The key element to prepare for a natural birth.

By Amanda Greavette

How can I best prepare for a natural birth? That was the question that sprug to my mind once I settled into my pregnancy...

I knew straight away that I wanted to have the least medicated possible birth, but I knew I had to prepare to put all the chances on my side for it to be possible.

I had no judgment on any ways of giving birth but I knew how I wanted to experience it. I thought I would write about it because when I talked about it around me I got questions and a lot of people were hearing for the first time things like "birth plan" etc.

First of all I knew I would have to write a birth plan/ or birth preferences. Yes you do not have to give birth with an epidural, laying down and being attached to monitors, you can have a say in how you would like it to be, or at least get as close to what you want it to be. (be prepared too that we never know how the birth will go, we can prepare as much as we want there is always room for the unexpected in the process; and it'll depend as well on the place where you decide to give birth, not all options are available everywhere). I am writing for my experience of having had a low-risk pregnancy and having been given the green light to give birth in a birth center.

For me the most important piece of the puzzle was to approach the mindset before anything. I knew that without the mind on my side I would have not been able to dot it.

To prepare for birth I read a few books and apply some of the exercises/ tools that were mentionned in them.

What helped me the most though was to work on changing the mindset behind giving birth. The way giving birth has been depicted in medias (movies, tv etc.) imprinted a scary, very sterile life event in our subconscious minds. It is very rare to have a positive, calm approach from the get go regarding giving birth. The thing that was crucial behind all the preparation was to change the fear behind it, and the idea of it that have been imprinted by societal illustrations of giving birth. The first thing I used to think about when I use to think about giving birth was "The worse pain in your life" but I never heard "the most purposeful sensations in your life"; Understanding what that "pain" was doing helped me so much to get through it, and when I thought I would not be able to do it I was reminding myself what that pain was doing at the given moment and It helped me to keep going.

How to do that?

• One way is to consciously fill your mind with positive birth stories to counterbalance all the scary and negative stories we might have sitting in our minds. One of the books that helped me do exactly that: - Guide to Childbirth by Ina May

• Have an understanding of each stage of labour, what is the purpose of each moment to be able to see the sensations as purposeful. Reading or learning about hypnobirthing does just that, it does offer tools but it always starts with explaining each stage of labour and how the body works.

Here is one of the book that puts it all together: - Hypnobirthing: Practical ways to make your birth better by Siobhan Miller This book helped me with concrete tools and a good template for the birth plan as well as a whole approach taking into account the possibility of having interventions and still having a positive birth story.

The idea behind reading about childbirth is to fill your mind with positive birth stories, it does not mean you ignore the possibility of interventions and risks of giving birth but you have a more balanced vision of it all instead of only having the "scaremongering" idea of it.

To sum up here are the things I would look at first and foremost when considering preparing for a natural birth:

Mindset: Shifting the general mindset that most of us have, from a scary one to an empowering one (it does not mean that you have zero apprehension after preparing but that you are armed and feel that you are going in with a more positive than negative mindset :) )

Understanding: Very important and it supports the mindset idea. To understand specifically what each stage of labour is, and what is happening within your body when you feel certain sensation. The idea is that you know why it is happening and what it is doing so that you don't try to get rid of the pain but you try to work through it and then with it in the latest stage of giving birth.

Location: Choosing the place where you want to give birth. Sometimes what works best for you is the hospital/ birth center closest to you but make sure that they have options of the things that you would like to have on the day (for example the pools for a water birth). Or if it is a home birth that you wish think about what you want in your home (support of a doula for example, or making sure if you rent a pool that it all works as you wish).