There are two important ways you can help your midwife:
- Know how to cope well with the natural occurring pain of your labor contractions so you don’t call her too soon.
- Don’t transfer to hospital from your homebirth for failure to progress.
Your homebirth midwife is committed to keeping home birth a safe option for expectant parents. Women who work as homebirth midwives are totally committed.
You can make certain you make her job easier and safer by learning the skills you need to birth better.
Too many home births transfer to hospital for non-essential reasons:
- Long labors
- Tired women
- Delayed 2nd stage
- Failure to cope with the natural occurring pain of contractions.
The very BEST way to guarantee homebirth will remain an option for you and your homebirth midwife doesn’t burn out is by learning great childbirth skills … not only for you as a pregnant woman, but also for your partner or family member who will be your birth coach, birth support or birth helper.
During pregnancy it’s so important you learn these childbirth skills:
- Directed Breathing
- The Pelvic Clock Relaxation
- Working with the 5 Phases of each contraction to make sure each contraction is effective, maintain the Bell-Shaped Curve and immediately correct ‘flat contractions’.
Is giving birth really just instinctive?
There’s no doubt that 100% of pregnant women will give birth. Giving birth can be a frustrating process that just happens to you and your body, or it can become a highly skilled activity.
Humans are indeed animals, but if you drop any human into the wilderness and tell them, ‘you’re an animal, you’ll know just what to do to survive’ they will most likely be dead in just a few days. We know that viewing humans as purely instinctive animals is not accurate. We human animals have more developed cortical regions in our brains which allow us to use logic as well as intuition and learn skills as well as follow our instinct.
Whereas a birthing mother cat gives birth entirely from instinct, a birthing human mother is able to make the process a positive, satisfying experience by learning the skills she needs to actively participate in her birth.
Preparing your pregnant body to become a birthing body, learning, practicing, and using birth skills and coaching skills will help your midwife not take on too much responsibility. No matter how skilled your midwife is, she cannot give birth for you.
You’ve chosen a homebirth, and you’ve chosen a midwife. She deserves your best efforts.
Prepare your pregnant body:
- Definitely, do The Internal Work so your 2nd stage is effective. You don’t want to tear or have stitches.
- Learn Birthing Better Teamwork skills so you and your birthing partner know how to confidently work together.
- Map Your Pelvis, learn how to create mobility in your sacrum and discover positions that your baby likes.
- Learn how to create space inside your pelvis to help your baby come down, through and out your body.
When you birth skillfully you are less likely to have a long, ineffectual labor. These types of births are what tire midwives the most. Learn to get on with it, reduce potential trauma to your body and baby and reduce the possibility of transferring to a hospital unless there is a real medical necessity.
‘When my husband and I purchased The Pink Kit Package, we realized that choosing a home birth with our midwife was also choosing to protect her. Until that time I believed our midwife was going to teach me how to birth and be my primary coach. Once my husband and I learned the pink kit skills, I realized how very selfish and ridiculous that idea was’.
Pam and Shawn M…
‘Until a few of my clients started using the Birthing Better resources, I didn’t realize how much I permitted my clients to rely on me and how very tired I really was’.
Elaine R …
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.