Mother To Mother: Tips for Preparing For Natural Childbirth

Preparing for natural childbirth is both exciting and a little terrifying! Check out our tips to get you ready for the delivery room so you can enjoy the last days of your pregnancy knowing you're all ready for the big day!

First of all, congratulations are in order!  Preparing for natural childbirth is an exciting time! Whether you are the one pregnant, thinking of getting pregnant, or know someone who is, it is a happy time!  You have some choices when it comes to labor and delivery.  Natural childbirth is a beautiful thing and it can be done!  The woman’s body was made to birth children. Below are some tips to get you started on preparing for natural childbirth.

Tips for Preparing for Natural Childbirth

 Read: Download pregnancy books (or go old school and go to the library, it’s free!) Search for books about natural childbirth and birth stories.  Women who have gone this route, with minimal medical intervention, have lots to say and lots of advice to give!  Take what you want from it and leave the rest.  Not everyone is right and not everything you read will be right for you. 

Team of support: Who do you want in the birthing room with you?  There might be restrictions on the number of people allowed, you can discuss that with your doctor.  However, you want to consider who is going to be helpful and supportive in your natural birthing process.  Everyone should have a role as well in caring for your during that time.  Do you want your partner up by your head, helping you to stay calm and reminding you to breathe?  Or is your mom a better person for that? 

Exercise: Labor is tough. Prepare your body like you would for a long distance marathon.  Pay special attention to the flexibility of your hip, it will help you greatly while in labor.  Look into a prenatal yoga class, these specialize in pregnant women and take into consideration the growing belly before you.  Aside from the benefit of staying active, you won’t experience a huge weight gain either!  Before starting anything new however, you must consult your doctor to make sure what you plan to do is safe for you.  Everyone is different. 

Practice breathing: Focusing on something other than the pain you will be in actually can do wonders for you.  Your mind is a powerful thing!  This is why mediation works the way it does.  When you focus on being calm and how you are breathing, you will be surprised what you can do when relaxed.  Deep breathes in through the nose and out through the mouth. 

Visualization: Have you ever created a vision board?  Or made the wallpaper on your phone a picture of a place you want to go?  The idea is that the more you look at or visualize something you want, the better the outcome.  So, visualize the outcome of labor.  Your precious little bundle of joy wrapped all warm in your tired arms.  Do this at night while in bed.  And also during labor while you focus on your breathing!

I hope these tips help you on your way to preparing for natural childbirth.  Prepare for the unexpected, as no one person or pregnancy are the same.  Whatever you come across are just individuals experiences and advice on their experience.  

Have you gone through this already?  Post below some things that helped you in preparing for natural childbirth! Helping each other through pregnancy is one of the things only women can do for each other!

32 thoughts on “Mother To Mother: Tips for Preparing For Natural Childbirth”

  1. I had natural childbirth for all four of mine. It’s the only kind I ever had experience for, so that was what seemed natural to me (no pun intended). :)

  2. I helped my best friend with the birth of her last child. She had a planned home birth with a Midwife. It was an amazing experience.

  3. Some great tips for those new mommies out there who choose natural child birth. I almost made it with out pain meds when my 7 year old was born. However I got all the way to 8 and needed the pain meds.

  4. I had an epidural with both kids, but with my son, it didn´t work. Natural childbirth is great if it´s the way you WANT to go.

  5. I have never had natural childbirth; not sure I could ever be brave enough to try. I have a mom friend that has done this and the first time.. when she told me the story was scary but not scary enough for her to do it again on her second.

  6. I did one natural (with out meds that is) and it was horrible. Not because of pain but because of how fast it was and all that happened after. I almost died. I would do it again though, and hopefully would have a much better experience!

  7. Jennifer Williams

    I had a natural delivery with both of my boys. Once I heard that exercising during your pregnancy helps – I kept up with working out. Honestly it was not as bad as everyone said it would be – I am terrified of needles so that kept me from even thinking about any kind of drugs for the pain.

  8. I don’t know if I could have gone the “natural route” it seems so painful to me. My daughter was considering it until she found out she was having twins and she would “have” to have a C-section. She wasn’t wanting to go that route either but then she went in labor at only 28 1/2 weeks so it ended up being an emergency C-section.

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