What You Need To Know If You’re Going For A Natural Birth
A lot of people are looking at the prospect of bringing a child into the world without the help of drugs and, while far from easy, it’s also far from impossible. However, to make sure that your natural birth goes as smoothly and safely as possible, it’s important to research your options and plan for it. Here are a few things you ought to know about the road ahead as a parent.
Try to be in the right shape for it
You’re naturally going to gain weight as part of your pregnancy, but it’s important to make sure that you’re at the least risk of complications, then you should plan to avoid gaining too much weight leading to the birth. Being overweight can increase the risk of complications, meaning an need for medical intervention. There is also some evidence that taking short daily walks while pregnant and getting into classes like prenatal yoga can help your body get through the process of childbirth more smoothly. It also helps you prepare yourself mentally for the birth, too. Just be sure to consult your doctor about any exercise or weight control methods you try in advance.
Take steps to fight stress
Without the aid of pharmacological intervention, it’s easy to assume you will feel every bump on the road towards a successful birth but that’s not necessarily true. There are natural options to help you manage your stress, maintain your calm, and even help you shorten your labour. This hypnobirthing guide can show you some of the steps to remain more in control of the process. Stress can exacerbate and lengthen labour, making it more painful and more dangerous, so it’s important to have strategies to fight it along the way.
Anticipate contractions and stay calm during early labour
Contractions can be painful, there’s no getting around that. However, if you learn to anticipate them, you can prevent the anxiety and fear that comes with them, which can then exacerbate the pain of those contractions. Working with a labour doula, especially one who is experienced in helping with the kind of natural birth you’re aiming for (such as a hypnobirth) can do wonders to help you stay in the right mindset.
More people can slow down the labour
You might think that you want familiar, comforting faces around you when you’re going through the painful process of natural childbirth, but that might not necessarily be true. There is plenty of evidence that having more people in the birthing room is actually more likely to slow the progress of labour more than anything. The longer labour goes on, the harder it can be to stay medication free. Fewer people means you can focus on the task ahead of you.
Don’t simply stop reading here. If you want to improve your chances of a successful and safe natural birth, you need to keep doing your research, have talks with your birth partner, and get your health care team involved in the conversation.
