We’re not going to tell you what to expect and no one can … and don’t believe anyone who tries to. Why? Because there is absolutely NO way that any woman knows what her birth will be like or what will happen. All the Birth Plans in the world cannot prepare you for the birth you actually have.
Is all lost? Of course not. We don’t know what will happen in 5 minutes from now! The Future is not knowable. We only live in the Present. And this is good news. Why is that? Because you can actually leayour rn how to prepare your pregnant body for the birth you’ll eventually have. And you can learn the birth and birth coaching skills to work through your birth experience as it unfolds. Does this make sense to you?
We’ll share with you some of the list in a moment but we want to explain a bit more when you’re dealing with that question about what to expect in labor. You might plan to birth at home yet find yourself in hospital. Did you expect that? Probably not. You might plan to have lots of medical care yet birth so easily that no one has time to do anything but catch your baby. Did you expect that? You might have a really quick labor and can barely catch your breath. Did you expect that? Probably not.
There is NO way to know what your birth will be like so it’s really hard to know what to expect. However, you definitely can learn skills to deal with the labor you’ll have. You should expect to have contractions! You should expect to have sensations as your baby opens your cervix. You should expect to have your baby open your vagina and come down, through and out your body. And you should expect to have any type of medical care that your birth providers think are necessary.
The bottom line is that you should expect to do the labor one way or another.
Now it’s time to tell you a bit about the Birthing Better skills that were created by mothers and fathers like just yourself who were asking for answer to the same question. Everyone wants to know what to expect in labor because it’s so unknown and every woman wants to feel she will stay in control and not loss it during labor.
Here is how we prepared for the unexpected. We developed these skills.
- The Hip Lift … create space for your baby inside your body
- Sacrum manoeuvre … create space, reduce chance of back labour, help a posterior baby turn and deal with any back labor that happens
- Pelvic Clock … soften inside your pelvis and help your cervix to open, reduce or prevent long 1st stage of labor.
- Sit Bone Spread … reduce or prevent long pushing stage of birth.
- Internal Work … you will naturally stretch in your vagina however, a delay in 2nd stage can also lead to interventions as well as cause damage to your body.
- More
Then we learned the birth and birth coaching skills so we could meet the unexpected with appropriate skills.
- Directed Breathing … yes, you’ll breathe all the time. Now you can learn the best breathing methods for you. Breathing skills that adapt and adjust and help you work through your baby’s birth well.
- Deep Touch Relaxation … it’s vitally important that you know exactly how-to relax during the birth whether you’re feeling pain, having medical interventions done to you or just feel anxious.
- Working Together … yes, there are exact skills to work together with your partner and how to use both verbal and non-verbal communication well throughout your baby’s birth and afterwards.
- Niggling Labors … one of those natural issues that can lead to more interventions.
- 5 Phases of contractions … at each phase you can use one or more of your skills and stay on top of and in control of each contraction no matter how painful!
- Progression of labor … learn to read every contraction so your labor contractions are effective. Feeling your labor progresses actually helps you cope better with contraction pain.
- More
Being prepared with good skills mean that when labor starts you’ll have the right skills to cope. When labor gets more intense you’ll have the skills to manage. When labor gets really intense you’ll have the skills to deal with and work through each contraction.
Your birth will unfold in the Present Tense and that is what you should expect in labor. As labor unfolds you’ll have the skills to meet the challenges that face you and that is what a skilled birthing mother and skilled birthing father/other expect to ‘do’.
We hope you’ll understand that you can’t even plan for the unexpected in labor. The best you can do is come to grips with the fact that if you’re pregnant you are going to give birth. Having skills give you the ability to birth your baby well. Join us today.