I work with pregnant women who are hoping to have a natural birth but are feeling anxious about how to achieve that.
These mamas-to-be are clear about what they don’t want, but aren’t as clear about what they do want…and they certainly aren’t clear about how to ensure they have a positive birth experience.
Perhaps one of these scenarios rings true for you?
- You feel drawn to a natural birth…even if that is only because your fear of medical interventions is stronger than your apprehensions about birth in general. It seems, though, that the odds are stacked against you. You have friends who have had traumatic births and while you know you don’t want that experience, you don’t know what you can do to ensure you have a different experience. You are tempted to bury your head in the sand but you know that won’t solve anything!
- You want your partner to have a positive experience too. During labour, you want you and your partner to work as a team…but how will you know what will be helpful for them to do if you don’t even know yourself? You want some practical tools that will help you both.
- You want to control birth…but how do you control an experience that feels like it cannot be controlled? You are tired of overthinking and tired of guessing what will be beneficial and what won’t. You are ready to stop feeling overwhelmed and ready to start feeling confident. Instead of feeling out of control, you want to start looking forward to giving birth!
Knowledge is power. Preparation is key. These are perhaps overused sentiments. But they are true. And the women who have the most positive birth experiences recognise this!
If you think of other major life events, you wouldn’t sit an important exam without studying and you wouldn’t run a marathon (or even a 10K) without training. Birth is no different. The first step towards a positive birth is taking ownership of that experience. The next steps are informing yourself and doing the work!
I find the clients who have the most success and who feel most positive about their birth experience are those who commit to their birth! They understand that preparation is key and they are interested in educating themselves and their partner…in fact they tend to be serial over-preparers and love that having a plan makes them feel better equipped and more in control. They really want to make good choices throughout their pregnancy and labour and are open to learning about all their options.
Now that you know the type of mama-to-be I generally work with, the issues I help them with, and what they need to do to ensure a positive birth experience, click here to learn more about how I work.