Giving Birth: Your Superpower

I make babies. What's YOUR superpower?

Seriously, you are awesome! And giving birth is awesome, too. Both in the sense that, whoa, you're creating life here, and also in the sense that it SHOULD be an amazing experience.

But for many of us, the anticipation of awesome is tinged with worry, or even outright fear. We worry about making the right choices for ourselves, and for our babies. We worry about all that could go wrong. We worry about the pain, we worry about the pain relief and then we worry about the side effects of the pain relief... you get the point.

Sometimes I think that people were much happier before we had all these choices.

At any rate, to fully utilize your mommy superpower of birth, you need to understand what choices are available to you and what they all entail and how they will influence your health and your experience, as well as your baby's health and experience.

As somebody once said, if you don't know your options, you haven't got any.

Before giving birth

  • What is your due date, and how can it affect your birth experience?

  • Have you thought about what will happen if you go into labor early? Are you prepared in case you have a premature baby?

  • Have you thought about what happens if you go past your due date? Did you know there are natural ways to induce labor? Would you consent to a hospital induction?

  • Have you thought about where you'll be giving birth? In hospital, in a birthing center, at home? Perhaps outdoors? Or in the ocean? Seriously, some people do.

  • Have you thought about who will be your care provider? A doctor or a midwife? What kind of doctor? An obstetrician or a family doctor? What kind of midwife? A hospital-based midwife or a home birth midwife? Or perhaps nobody at all?

  • Have you thought about who will be present and what their function will be? Your partner, your mother/sister/brother/father, a friend (or ten) or a doula? Or perhaps the entire medical student class at the university hospital you chose?

While giving birth

  • Do you know how labor starts, what is normal and what is an emergency?

  • Do you know what labor contractions are like and what kind of sensations to expect (and how to handle them)?

  • Did you know there is an actual point to labor pain?
  • Do you know about the stages of labor?
  • Have you considered all your pain relief options, medical and natural?

  • Did you know epidurals had side effects?

  • Do you know what the difference is between a natural birth and a vaginal birth?

  • Have you thought about under what circumstances a c-section would be acceptable to you?

  • Are you familiar with the routines of the location you chose? And are you sure they are acceptable to you?

  • Have you thought about what interventions you find acceptable and under what circumstances?

  • Have you discovered what your priorities are during birth? What is important to you?

After giving birth

Birth is an experience to be cherished, and hopefully enjoyed! It sure helps to be prepared...




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