contractions
Her husband, Connell Cloyd, dutifully recorded her doing an amazing “Tootsie Roll” dance and shared her baby-birthing moves on his Facebook page for everyone to watch, and watch it they have. As of this writing, the completely adorable video has well over 3 million views.
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My 5yr old's been asking for weeks to go running with me so I took her on my morning run & smoked her. She was so slow! That'll shut her up.
— Andy H. (@AndyAsAdjective) August 20, 2015
During her dance-off with herself, you can hear her say that her water is breaking, and as she continues to dance around, she notes that it keeps leaking out. And she gives tips to her audience (her nurse and husband) about which moves work the best. Cloyd mentions that perhaps he shouldn’t be laughing, but we’re sure he’s laughing with love, because face it — this is too cute for words. And judging by the look of radiant happiness on Nishizawa’s face and how easily she moves around even as her water breaks, doing the “Tootsie Roll” during her labor seems to have worked.
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And she may be on to something. There have been a few studies that correlate music and dance with pain reduction during labor. According to one study published in 2014, dance labor therapy resulted in less pain and greater satisfaction for the laboring woman. And other research conducted with laboring Thai women showed that those who listened to soft music for three hours during the active phase of labor also experienced reduced pain and distress when compared with their non-music-listening peers.
Women have experimented with plenty of measures to cope with labor and delivery. For starters, the best positions for both labor and delivery feature moms who aren’t flat on their back, because the downward pull of gravity helps the process along naturally. Moving around can also help speed up labor, and remaining active during the process can help alleviate pain.
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Moms do what they have to do to get through labor and delivery. For some moms, lying quietly on their side in a darkened room is what works best for them. For other moms, bouncing on a ball, walking around, taking a shower or getting even more active helps them through a process that can be long and quite grueling.
No matter what, we love this couple for this video, because it truly is fantastic.
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