What changes at 24 weeks of pregnancy? You start to focus on The Birth. Now is the time to begin to prepare your pregnant body for your coming birth.
Your uterus has grown up to your belly button. You can now finally feel your baby move throughout the day and night. Pregnancy feels very real. Birth is now about 16 weeks away.
You’re faced with this Truth that each pregnant woman faces … ‘There’s no way to know what your birth will be like’. That’s pretty terrifying really. Every woman wants to feel in control. We learn pretty quickly in pregnancy, we don’t have much control but over the months we get used to that.
Birth, however, is that one-off, dynamic, intense experience that just seems so Unknown and Unknowable. That’s never going to change. You won’t know until your birth unfolds but unfold it will. One hundred percent of pregnant women will give birth one way or another … guaranteed!
You might also be told … ‘There’s really nothing you can do to prepare for birth’. In fact, you might be making a Birth Plan, hoping that you can gain some control by making ‘choices’ about what you want and don’t want.
Birthing Better
Let’s start at the beginning … the early 1970s when Birthing Better skills started to develop. Society was changing. After WW2, the modern world exploded in possibilities compared to Eons before. One change was in the childbirth conversation … could women gain some control over birth? Birth just happened.
From WW2, the modern maternity system was the ‘go-to’ for pregnant women as were hospitals for birth. People felt safer and the ‘suffering’ was reduced with modern pain relief.
BUT … women wanted more and fathers were now permitted into labor and delivery. Women wanted to feel in control. Fathers wanted to help women feel in control. From that simple need … hundreds of fathers and mothers developed Birthing Better skills.
We started someplace
In 1972 when Birthing Better started to develop, there was a 4.5% C-section rate in the US so we focused on coping, managing, working through, dealing with, how to handle, stay on top of and FEEL in control of the natural occurring pain of labor contractions. Yes, there was medical pain relief but we often didn’t like the feelings or felt so out of it, birth felt unreal. WE WANTED TO FEEL IN CONTROL AND KNOW HOW TO COPE!
Men were desperate to help us. The natural occurring pain of labor contractions frightened them. They wanted it to stop or help. So, we developed great Birthing Better birth and coaching skills which you’ll learn in any of the Birthing Better courses.
But, we noticed that many of us still had long labors, delays in delivery or 2nd Stage (and we didn’t always want to be ‘cut’ with an episiotomy or tear. We didn’t want a ‘stuck baby’ either. Therefore …
How-to prepare our body for birth
This is where men excelled. Pregnancy and birth are mysterious for sure but guys simplified the mystery … plumbing! Women are a container. Their baby is a growing 3-dimensional object inside that changing and accommodating container.
Birth is an exercise in plumbing. The mother has to open up so the big object can come down, through and out. The birthing woman’s job is to help her baby open her open and continue its journey out of her body. The birth-coach’s job is to help her open up WHEN she experiencing very intense and normal labor contraction pains.
Voila … we learned to prepare our pregnant body for birth. The good news … Women and Men share the same body. We all blink, cough and can tighten up our rectum. All Birthing Better skills can be felt by both you and your partner/other/coach/support. We’ve got your back!
Birth is still mysterious but no longer a mystery. We can delight in having skills to prepare our body. We gain heaps of confidence. We know it will be hard work as birth unfolds, but we finally feel ready, willing and able.
Having an elective C-section?
You’re still pregnant. Your body is still preparing for labor, contractions, and vaginal birth. Your hormones, emotions, and physiology are all preparing for labor and vaginal birth. Your Mind knows you won’t labor. Your Mind either accepts or rejects your coming elective C-section but it’s your reality.
We’ve been there, done this. And, we totally decided to thoroughly enjoy our pregnancy, prepare for birth, enjoy learning about our pregnant/birthing body, learn the skills, practice them together, and learn the birth and coaching skills.
We then use our birth and coaching skills on way to the hospital, while being prepped, during surgery and with post-operative discomforts.
Bottom-line:
Pregnancy is so infrequent, so important and the memories of our baby’s birth stay with us forever. As Birthing Better families we created positive birth memories by preparing our pregnant body for birth and learned the birth and coaching skills.
We committed to using our skills to do the activity of birthing our baby no matter where we birthed, who was present, our feelings, what happened to and around us. We committed to skillfully birthing our baby!
Welcome to our Birthing Better family of skilled birthing mothers and fathers and babies who were grateful!