Natural Child birth tip #2: Do Not Fear

There is a podcast called
Pregtastic
I listened to it throughout my entire pregnancy and LOVED it. One episode in particular stuck out to me the most (episode 27 from November 27, 2006). It was called Technology and Your Childbirth. The guest speaker was Dr. Thomas Moore and he talked about the rise of C-Sections in the past 20 years, the effects it has on the mother and baby, and what we can do to promote more natural childbirth. He spoke about fear and the counterproductive role it plays on your labor and delivery.

When an animal out in the wild is in labor and it gets frightened it's body goes into protection mode. The uterus will literally stop labor so that the animal can find a safer place to give birth. Think about the affect that this would have on someone in the delivery room. Dr. Moore believes that we will not see a reverse in the trends of childbirth until all of our girls, between the ages of 6 and 12, get a chance to be in on a family birth. In other cultures, and in the primate world, before a woman delivers she has always seen another birth.

It is no wonder that we are fearful! The concept of vaginal birth is so taboo and is considered repulsive to many in our society. So of course you are going to freak out when you find yourself on a hospital bed thinking of all of the horror stories you have heard about childbirth and having no real reference for what is supposed to happen. I have mentioned it before, I grew up with a mindset that labor and delivery are just a natural part of life and are a beautiful thing. Surround yourself with other women that have that mindset. I know they are few and far between these days, but luckily we have access to the WORLD wide web. There are thousands and THOUSANDS of woman out there on blogs, chat rooms, and online forums that would love to share their uplifting success stories. And although you can't go back to being 6 years old and watch a family birth you can still familiarize yourself with the process. Before I had a baby I watched 3 documentaries about birth, probably 20 episodes of a baby story, some births online, and one video in our birth class (oh, and I photographed one home birth). Every time I see a baby come into this world I almost always tear up as opposed to throw up.

Remember 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind."
In my opinion this is the KEY. Believe you can do it, know you can do it, because you absolutely can, and most importantly do not fear it.