If you Google the word “childbirth” you’ll find lots of websites loaded with pregnancy and childbirth information. So the ‘what to expect’ when you’re expecting is all over the internet. You’re also likely to run into many websites that promote ‘natural childbirth’. There aren’t very many websites where mothers-to-be and fathers-to-be can gather to talk about natural hospital birth, or good hospital births or positive hospital birth unless you specifically search for ‘natural hospital birth’.

Hospital birth stories abound but are they the ones that inspire you to have a great birth experience?

Labor and delivery stories abound but these are often confusing.

Our New Zealand charitable trust is going to throw in a whole new way to look at your natural hospital birth … become skilled!

Childbirth and birth-coaching skills

Since Birthing Better online birth classes developed in the 1970s by hundreds of mothers and fathers. Back then the emphasis on childbirth was focused on ‘having’ a baby. Now it’s all about either ‘having’ a medical or natural birth. Instead, we used to ‘give’ birth to a baby. Now women are ‘giving’ birth in hospital, Birth Center or home. This means we’ve started defining birth from where we birthed or with whom, the outcome or what happened to us. This division has led to a huge increase in shame, blame, guilt, grief, disappointment, and anger around childbirth. It’s sad. We don’t want you to get caught in this mean spirited conversation.

We encourage all of you, as mothers-to-be and fathers-to-be to think differently once again about pregnancy and childbirth. Don’t think so much about where you’ll birth, with whom or what happens. Think about the skills you can and should bring into your baby’s birth journey.

Of course, you can have a natural hospital birth particularly when you have prepared your pregnant body to become a birthing body and learned the skills to work with your baby’s efforts to be born.

Can a natural hospital birth include medical assessments, monitoring, and even procedures? Of course. When birthing women use skills, they focus on what they are doing not on what is happening to them. When birth-coaching dads help his birthing partner to give birth to their child, they focus on their own efforts and not so much on what is happening around them.

The hospital birth story you tell will reveal how you feel about your own efforts … and that is how it should be. Giving birth in hospital doesn’t have to be traumatic at all.

‘Our hospital birth was very natural. Our Ob and the staff were wonderful. We were left alone for most of the time except when they had to come in to check our baby and my progress. Did those things bother me? Not at all. Our choice was to birth in hospital as naturally as possible. Our Birthing Better skills heightened our enjoyment. Would our birth have been better at home? Not in our house. We have 6 other children, 2 elderly parents, 3 dogs, 5 cats, 2 birds, and several caged animals AND farm animals to feed. This birth, however, was our best because we had used The Pink Kit to prepare for the birth and learned the skills to really work together. Our Ob was fine with my husband catching our daughter.’

Paula and Nicholas H.

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.