Naturally, as I did last time, I'm thinking about the impending birth and how to prepare for it. With Addie I read some books, made really long lists, and talked to people who had given birth and got a few ideas about how I might like it all to go. With all this information I wrote a plan and then we went through the real thing. As I had suspected, nothing can really prepare you for the real thing, and we had some birthing hiccups but ended up with a very healthy baby and a scar on my belly.
In conjunction to the Hypnobirthing, I've been looking at relaxation methods and positive birth affirmations. I'm also making myself a birthing book. The birthing book is like a really HUGE birth plan, that has a few functions - one helping me to prepare my mind for the birth, helping me to remember what I really want and how to get it, and giving me some direction. It has pictures of pretty things that I've collected over time from magazines and various places, as well as nice paper and so far is fun to make. I'm also hoping that it will help me focus on the things that I need to during that time so that my mind doesn't become caught up with useless fears and anxieties. In addition to reading about these things, I need to practice them, the positions and the relaxation. Lastly I found some preparation questions to help me identify what my hopes, fears and options are for labour. I am hopeful that working through these with Andrew as well will be good emotional preparation and help identify flaws in the whole process - and particularly if there is anything left hanging over from Addie's birth which might inhibit me during the birth of this tiny girl.
So thats where I'm at with the whole "preparing for the new baby" thing at the moment. I can't wait for my books to arrive so that I can get started properly!
Tab, well done. Well done well done well done. Without getting on my soapbox, this post of yours is a shining example of how educating yourself on your birthing choices can make for a blissful birth. Blissful in any event.
ReplyDelete(I have a copy of Hypnosis Birthing CD (self guided hypnosis) by Tania Cotterell if you would like? Just email me?)
Hi Tab
ReplyDeleteI second Lucy's comments. Having given birth twice and not really prepared myself mentally, I found that I gave too much of the process to others, resulting in (now) wishing I'd prepared myself better, especially after my second child's birth. Hope it goes well and the birth experience is as close to how you wanted it.
I'm glad you are really looking into this especially if Addies birth had a few hiccups. If you have your mind in the right place then you have won no matter what happens. My sister rang me every day for two weeks before I gave birth (I was a week late) and rabbited on about my body being a tightly curled flower bud and that as labour progressed each pain I felt was the petals unfurling. So that eventually the flower would burst open and then the baby could come out. I thought she was a total nutter and by the end was dreading these daily flower conversations. But would you believe it while I was in labour all my mind would do was visualise this stupid flower bud, I could even see the colour on the tips of the petals as they curled back with every contraction. I began to get so excited, filled with adrenalin, woo hooo my flowers opening my baby's coming. The sane part of me kept telling me I was a fruit loop but the adrenalin filled part just said shut up the flower's opening!!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't have a written out birth plan but I did listen to a lot of stories from older women and read books about birthing in the past. The best advice I had was from a midwife who told be to stay active in the last stages of pregnancy, you feel like a hippo and you just want to lie around all day but the best thing for your body is to go for daily walks it loosens up all the right muscles, my midwife even wanted me to scrub the kitchen floor on my hands an knees to put the baby in the right position, so I did.
Sorry if I'm babbling on to much I just hate it when I hear people talk about how traumatised they felt by birth or how they felt like they had failed because they hadn't stuck to a birth plan.
Don't get sucked in to listening to people who tell you that the only perfect way to have a baby is intervention free, that millions of women in the past have done this before and that the hospitals are forcing interventions on us. The women of the past are the reasons interventions were invented, we are lucky to have the medical science we have today, no one is a failure if they need to use it.
And lastly, I promise I will shut up very very soon, Don't get stuck thinking birth has to be some huge spiritually enlightening moment. I am a Christian I don't need to push a baby out to feel connected to the creator of the universe, yes it is a momentous occasion, yes wonderfully amazing but don't think that is has to be serious and pious. If you and Andrew have way's of making each other laugh don't leave them at home.
You'll be fine I've seen the way your mind works, it's amazing.
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ReplyDeleteThanks guys, your encouragement is valuable to me.
ReplyDeleteMy books arrived yesterday, I was so excited that I ran from the mail box into the house - which isn't that smart at almost 7 months pg - but who said I was that!
Sarah, its interesting what you said about humour, its a suggestion in the hypnobirthing book too, and it makes sense that having good humour will help keep a good frame of mind. I do find a lot of the visualisation and affirmation stuff grates against my "rational" mind a little, but I thing thats because I'm just too westernised. Who cares as long as it isn't harmful and if it is helpful then AWESOME! I'm kind of getting sold on it all.
I'm feeling really excited about the coming months of practicing this stuff [except for the exercise/stretching bit - I HATE that!] and I'm pumped to see it work in real life :) There is something interesting in one of the books about how giving your child a good birth can help set them up for their own positive birthings when it is their turn. I like that.