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For many mothers, birth is a normal physiologic process and the system works well as long as you don’t interfere with it. We give you tips to help you through this memorable process.
1. Trust your body: By understanding how your body labours to give birth, and how you can work with it instead of against it, you lower your chances of having to suffer or be drugged to give birth. Trust that your body is built to give birth.
It is normal to be apprehensive about labour, especially if this is your first baby or if you have had a previous unsatisfying birth experience. But prolonged and unresolved fear will interfere with how your body functions during birth. Be aware as well that the medicalisation of birth sets you up to distrust your body and fear birth.
You choose a doctor for fear that something will go wrong, you choose a hospital for fear of an emergency; you undergo a battery of prenatal tests and spend much of your pregnancy fearing that something will go wrong. This fear interferes with the biological system, and really is unfounded.
For 90 per cent of women who prepare for birth, delivery goes right. Around 10 per cent of women need varying amounts of medical help to deliver healthy babies, but even for these women, having confidence in themselves will enhance their births.
2. Use pregnancy as time to prepare: Preparing for birth means learning about all of the childbirth options available to you, selecting what best fits your birth experience goal and your individual situation, coming to birth equipped with a philosophy and a plan for the birth you want and having the wisdom to be flexible to adjust if due to circumstances beyond your control birth does not go according to plan. The process of exploring birth choices can be therapeutic. It compels you to examine yourself, your strengths, weaknesses and your fears, and to look at memories from your past that may affect your birth.
3. Take responsibility: If you don’t, someone else will take over and make your choices for you. If you simply say, “Doctor, tell me what to do,” and check into whatever system of birth your attendant promotes or your insurance plan allows, you set yourself up for a less than satisfying birth. If you need tests, technology, or a surgical birth, you are most likely to have no regrets if you actively participate in these decisions. Use technology wisely. If used wisely, technology can detect problems and provide solutions should nature fail.
4. If abused, technology can actually become the problem: In birth, nature causes fewer complications than humans do. Whether you need or desire a high-tech birth depends on your birthing philosophy and your individual obstetrical needs. If you learn about the benefits and risks of tests and technology, you can be part of the decisions about using these modern tools wisely.
5. You can prevent a Caesarean section most of the time: In about 5 percent of births, a C-section may be necessary, occasionally even life-saving, but women have the power to prevent the reminder of surgical births, which are unnecessary.
6. Every birth is different: Many factors determine the length and intensity of labour: your previous birth experience, your usual perception of pain, your physical and mental preparation for birth, the position and size of the baby, your choice of birth attendants, and the support you receive during labour.
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