3 tips to prepare for a positive birth
Think it’s impossible to make birth a positive experience? Here are 3 things you can start doing right now to help make your pregnancy and birth journey better.
1. Surround yourself with birth positivity.
Does negative Nancy want to tell you about her horrific labour? Just say NO! Listening to those stories won't do you any favours. This is actually where a lot of the fear about birth comes from in the first place. It’s often the emotional stories that stay with you, so every time someone shares a horror story and you're drawn in by the emotion, negative suggestions about birth are planted in your mind. Over the years this has built up a mindset that birth is to be feared.
So next time, suggest to Nancy she tells you her story AFTER you've had your baby. Instead, seek out positive birth stories. Follow Hypnobirthing accounts on social media or check out Tell me a good birth story.
2. Watch other people giving birth.
Seeing is believing. It's likely that the only version of birth you've seen up until now is the highly dramatised version shown in films and TV programmes. While birth is a totally normal function of our body, it isn’t something we do everyday. So it’s really normal to feel apprehensive, especially when we see birth depicted as some emergency, panic inducing event on soaps, sitcoms and even Documentaries like ‘One Born Every Minute’. Try to be mindful of the media you are watching because at the end of the day their goal is to get views, ratings and clicks, so they'll edit things to be more sensational.
My best advice is to normalise birth as much as you can. Watch positive birth videos, learn about how your amazing body works and start building a confident mindset so you see birth for the incredible, empowering experience it really can be.
3. Practise relaxation.
Being relaxed in pregnancy and labour is so important, not just for your own mental wellbeing, but also to help promote those wonderful birth hormones that are going to help you birth your baby. Being in a relaxed state will:
Calm your mind, helping you deal with stress or anxiety.
Help you to bond with baby
Help you get a good nights sleep (yes please!)
Promote the flow of oxytocin...the hormone you need loads of during birth.
Boost your mindset
Make you feel bloody fantastic!
