How you perceive birth can influence your birthing experience and is already doing that right now.
I want you to be honest now, what image forms in your mind when you think of a woman giving birth?
And ask yourself how helpful is this as you prepare for the birth of your baby?
Put another way, if you only ever heard negative stories about flying do you think you'd ever plan a holiday aboard?
Probably not.
And just think of all those experiences you'd be missing if you never flew anywhere.
Where do you think you've got that impression of birth from?
Identifying the sources that are influencing you to have a negative perception of birth is key to eliminating them and begin to re-balance your view.
Stop watching TV shows, even the 'docu-dramas', that only show dramatic birth scenerios.
Stop well meaning friends or colleagues from sharing their own birth stories or those they've heard about.
Instead, start to proactively seek out positive, real, birth stories.
Follow #positivebirthstoryproject and #positivebirthmovement on Instagram
If you want to understand statistics and evidence around birth choose legitimate sources like Dr Sara Wickham or AiMS
Start to prepare for a positive birth with my FREE Positive Birth Tips Newsletter!
Take an antenatal course that is evidence-based, will prepare you for real birth AND instil confidence in your body's ability to birth your baby.
Remember, your birth story is yet untold so there's plenty of time to set up a positive birth story
At the start of my Comprehensive Couples Course I always take couples through a re-framing exercise. It's valuable to do this as a couple too as you may be surprised what things come up that you need to explore together before birth. Learning to re-frame your thoughts to a more balanced or even positive view is a key element of hypnobirthing. Preparing for birth whilst fearing the experience does not put you in the right mindset for a calm, confident birth. You will know in basic terms stress affects your hormone levels but what you probably don't know is that in turn tenses your muscles. Now in labour we need key muscles, like your uterus, to relax and release as well as contract in order to be effective. Otherwise this will lengthen your labour and make it more uncomfortable.
Not what you want at all!
If you'd like help forming a more positive perception of childbirth please join one of my antenatal classes or get in touch to talk about a bespoke 121 session focusing on what you need most.
You can also email me to discuss your circumstances: birthandmoreltd@gmail.com
I wish you a positive and happy pregnancy and birth!
Rose