Natural Birth

Preparation Advice

What is the best advice that you would give to someone who wants to have a natural childbirth? Please be specific about techniques and include any good resources if you have them...

I'm looking more for a list of things that a woman should do, even stuff that y'all did/are doing... anything that will help....

TIA! I know this might be lengthy to write for some...

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Re: Preparation Advice

  • Hi,

    I read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, which was extremely helpful. I took a Lamaze class and made sure that DH was listening and repeatedly went over with him very firmly my plan to not have an epidural or pain meds so that we would be on the same page. He was a great coach and really helped me through labor by rubbing my back (it was all back labor) and talking me through contractions. The key to having a natural childbirth (as long as everything goes pretty smoothly and there are no complications) is to have a great coach and mentally prepare yourself because in the end it's all about mind over matter and your ability to tolerate or "block" out the pain that you're feeling. I have heard many great things about the Bradley method, as well. Good luck and you can do it:)

  • For me I could sum it up in one word, "Hypnobirthing" it worked wonders for me!

    Specific Things That Helped:

    -Staying in the moment and taking it one contraction at a time.  As they say in hypnobirthing, "Each surge of my body brings my baby closer to me."

    -When I would feel a contraction coming on I would start from my jaw and work my way down my body making sure everything in my body was relaxed.  The best thing you can do for yourself is to relax your whole body and breathe.

    -Swirling my hips while sitting on a birthing ball.

    -Having my DH rub two tennis balls on my lower back.

    - Warm Bath (this was a huge help the last 5 hours of labor)

    -Warm rice sock on my back. 

    -Towards the end of my labor I would hum during the contractions (my MIL says I sang through my labor :)

    -Visualization: In the beginning of my labor I would sit on the birthing ball and swirl my hips imagining that there were blue and purple ribbons encircling my whole body and helping me to relax.  Towards the end of my labor I would bend my knees in a rhythmic fashion and imagine that was helping to bring the baby down.  Visualization helps because it's a good distraction.

    -Another thing I did was refuse to use the word 'pain.'  I thought of it as pressure or tightening.  Kind of a mind over matter thing. 

    -Listening to music

     Good Resources:

    -As pp mentioned Ina May's book is great.  Also I found the documentary, 'The Business of Being Born' to be helpful (it's live streaming on Netflix) 

     

     

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  • ummm, i'm not trying to be rude, but have you read any of the posts on this board?  that is pretty much 80% of what all the posts are about. 
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  • I second Ina May's book. Although I kind of had to work my way toward it to desensitize myself to the granola. At one point in the book she talks about women birthing while they actually hug trees! You will get to a point where those kind of stories are much less cringe-worthy than the standard pitocin/epidural birth story.

    Also The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth.

    A doula, especially if you choose a hospital.

    A good natural birth class.

    Lots of natural birth stories.

    Be open to trying every possible birth position and sort of practice them before labor.

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