Being ready for a wonderful birth can mean many things to many people. Some will focus on the readiness of their home. Is the baby’s room “done”, is their house baby proof, or do they have all the things for their baby? Others will focus on packing for the hospital or birth center and arranging for childcare for other children.
But as a pelvic physical therapist and mother to three, may I suggest that we make sure your body and mind are ready for this birth??
As a first time mother and even second time mother (13 and 11 years ago), I look back at how little I really knew about birth preparation. I focused on all the outward things and put all of my faith in the birth providers. I didn’t once think about what I could do to help my body have a better birth. Besides, wasn’t my job to focus on not gaining too much weight and keep exercising? Boy was I NOT prepared!
As I look back at my own experience and now 11 years of pelvic health specialization, I have learned so much. How our bodies are MEANT to birth, but we do not have the opportunity to see others birth their babies. It is usually done in the privacy of a hospital room or someone’s home. And with the medicalization of birthing over the last century, the power has been taken from women to be able to own this superpower of birthing.
There is much that women can do to improve their birthing experience and this blog is going to summarize the main points! Just last week, a new postpartum patient texted me the news that she had just had her baby and said: “The pushing and breathing practice helped so much! We had a lovely birth with no perineal tearing!!”
In no particular order…
1). Be connected with your breathing:
Being able to belly breathe and even breathe into the pelvic floor is a game changer while in labor. The ability to breathe well will help keep your body and mind calm and organized. You will be able to use your breathing to get you through the labor surges and even help you with the pushing stage. We do NOT condone extended bouts of breath holding while in labor as is told to women many times over.
2). Be connected with your pelvic floor:
Most women will not have had much practice or need to work on connecting to their pelvic floor muscles before having a baby. These muscles are hidden from view and when healthy, will not really require a second thought about them. UNTILL we become pregnant! These amazing muscles will be a major part of the birth process and our ability to connect with and coordinate these muscles in birth will be the difference between a long hard labor or need for c-section and an easier labor and no perineal tearing.
3). Have good mobility of your hip and back muscles:
Our baby needs for us to not be restricted in our hips and back when it comes time to be born. They need to do several moves and turns to get into the right position to be born and having mama’s body be stiff and stuck will not help them. In PT sessions, I am ALWAYS working on pregnant patient’s tight hips flexors, adductors, hamstrings, and low back muscles to help their bodies be ready for labor. Plus it can help relieve a LOT of discomfort towards the end of pregnancy. We also have our patients work through several prenatal stretches that address tightness in hip and back muscles leading up to delivery date.
4). Confidence in your own body and what you are capable of:
In prenatal sessions, we work through many different positions and postures with belly breathing and pushing practice. With each posture, we assess and ask our clients how their body feels. The goal is to help them evaluate and come to know what postures their body feels best able to relax or push in so that they have a working knowledge of their body well before that first labor contraction or surge. We practice breathing, pushing, and even how their partner can massage their back or support their hips in active labor. All so that they are mentally prepared for their labor with a sense of confidence and control in knowing their own body.
For our patients, it is a drastically different birth experience when a person goes into labor feeling CONFIDENT and body aware.
If I could have a wish list for each pregnant woman, it would be ALL of these things. If you don’t feel like you have these things in order and are expecting, we would LOVE to help you get there!
