Prepare Your Body For Labor
We’ll give you the BOTTOM LINE at the beginning of this post. To prepare your body for labor is of absolute importance but you have to do so in a way that makes sense. Here’s what we mean.
Your baby is big. At birth your baby’s head will be about the size of a grapefruit. Preparing your body for labor means you have to:
- Create space inside your pelvis so your baby can easily move through your bony structure. We’ll teach you The Hip Lift, Sacral Manoeuvre, Pubic Bone Spread, Tail Bone movement, Sit Bone Spread
- Learn to Soften the soft tissue inside your pelvis. We’ll teach you how to do all of the above skills learning how to create more space because you learn how-to soften. And we’ll teach you both The Pelvic Clock and Cervical Relaxation.
- Know what positions your baby likes. Most birth positions shown on wall charts are about positions YOU like without giving you a clue whether your baby likes them. We’ll teach you exactly how to read your baby’s messages through each contraction. We’ll show you precisely which positions your baby will NOT like. And we’ll show you how to change your posture or position to help your baby’s efforts to open you to come out.
These three skills area to prepare your body for labor are: Create Space, Soften Inside Your Space and Find The Best Positions For Your Baby
These three exercises to prepare for labor help your baby open your cervix and move through your bony pelvis. Your baby has to come down and out …
- So we’ll teach you and your partner how to prepare your baby’s birth canal or your vagina.
These FOUR sets of exercises for labor preparation give you the mental, psychological and physical preparation for labor. All these skills are available via online birth classes full of skills developed by hundreds of moms and dads.
Why should you prepare your body for labor? It’s simple, isn’t it?
Childbirth Pain … love it or hate it
Childbirth pain or the pain you’ll experience during labor contractions is the monster in the closet when it comes to childbirth. It is probably the most feared part of childbirth and yet the least talked about part. What do you hear or read about childbirth pain?
Many books refuse to even use the word ‘pain’ when talking about birth contractions. You hear words like rush or waves instead of telling women like it is … labour contractions can be very, very painful. Why is this happening?
Why are women trying to tell other women that labor pains are merely rushes or waves? The assumption is that if you change the word then you change the response but that doesn’t happen.
Labor pains are painful … for some women barely feel any pain while for others labour pains make them feel totally out of control and as though they are going to die.
You just plan using commonsense when you are seeking exercises for labor preparation. You just need to think in two dimensions about a 3-dimensional activity.
- Prepare your body for labor … That deals with how your 3-dimensional baby can best come down, through and out your 3-dimensional body.
- Learn birth and birth-coaching skills … So that you can cope, deal, handle, manage, work with, stay on top of and in control of labor pains.
Birthing Better families wanted the same things so over 15 years developed all the skills they needed and you need as you make preparations for labor.
The history of suffering
Throughout Time and place, women have ‘suffered’ in childbirth. The concept that women suffer during childbirth doesn’t have to do with bad birth outcomes it means women lack skills to cope and manage the naturally occurring pain associated with giving birth. It’s that simple.
Suffering in childbirth is based on a global Truth: ‘There’s no way to know what your birth will be like therefore there’s nothing you can do.’ This means throughout the world there is absolutely no belief that women can do anything about their birth.
In other words because we can’t know what our birth will be like (because that is true) we then believe there is nothing we can do to prepare (which is not true but taken as truth) therefore all we can do is cross our fingers, hope like hell that birth contractions will not be painful and race for medical pain relief when we feel pain.
It’s absolutely NATURAL to tense up when you feel the pain caused by anything else in life and during contractions in childbirth women do the same thing. The human body’s instinctual response to pain is to tense the muscles. This is where Life and labor bump into one another.
Labor pains, no matter how intense, are not connected to illness, disease or injury. Labour pains are a naturally occurring part of birth and the pain can be very, very intense. So the question really is … ‘Is there anything ALL women can do during birth when/if they experience labor pains?’
There doesn’t seem to be from the above statement … ‘There’s no way to know what your birth will be like therefore there’s nothing you can do to prepare for it’. We’ve gone back into a circle. We’ve got to get out of the circle and get away from perceiving birth as suffering.
Can we move from suffering? Yes. You are so far ahead of others in searching for labor preparation exercises.
Childbirth pain is a reality
Pain can be real. Childbirth pain can be overwhelming. Without knowing how to cope, manage, and work with the pain during contractions, you are more likely to suffer or use epidurals, gas, or other birth pain relief. That makes common sense but there’s been NO cultural or societal set of birth and birth-coaching skills across the global.
In other words, there has been no relationship between giving birth and having a set of birth and birth-coaching skills. Sounds so simple but ask yourself whether you read or hear birth skills being mentioned? Are you learning any right now?
For most pregnant women ‘choice’ is the major focus as a way to give birthing women control over their birth. Being skilled is rarely mentioned and if birth skills are mentioned they are tied to either achieving a natural birth or painless labor. That would be great except the vast majority of pregnant women will have some form of medical care and experience pain with labor contractions.
Focusing birth skills on only trying to achieve these two goals instead of tying skills to EVERY TYPE and every experience of birth is so essential. Every birthing woman should become skilled and every partner, friend or relative should become a great birth-coach with effective skills.
Recapping WHY preparing for labor pain gives you an advantage
- There is no way to know how your birth will unfold … True
- Therefore there’s nothing you can do to prepare … Untrue
- There is no societal expectation that pregnant women prepare their pregnant bodies for labor pain… True
- There’s no societal expectation that expectant dad-to-be become a skilled birth-coach …True
- If birth skills are mentioned they are tied to ‘natural birth’ or painless labor rather than all births and managing labor pains … True
- The concept that all pregnant women should go through exercises for labor preparation doesn’t exist yet…True
- The concept that all dads-t0-be should become a skilled birth-coach doesn’t exist …True
- Too many unskilled birthing women get overwhelmed by the natural occurring pain of labor contractions …True
- Too many unskilled fathers feel useless and helpless during the birth …True
Unlike most other pregnant women or expectant fathers, you are seeking knowledge about how best to prepare for labor pains. A big pat on your back! And we’re here to tell you there’s a brilliant, home study skills-based online course with all the skills you need to both prepare your body for labor and skills to work with labor pains! Yippy!
We’ve got your back!
Preparing for labor pains seems peculiar
Take a deep breath for a moment. Let’s shake out the confusion which starts with a Truth married to an Untruth. There is no way to know what your birth will be like. That is true. That’s scary for all pregnant women even when coupled with excitement. When we are faced with the unknown surrounding this most important Life event we get nervous. That’s human nature.
Birth is BIG! Having a baby is exciting. The thought of giving birth can be very settling because we feel so unable to prepare for labor pains. We know we can’t practice beforehand. But somehow you have to trust the many thousands of Birthing Better families who developed and have used these skills for labor preparation.
We stopped feeling overwhelmed once we figured out we can prepare for the birth of our baby with very specific skills and we can use great birth and birth-coaching skills to cope and manage the natural occurring pain as labour unfolds.
The reality that there is a universal set of skills to prepare for birth as well as manage labor pains had to evolve and that’s what happened in the early 1970s. The work done in the early 1970s by hundreds of ordinary families over a 15 year period changed everything. These skills are now housed in a charitable Trust and known as Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation Online Course (previously known as The Pink Kit).
Like you, Birthing Better families were very serious about finding effective ways to deal with labor pains. Not every Birthing Better families wanted a natural birth and many were perfectly comfortable with using pain relief.
Birthing Better family understood that if they could do something to cope and manage intense labor contraction pains they would feel better and not be so scared. Birthing Better families also wanted to reduce and prevent things like long, tiring labors, delays in the 1st or 2nd stage, tearing of the vagina and how to feel more empowered when there were heaps of medical interventions including Caesarean delivery.
Pregnancy is the Time … Duh!
This is what Birthing Better families want to share with you. Learning to cope with birth pain cannot be done during birth. As expectant parents, you must prepare the pregnant body to become a birthing body first. This can be a fun and intimate process which helps bond your family together.
The time to learn your Birthing Better childbirth and birth coaching skills is during the pregnancy, not during the birth itself. Start as close to 24 weeks of pregnancy but if you’re 40 weeks now any birth skill is better than none.
As you prepare your pregnant body for labor pains with the specific skills in Birthing Better online birth courses you will also learn birth and birth-coaching skills.
When you’ve practiced these skills you’ll feel much more confident that together you can work to stay on top of the contractions which have to happen for your baby to be born. And if you’re having either an unplanned Caesarean or an elective c-section you can use your birth and birth-coaching skills while driving to hospital, while being prepped and during the surgical cesarean. Why not?
Always think about using skills to birth your baby. That’s the mental shift. Birth is unknown but birth unfolds. As birth is unfolding you are doing the activity of giving birth. Use effective skills to do the activity of birthing your baby. You will not suffer, you’ll be proud and empowered!
Birth will be something you ‘do’ together rather than something which just ‘happens’ to you. Childbirth pain is manageable once you have the right birth skills.
‘I found birth quite manageable. Sure it was painful but nothing I couldn’t handle with these skills
Rita R …
‘The pain was so intense and unmanageable at the time. I got through it using pain relief. When I had my next baby,The Pink Kit Package taught me how to relax and work with the pain … AND how to breathe better! Still can’t say I liked it. But I was sure proud of how I managed it. And the skills made my sister a wonderful birth coach’.
Jocellene M …
Clever you can now have the exact set of exercises for labor preparation and wonderful birth and birth coaching skills. By using birth skills, you will be surprised at how much more manageable the pain of childbirth will become. You can still hate every single second of birth pain but with skills you’ll stay in control and won’t suffer.
Then, when all is said and done, you can look back on your birth experience as a positive one, despite the pain or issues that might occur. Love birth or hate birth, with skills you will birth better in your baby’s birth journey.
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.
