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.
- Great Childbirth Education Classes Online
- Natural Childbirth Statistics You Need to Know
- Childbirth Education Classes: Choosing What Is Right For You
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!
Both my children were born with natural childbirth and in retrospect I am so thankful for it.
Hats off to you for having a natural childbirth. I had an epidural with all 3 boys and loved every minute of it. :)
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). :)
I’ve heard so many people doing it naturally now days. I don’t know if I’m mentally ready for a natural birth. Glad to know that there are ways to get physically ready though =)
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.
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.
Getting prepared to have a kid is such a wonderful time. Great tips for all moms to be!
I did natural with my middle daughter but my other two I had to have drugs because they were horrible deliveries. But I am blessed to have three happy teens now.
I’ve always wanted to do things naturally. Only problem was my body didn’t agree and I have never been able to conceive.
These are great tips. Specially for first time moms.
Natural child birth sounds like it would be more painful? I’m not sure I’ll be having another kid any time soon though!
I had a natural childbirtht and it was really easy for me. Seemed that I was in some kind of fog or something and the pain was minimal.
I had to have a c-section with my son. If we decide to have another I would like to try for natural
I have a client who just went through natural child birth. I am dying to ask her some questions when she is up to it
I had two C-Sections so I never had the chance to have a natural birth. I’m sure this information is very useful to all expectant mothers.
These are good tips for new moms. Two of my kids decided to come very fast so everything was natural. One was even breech!
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.
I got an epidural both times. I just don’t see the point in suffering the pain when you don’t have to, but that’s just me.
Great information here and kudos to those who choose to deliver naturally. I fell in love with my anesthesiologist the minute he administered that epidural.
As great as these tips are, I think nothing can truly prepare you for that…LOL!!! But I think trying to stay in good shape will help always!
My sister is pregnant so indefinitely going to share this wonderful post with her :D
Exercise is so important for natural birth. This is good advice for women who want to give birth naturally.
I didn’t have a natural childbirth with any of my 5 for various reasons though I did try to use the breathing exercises to help myself stay relaxed.
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.
I would have no idea where to start preparing for any sort of child birth I’ll have to pass this onto some friends who are expecting :) x
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!
I so wanted to have the natural delivery. My labor ended with a c-section, which appears to be more and more common. (I hate that too.)
I’ve never had a natural delivery. Had all 4 c-sections but wanted to at least have 1 shot at it.
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.
It definitely wasn’t for me. I wanted those pain meds.
Natural childbirth is great for some. Me… I just wanted to be knocked out. LOL, but that was over 42 years ago.
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.