How to Give Birth With Confidence

Want to be confidence as you approach your baby's birth? Follow these steps, they'll be sure to help.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Decide what is important to you in your pregnancy and birth. This may take some time, researching and learning what evidence says is healthiest practice.
2. Find a care provider who shares your beliefs.
3. Attend an early pregnancy class.
4. Line up the proper support for labor, birth and postpartum. This will include hiring a doula, choosing your birth site (discuss this with your care provider), deciding who will be present for the birth (family, friends), and setting up adequate postpartum support, negotiating help with household chores, baby and sibling care so that you may take care of yourself.
5. Attend a childbirth class. This is an absolutely VITAL step in preparation for childbirth, and its very important you choose your class wisely. Many classes will focus only on the what's and how's of childbirth, lending very little importance to confidence building and emotional preparation. Your emotional preparedness for birth is in so many ways just as important as your physical preparedness for birth. It allows you to make the healthiest choices for you and baby, and it decreases the incidence of postpartum depression dramatically.
6. RELAX!!!! Your final days before becoming a mom are special and signify the beginnings of a rite of passage. That may be stressful for some people, so its important that you take time to relax your mind, body and spirit.
7. Get as much exercise as your care provider recommends, and eat eat eat! Enjoy every bite of food you get, being sure to vary your foods greatly and focus on maintaining a healthy diet. There are always conflicting reports as to what is best to consume at any time in your life, but most nutritionists agree that regardless of what current research says to limit or indulge on, moderation is key. So go ahead and enjoy all those wonderful flavors mother nature gives us!
8. When you are actually in labor, rally all of the emotional support you have around you, and don't be shy. If you have a concern or need, vocalize it. This is YOUR day and it is important that you feel comfortable asserting yourself.
9. Take control of your environment when you are in labor. Before your big day, tour the place you will labor if you are not giving birth at home. Find ways that you can customize your environment to fit your tastes and wants. Make it your space, because the more comfortable you are, the better you will feel about your experience.
10. And most importantly, know that you are beautiful and you are performing the most empowering act that we as women are capable of. You will be telling this story for the rest of your life, and with all my heart I hope that you tell it with tears of joy and a heart full of compassion for that beautiful baby and those that surrounded you during his or her birth.

Tips & Warnings

• Relax and remember you are beautiful!
• It is always important that you discuss your progress and choices with your care provider.