We get asked all the time ‘What are the best exercises to do in my 7th-month pregnancy to have a normal delivery?’ That is such a great question! In fact, Birthing Better families discovered as they were developing all the exercises and skills is that we really should start doing exercises and learning skills to prepare our pregnant body in our 6th month! But here we are talking to you.

AMPs and Interventions

Why is the 7th month of pregnancy a great time to learn exercises and skills for a normal delivery? It’s simple, you don’t yet have a baby brain yet. And that’s why starting a month earlier is even better. In reality, if you go into labor tomorrow you can still learn great skills today. Never go into birth without some skills.

There’s another issue here connected to the term ‘normal delivery’. You want a normal birth or have a natural labor and delivery. And this becomes confusing. What does ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ really mean? In any modern maternity system you will have:

  • Medical assessments (checking for cervical dilation, blood work, blood pressure, urine strips, ultrasounds, and others)
  • Medical monitoring (fetal monitoring, blood pressure, temperature and others)
  • Medical procedures (ultra-sound, rupture water bag, induction, augmentation, cesarean, forceps, episiotomy and others)

These assessments, monitoring, and procedures (AMPs) are now lumped into one-word INTERVENTIONS. Without a doubt, those seeking normal births use ‘interventions’ as a word that implies they are unnecessary and imposed on you!

Here’s where the rubber meets the road and Birthing Better families took reality between their teeth, sorted out their head and figured out what to do with all these AMPs/Interventions once they became skilled.

BOTTOM LINE: 

No exercise or skills will stop you from having some or many AMPs/Interventions! You may have a few or many whether at home, Birth Centre or hospital.

SECOND BOTTOM LINE: 

Every Birthing Better family got really clear that birth is the only thing ‘normal’ or ‘natural’ because it follows pregnancy 100% of the Time. Everything else is up for grabs.

THIRD BOTTOM LINE: 

When you learn, practice and use birth and birth-coaching skills (that come from exercises you do at 7 months of pregnancy) are what help you rise above, work with and work around any ‘intervention’ you have or all those AMPs! In other words, use skills to birth your baby. In other words, use skills when you have any AMP/Intervention. In other words, use skills to stay in control and on top of whatever birth throws at you.

So what are the exercises/skills? 

Is it too much to ask that you click on the below links and go through all the lessons in our remarkable Birthing Better Online Courses? No sense in repeating what we’ve already done.

Every single skill/exercise was developed by ordinary fathers and mothers and compiled over a 15 year period and put together into an easy to learn set of online lessons.

Exercises at the 7th month of pregnancy to achieve a normal delivery will give you the skills to work through the normal pain of contractions and the normal process that your baby goes through to be born no matter where you birth, with whom or what is happening to or around you.

But, but, but you suggest starting at 6 months!

Take a deep breath. Sure ideally, your brain and time left before birth are all in your favour but Life isn’t perfect so just get on with learning some exercises during your 7th month for your normal birth.

To get you really real about Birthing Better skills is that these skills were developed by mothers and fathers.

  • The skills took 15 years to develop so you’re getting all of them … and even with a few families had great births.
  • You can learn a great skill even if you’re giving birth now … the closer you get to birth the more motivated you are.

So get stuck in. If doing Hip Lift to create more space for a baby you fear is too big … then get stuck in. If you used breathing techniques and they really didn’t work well … get stuck in. If you wanted a normal birth but ended up with tubes coming out of every hole … get stuck in and learn how to use your skills when having every type of medical intervention. If your partner failed you … these skills were developed EQUALLY by men and women so now he/she has skills to do their job to help you do yours.

Birthing Better skills were developed by moms and dads in the early 1970s in the US and used by many thousands globally in all types of birth. Birthing Better online birthing classes are housed in Common Knowledge Trust.