FACTS
1. Some countries or States in the US permit home births for some pregnant women but most will birth in hospital
2. You may or may not have a choice in your community about what which hospital. There may only be one.
3. It’s always a good idea to find out about the medical assessments, monitoring and procedures that are the ‘standards of care’ or ‘evidence-based practice’ or ‘guidelines of practice’ that you’ll encounter.
4. It’s always a good idea to ask your Obstetrician or midwife whether the follow the same guidelines of practice or have a different viewpoint and how that will impact you’re coming birth.
5. Your hospital birth will include the medical assessments, monitoring and procedures that are required whether you like them or not.
YOU:
1. You are pregnant. You will give birth one way or another.
2. Giving birth is always an ACTIVITY each woman does with her baby no matter where she births, who is present, personal circumstances, beliefs, choices, lack of choices, change of choices or what happens to or around the birth.
3. There is no way to know what your birth will be like.
4. You will birth better if you use skills to do this activity from start to finish.
5. You got pregnant to have a baby not a type of birth
BOTTOM-LINE;
1. Without skills you are more likely to feel overwhelmed, passive and feel as though birth just happens to you and you have no control
2. With skills, you’ll always birth better because you’ll use your skills to cope, manage, work through, deal with, handle, stay on top of and feel in control throughout your baby’s birth because you ‘choose’ to do this one-off, infrequent, can’t redo tomorrow, life-transforming and dynamic activity.
No one has told you that it’s normal and natural to self-learn birth and birth-coaching skills during pregnancy then use your skills to work through the activity of birthing your baby. Everyone has told you to make choices and create a Birth Plan. Everyone has told you that you know what type of birth you want. No one that skills will help you work through the birth you have even if it’s nothing like you want.
Each pregnant and birthing woman is faced with a ‘choice’ in how to cope, manage, work through, deal with, handle, stay on top and feel in control as birth unfolds in an environment where there will be assessments, monitoring and procedures that you might not like. With the determined use of your skills you’ll get on with your birth and focus on how you are working through the moment-to-moment activity. Trust us Birthing Better families. We can hate every single minute but with skills we get on with doing our birth and work through our birth and rise above what ‘they’ do and don’t do to us and are damned proud of ourselves for using our skills.