Birth

Birth Preparation

I would definitely recommend taking some kind of birth prep class that is more substantial than what most hospitals offer. Some popular favorites are Birthing from Within, Hypnobabies, and Bradley. We did a Birthing from Within weekend class, which was good to do, although a bit out there for my sweetie.

I focused mainly on the Hypnobabies home study course. Note that Hypnobabies and Hypnobirthing are not the same thing. Confusing! I started listening to the CDs around 17 weeks. I found the CDs – which you are supposed to listen to daily – to be relaxing and helpful. Each day you listen to one CD of affirmations and one that is a practice hypnosis track. I actually listened to these tracks primarily at night, and they tended to make me fall asleep. I’m not sure I consciously heard many of them, but some of it definitely got through. Although I didn’t listen to the CDs during my birth like I had planned, I attribute my 6 hour, relatively easy labor to the Hypnobabies preparation that i did. My birth wound up being essentially exactly as I imagined it would be, was not what I would call painful and I would highly recommend this method!!

Click here to check out Hypnobabies.

See this site for a lovely list of birth affirmations, wonderful for saying/listening to in early labor or as part of your birth prep method. These are not the offical Hypnobabies affirmations, but they are similar.

Love Birth Stories?

Check out the Birth Without Fear blog. Awesome stuff. You can find all kinds of birth stories, from happy to sad. Cesareans, home births, breech births. You name it, they have a birth story about it.  And fantastic photography, too. They are also on Facebook, Pinterest…

 

Birth

My biggest piece of advice about the birth would be to get as comfortable as you possibly can. For me, that meant going into the bathroom, turning the lights out and not talking to anyone. Vocal toning that I learned in prenatal yoga was also super helpful (making low moaning noises). Having a baby is the weirdest feeling in the world, but your body knows what to do and will do it if you get your mind out of the way.

One last suggestion: write down your birth story as soon as possible after the birth. I recommend including every last detail that you can possibly remember. It’s crazy how quickly you forget the whole thing, and I love reading over mine.

Here is a good article on Pushing for First Time Moms – it’s written for midwives, but there is a lot to learn from the mom’s perspective, too.

These Last Few Hours
author unknown:

It is important to me
that I spend a part
of the next few hours
here alone with you
in the darkness.
You and I will never be
this close again.
Soon you will be
a tiny person
all on your own.
No longer the kicking,
demanding bulge in my body
that I have grown to love so much.
I pray that you will be safely guided
on your journey to my arms
and I ask for the strength, courage and
the power of birthing, to open my body and mind for you
And ever so gently us as one will become two.