How I'm Preparing For an Unmedicated Birth

When you first find out you're pregnant, suddenly you start thinking about so many things you maybe didn't put a whole lot of thought into before. For me, one of those things was my baby's birth. I've seen many births in my life. The first time I witnessed a birth was in nursing school where, no joke, I got so emotional that I started crying. *Picture this: mom's pushing baby out, dad's crying, grandma's crying...and then the random nursing student who just walked in starts crying. Yep, birth gets me emotional. It's one of those things for me that makes me cry happy tears, whether it's someone I don't know but just happen to be present with in the moment or even while I'm laying on my couch watching Call the Midwife (currently loving getting back into this show!).

For as long as I can remember, I've had the mindset that I would give birth to my future baby without medication. Some people say "natural", and I can catch myself saying this as well, but honestly birth however you go about it is natural and beautiful. Whether you choose an epidural or you had intentions of not using medication but needed a c-section. Birth is beautiful and natural and a miracle however way it occurs. Just wanted to throw that out there.But yeah, even when I was working in my first job as a nurse in labor and delivery, I felt a strong desire to birth without medication. This isn't everyone's choice. But it was something I knew I wanted.Fast forward many years to where I find out I'm pregnant and this desire became real. Like, scary real. Like I said before, there's things that you don't really spend a whole lot of time thinking about as far as every detail goes until you're really in the moment. And suddenly with pregnancy I found myself going straight to, "Oh crap, I have to birth this baby in 9 months!"Still, I knew this was something I wanted to strive towards. I believe in the power of a woman's body, that God created our bodies to be able to birth babies naturally (without meds or interventions) in most cases, and that modern medicine is great and needed because there are cases where interventions are necessary, but that they shouldn't be the standard protocol. Thus began the google searching..."How to prepare for an unmedicated birth".I wanted to share in this post how I am preparing for an unmedicated birth to encourage you and educate no matter if you're far off from having children, don't want to have children, or already have gone through the process of birthing babies. Because, if there's one thing I've learned already in my pregnancy it's that birth is beautiful and such a great part of our lives as women where we are given the opportunity to really trust our bodies. Already I'm realizing I don't have a lot of control about what goes on with this baby right now. And then when the time for labor and delivery comes, my body's going to know what to do. And I can trust that. 

MINDSET IS EVERYTHING

We're told, through media-depictions of birth and through horror stories we hear, that birth is scary and that medication and even c-section are the norm. We're told that we can't trust our bodies with birthing babies, even though millions of women have gone before us and have delivered healthy babies on their own. Reframing my mindset around labor and birth has been one of the best things I've been doing where I've already seen a change. Like I said, I knew I wanted to give it my all at delivering un-medicated/without intervention, but when you find out you're pregnant that just becomes that much more real. So I'm purposely trying to fill my mind with messages about birth being a positive experience. That's meant reading books like Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, listening to positive birth stories on podcasts like Birthful, and reading other people's positive birth experiences on blogs. I've also, each morning, been going through positive birth affirmation cards that I got with the birth course Paul and I are going through (I'll share that below). I've already noticed myself picturing a positive experience in my mind when I think about my baby boy's birth. 

ENROLLING IN A BIRTH COURSE

I feel like I know a bit about birth with being a nurse and having a background in labor and delivery. But I still knew I wanted to go through a birth course. I knew that yes, our bodies are designed to be able to birth a baby. But also I knew that it doesn't hurt and would help to have some expertise delivered to me and my husband in this area as we prepare. Thinking about going through a birth course, I knew that the information would be helpful for me, but more importantly, I wanted to have a place where my husband, Paul, could learn more about natural/unmedicated births as well. He is going to be by my side when I'm in labor, and I wanted him to know what to expect.I went with Mama Natural's Online Birth Course because of a few reasons. First off, I love Mama Natural and the resources she provides in the unmedicated/intervention-free birth space. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I bought her week-by-week guide to pregnancy & childbirth. I already loved her philosophy around birth and so when I saw that she had an online birth course I got excited. I enrolled on labor day because, ironically, she had a "labor" day sale. Haha! I thought that was funny :)It's an 8 week/8 lesson course that's self-paced and all online. We've gone through 3 of the lessons so far. It also included birth affirmation cards, resources on labor positions, recorded vocal affirmations, and came with a really sweet bracelet that has a charm that says "breathe" on it. Online isn't for everyone, but I've really enjoyed the flexibility it brings. 

STAYING ACTIVE & PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES

I've continued to teach a few barre3 classes every week which I've still been feeling good teaching as well as trying to take one class each week. Teaching is such a different mindset than taking class, and I've found so much benefit for my body and my mind when I actually make time to be a student in a class. I love Barre3 during pregnancy because it's low impact and almost everything we do is completely safe and actually helpful with pregnancy, all except for a couple core postures which I've just been modifying to doing more upright. It's such a wonderful environment and I'm always encouraged to trust my body, be present, and move joyfully. I literally can't say enough good things about Barre3 in general, but now being able to take class while pregnant, I'm even more in love!I also, as I mentioned in my last post, went to my first prenatal yoga class recently and LOVED IT! We did lots of stretches that are beneficial when pregnant and with preparing for labor. We also did some pelvic floor exercises which I'm already feeling super loose in. The instructor was amazing and I felt so spoiled during my time there. I bought a 10-class pass and plan to try and go every week to every other week until baby's born.Staying active, from what I know and have heard, is super important for keeping all the muscles we use in labor and birth strong. And, the amazing thing with exercise when pregnant is that you can pretty much do whatever you were doing previously, all while still listening to your body of course and knowing that you're cleared by your doctor or midwife. 

PICTURING BABY'S BIRTH & PLANNING FOR SUPPORT

I've been doing a lot of mental "picturing" of baby Yate's birth. And everything I picture in my head is pleasant, of course. This goes with the whole mindset thing. When picturing baby's birth, I envision my husband being at my side and a birth doula. I know that support is HUGE with labor and delivery. And everyone I've talked to has said a doula is the way to go! I'm currently interviewing a few doulas and hope to settle on one soon. I'm not about to think that I can do this whole birth thing alone. I know I'm going to need people by my side who love me (my husband) and who can help support us who knows more of what is and isn't normal with birth. Let me just end by saying that not everyone wants a non-medicated/intervention-free birth...if that's you, that's awesome! We're all different and have different desires. Also, know that even with an ideal of having a natural birth, thank goodness for modern medicine when things do go off plan and modern medicine can be part of what ensures a healthy mom and healthy baby in the end. That's the most important thing!So tell me, cause I'm new to this whole thing and not an expert in the least...what helped you most with preparing for birth, whether medicated or not?