Why Are Peanut Balls So Common But So Underused?
Peanut balls are on nearly every labor and delivery unit. They’re affordable, accessible, and a foundational labor support tool. But here’s the kicker: most nurses never receive formal training on how to actually use them.
Labor nurses definitely aren’t trained on how to introduce peanut balls with true informed consent.
And certainly not on how to use them in strategic ways that facilitate labor progress and trauma-informed care.
That’s a huge missed opportunity.
The Hidden Power of Peanut Ball Training for Nurses
When we offer peanut ball workshops with intention, they become so much more than a comfort measure.
They’re a chance to:
- Introduce trauma-informed care without overwhelm
- Model psychological safety inside a protected learning environment
- Explore emotional regulation and dysregulation with zero shame
- Practice the hard conversations around informed consent and bodily autonomy
- Of course, we also include the benefits of peanut ball positions for labor augmentation
It’s all tucked inside what’s also a fun, practical, hands-on nurse training.
That’s the Trojan horse!
Physical Movement Creates Emotional Safety
There’s something special about learning with your body.
When nurses are standing, sitting, rocking, and moving through scenarios together, it brings down the walls. We all have some emotional guarding, but I think it’s even more pronounced in our place of work and among our colleagues.
When nurses physically reposition peanut balls, practice new movements, or role-play bedside skills, we activate what trauma experts call bottom-up regulation — using the body to help calm and organize the nervous system.
This is a crucial part of learning in trauma-informed care. Because when we’re able to move, we’re better able to discharge stored tension and re-engage with curiosity instead of defensiveness.
And here’s where the neurobiology of sustainable change really comes in:
When nurses are supported to move through discomfort – not bypass it – and then return to the learning environment to try again, reflect, and apply what they’ve learned, that’s when lasting change begins to take root.
This aligns with what we know from the science of neuroplasticity:
Repetition + emotional safety + embodied practice = the brain is more likely to create new, durable neural pathways (Siegel, 2012; Porges, 2017).
In short: psychological safety + physical movement = sustainable practice change.
That’s what makes this immersive and embodied workshop format so effective! It increases nurse confidence through specialized skills training and also builds capacity to keep learning, adapting, and showing up with self-compassion and care.
Informed Consent Is More Than a Script, It’s a Skill
One of the most powerful parts of peanut ball training?
We get to roleplay informed consent in action.
Not just what to say, but how to say it, when to pause, how to listen, and how to respond when someone says “no.”
We bring in real stories and real language.
We anchor soft skills like:
- Active listening
- Patient education
- Trauma-informed communication
These aren’t just buzzwords. And they’re also not intuitive nurse skills that we absorb with our RN title.
They’re essential therapeutic tools that nurses use many, many times every single shift.
And when we teach them alongside physical tools like the peanut ball, nurses finally receive the formal training and repetition they need — in a setting that’s backed by the facility itself.
When informed consent, communication, and patient education are prioritized in a facility-sponsored training, it sends a clear message:
These aren’t optional soft skills; they’re part of the standard of care. Check out this Peanut Ball Learning Day workshop case study.
A Bridge Between the Technical and the Emotional
Here’s why this kind of peanut balls training works: it meets nurses where they are.
It doesn’t ask them to sit through another trauma lecture or relive their own hard stories.
It invites them into learning through movement, connection, and shared humanity.
And from there, we can gently build the skills, self-awareness, and clinical practices that make trauma-informed care the standard.
The Takeaway: Trauma-Informed Care Is the New Standard
Trauma-informed care isn’t optional anymore.
It’s not a specialty.
It’s not “extra.”
It’s the new standard of care for nurses.
And the truth is: we all need this education – especially in perinatal healthcare.
Not once. Not in theory. But regularly, in context, and in practice.
Because trauma-informed care asks us to do things differently —
to shift away from the way we’ve always done it
and toward care that centers safety, dignity, and consent.
Peanut ball training is a perfect place to start.
It’s nurse-led. It’s hands-on.
And it opens the door to sustainable, team-wide change.
It’s not just about positioning —
it’s about transforming team culture from the inside out.
Ready to Bring This to Your Unit?
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Our nurses need this…” — you’re right.
Schedule a free discovery call with Mandy to talk about bringing a Peanut Ball Learning Day to your labor & delivery team.
Together, we’ll build a trauma-informed, hands-on training that meets your nurses where they are, and equips them with the tools they need to do this work sustainably and safely.
Click here to schedule your call and apply for a training day.
Citations:
- Porges, S. W. (2017). The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe. W. W. Norton & Company.
Link to the book on Amazon - Siegel, D. J. (2012). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. Guilford Press.
Link to the book on Amazon - van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking. Link to the book on Amazon
