Top Tips for Pregnancy and Birth

See the Telegraph Birth Guide for lots of info about Planning your Birth

Read the latest newspaper articles on Home Birth:

Telegraph: 'I couldn't have done it without her help' - the Benefits of an Independent Midwife

Independant: 'Huge rise in number of home births'

Sunday telegraph: 'More mothers going for home births'

Here are my top tips for pregnancy and birth:

Pregnancy and Birth Preparation

1. Nutrition

Eat plenty of healthy food; a strong healthy baby will be able to cope with the demands of labour easier than a baby who's been poorly nourished. In addition, good nutrition can reduce your risk of developing pre-eclampsia and toxicaemia. See www.blueribbonbaby.com  for a special pregnancy nutrition diet by USA Obstetrician Dr Tom Brewer.

2. Relaxation

Do some relaxation or have a nap every day during your pregnancy. Many mums continue with their busy pre-pregnancy schedule but if you can find even 5 minutes a day to put your feet up and relax (watching TV doesn’t count!), you, and baby, will benefit from the release of endorphins. Along with being calmer and more rested, research now shows that maternal stress affects baby’s development – so take time out to pamper yourself. Just find a quiet place, close your eyes, focus on your breathing and let yourself drift off - or use a HypnoBirthing birth relaxation CD.

3. Protect your ‘birth space’.

Avoid birth ‘horror stories’ and TV dramas depicting birth pain and complications – they will just increase the fear and expectation of pain or problems which can then become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy'. If someone starts to tell you their birth horror story stop them and ask them to tell you just the good bits. For the same reason, avoid information sources that tell you ‘what to expect’ and about ‘coping’ with the 'awful pain' of childbirth.

Build a  positive expectation of birth by focusing on what you want - not on what you don't! Make up your own affirmations or search the web for positive birth video clips, birth stories and positive birth affirmations. A good, realistic but  positive book about pregnancy and birth is ‘The Birth Book’ by William & Martha  Sears (available on Amazon). Find an ante-natal class which is positive about birth, teaches you the effect of fear on birth, AND teaches you practical coping strategies.

4. Deal with your fears.

Fear increases pain and derails the birth process. Many of the birth ‘horror stories’ can be traced back to the effects of fear and stress hormones on a labouring woman’s body. Talk through your fears with your partner or midwife – BEFORE birth. Better still, do a HypnBirthing course and eradicate your fears with HypnoBirthing's special ‘fear release’ techniques.  

5. Choose your birth place wisely

Choose to birth somewhere where you'll feel safe and secure. Feeling unsafe, scared or vulnerable causes the body's instinctive 'fight and fight'  response to kick in - which slows or even stops labour completely. Research  shows home-birthing women are generally more comfortable and need less pain relief than hospital births - as most women feel safer and more relaxed in familiar surroundings. If you choose to birth in hospital, labour at home for as long as possible. 

6. Don’t fall prey to ‘White Coat Syndrome’

Remember it's your birth, your body and your baby; you have a choice about what is done to you and your baby. What is a routine event for maternity staff is a unique event you'll never forget - even if you'd like to!  Remember knowledge is power; read, or get your partner to read, up on the benefits - and risks - of common birth interventions, and ask questions about your care - so that you can make informed choices about your labour and avoid YOUR birth being yet another 'horror' story.

7. Positioning

Baby's positioning can be crucial to an easier, more comfortable labour and birth. To get baby into the optimum birth position, avoid reclining on the sofa from 32 weeks - instead, sit with your belly forward on a straight-backed chair, on a birth ball and spend some time on hands and knees or swimming (front crawl is best).

8. Fitness

A fit and healthy body can cope more easily with the efforts of labour and build up the strength and stamina needed. Build cardio-vascular fitness with regular walking or swimming and do aqua-natal, ante-natal yoga, or HypnoBirthing birth preparation exercises such as squatting, pelvic floor exercises and Perineal massage to help to avoid tearing.

9. Rehearse your birth

Spend time every day day-dreaming or imagining your 'perfect' birth - in great detail.

10. Don't 'sweat ' your due date

Most women go at least a few days past their 'due date' - instead of stressing out, relax and trust your body will start labour when it's ready. Consider natural induction techniques to encourage labour.

Labour and Birth 

1. Relax

Deep relaxation promotes calm, eliminates fear and allows your body to do what it needs to do to birth your baby. In addition, according to midwives relaxation can ease the pain of your contractions. Renowned obstetrician Dr Grantly Dick-Read found that the vast majority of labour pain is due to fear - which causes the birthing muscles to tense leading to pain. Learn Deep Relaxation or Self-Hypnosis and fear release techniques to use during labour to help you stay relaxed, fearless and enable you to decrease, or even eliminate, childbirth pain!

2.Breathe

Practise deep breathing techniques during your pregnancy to use during your labour. Most women hold their breath during contractions which increases tension and pain. Deep breathing gives you the oxygen your body, and your baby, needs to labour - relaxes muscles, and can ease pain as well as helping you cope with contractions. Practise long, slow, even breaths, breathing into your abdomen.better still, learn HypnoBirthing special breathing techniques to ease each stage of labour.

4. Trust - and let go

Trust your body and allow yourself to let go. Don't fight your body, or your contractions, or try to control what is happening. Recognise your body knows what to do to birth your baby - just as it knows how to inflate your lungs, pump your heart and grow your baby. Concentrate instead on relaxing and letting it happen.

3. Move

Staying mobile during labour eases discomfort and aids baby's descent. Avoid lying on your back for long periods - instead, standing and leaning, on all fours position, sitting on a birth ball and toilet sitting are excellent and can ease discomfort. Swaying your hips also helps baby's alignment.  

4. Eat

Your body needs energy to labour; many midwives are now encouraging mums to eat a meal in early labour  and then to snack as needed to avoid exhaustion. Listen to your body's needs as to what, when and how much to eat.

5. Use your mind and imagination

Using a counting and breathing technique, imagining a particular image or favourite memory can all help you cope better with contractions. 

5. Comfort measures

Many women want to avoid labour drugs and interventions but without practical alternatives end up falling prey to the normal options. If this is not want you want, you need to put together a  'toolkit' of alternative techniques. Self-Hypnosis/Deep Relaxation has been proven to decrease pain and complications during labour - and can be used whatever path your birth takes, and in combination with other options . Birthing pools, Massage, Acupuncture, Acupressure, Homeopathy and Essential Oils can also be used to ease discomfort and distress.

6. Empower yourself

Get your birth companion to ask questions about your medical care - ask for information; risks, benefits alternatives, rather than just go down the accepted route of interventions. Avoid being rushed into labour or birthing 'on the clock', if possible - trust your body will take the time it needs. Request time to listen to your intuition or use your HypnoBirthing birth advocacy techniques.

7. Listen to your natural birthing instincts

Your body will tell you intuitively which positions to use to ease your labour and birth, what to eat, 'where you are' in your labour and what to do - if you listen to it. Often these messages are drowned out during a more 'managed' labour. Ease your birth and support yourself by choosing the type of birth environment that we - like all other mammals - need;- a safe, quiet, private, 'nest' with low lighting to allow your innate birth instincts to take over. 

8. Control your mind - not your body

Recognise it's your body that births - not your mind. The mind cannot control birth, but it can get in the way by creating fear and tension. Using deep relaxation or self-hypnosis enables you to release negative thoughts and helps you get your mind in a positive space - which supports birth, rather than sabotaging it.

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Denise Marleyn DHP(NC) MRNHP HBCE   Tel: 01525 850334   E-mail: contact@myhypnobirthing.co.uk

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