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Your pregnancy and your birth matters to you big time! There are so many ‘special circumstances’ and health issues that you might bring into pregnancy and your birth. Sometimes these cannot be avoided and may become part of your pregnancy and birth experience. Think about it. How many positive, straight forward Birth Stories you’ve heard? Most Birth Stories contain ‘special circumstances’. A baby might remain breech. A woman might develop toxemia. Pregnancy and childbirth are never completely predictable. Everything that can happen in birth is “normal” and “natural” even if it is not desired. All health issues are normal and natural and some may have no impact while others might.
Your special circumstances or health issues are what makes you unique as well as other factors in your life. What we want to do is introduce you to our commonality that embraces every special circumstance or health issue.
Three types of birth
One hundred percent of pregnant women will give birth in one of three ways no matter their individual special circumstances or health issues. In other words, pregnancy and giving birth are part of our commonality.
- You will have labor contractions and have a vaginal birth whether a hospital birth, homebirth, being attended by an obstetrician or midwife and whether your birth is a natural birth or a medical birth.
- You will have labor contractions and then end up with an emergency Cesarean.
- You will have a non-laboring Cesarean.
If you are attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) you will still have one of the above births.
Your choices
Since the 1980s pregnant women have been encouraged to look at their unique circumstances and make a Birth Plan so that your obstetrician or midwife knows what you want and don’t want. The quirk of birth is ‘there’s no way to know what your birth will be like’. And there’s no way to know beforehand whether or how your special circumstances or health issues may impact your Birth Plan. But if there’s no way to know what your birth will be like then you can feel hopeless and useless. We want to invite you to consider the role that birth and birth-coaching skills can make positively regardless of your special circumstances and health issues.
Regardless of the special circumstances around your pregnancy and birth using your birth skills will improve your birth experience because you’ll remain in control. Being in control in your birth is what you wish to achieve with your Birth Plan. But in the circular reality, you can’t plan the birth you’ll have. Taking control via ‘choices’ is just too unreliable. However, birth and birth-coaching skills can become the foundation for staying in control.
Your skills
You can always use your skills to direct relaxation inside your body, and you can always work closely with your birth coach. Together, as expectant parents, you can always work with your baby’s efforts to be born.
- Pregnant with twins, triplets or more?
- Have you had an IVF insemination and now you’re wondering how to get the most natural (even if medical experience) to your pregnancy and birth experience?
- Is your baby breech and you wonder how that will play out in the birth?
- Is your baby posterior and you what to know what to do?
You have two choices. You can feel passive to whatever happens to you, or you can understand that your pregnancy is all about your relationship to your baby or babies no matter what. Couple that thought with the reality that every type of birth is an activity that only the pregnant woman is going to do even when having a non-laboring Caesarean.
In reality, there is absolutely no difference between any birthing woman. Each birthing woman is required by Nature to birth her baby at the end of pregnancy. The bottom line is simple … You are pregnant and you will give birth. This means we really want you to choose to prepare your pregnant body to become a birthing body no matter what type of birth delivery you’ll have.
Knowing that you will give birth one day means you can learn birth and coaching skills so that together as a family you can work through your baby’s process to be born. This is exciting. Birth skills work with every type of special circumstances and health issues.
The who you are is important
- Are you a pregnant Christian woman, pregnant Jewish woman, pregnant Muslim woman, pregnant Hindu woman, pregnant Buddhist woman or a pregnant woman of another Faith?
- Are you a pregnant woman-of-color or from one of many cultures?
- Are you a pregnant athletic woman?
- Are you a lesbian pregnant couple?
You are a unique pregnant mom-to-be for sure. Because you are unique in your special childbirth and pregnancy circumstances you can now gather information and make choices around your unique Life.
However, you don’t ever want to forget that we are all one Humanity. This means that all pregnant mothers-to-be will give birth.
Childbirth and pregnancy … so full of special circumstances
Please expect the unexpected in your pregnancy and birth … just one of the special circumstances associated with this life-transforming Time.
Please make TWO Birth Plans … a conventional Birth Plan that tells your obstetrician or midwife what you want or doesn’t want. Also, make a Skills-based Birth Plan that tells your obstetrician or midwife what skills you will use.
Please understand that pregnancy and giving birth can be natural even when there are childbirth assessments, monitoring and procedures (now all lumped into the one word ‘intervention’) particularly when you have the skills to work with your baby’s efforts to be born. Giving birth is natural in all its variations and that includes having a planned, elective or emergency or unplanned Caesarean.
Childbirth skills are the foundation for dealing with all the pregnancy and birth special circumstances because skills work in all births when you use them.
Good births don’t just happen. If you want a good birth even if there are special circumstances connected to your pregnancy and your baby’s birth then you need the right skills.
Level the playing field
- During pregnancy, you and your birthing partner can enjoy preparing your pregnant body to become the birthing body it needs to be.
- During pregnancy, both of you can learn and practice birth skills and birth coaching skills so that together you can work with your baby’s efforts to be born
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.
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