changing the mindset of birth

I remember one time, my brother was in college and he was telling his three sisters and mom about making a bed every morning. He is always trying to be his best and he talked about how good it was to start your day by making your bed because it is a simple task at the very beginning, setting you up for a successful day (you can watch an explanation here). My sisters, my mom and I did not agree. Can we just acknowledge how amazing it is to get into an unmade bed, the covers are all fluffed up just right, it's just better. But I think that my brother is right in the mindset thing. There is something to starting out your day doing something simple to accomplish, I exercise almost every morning and it definitely helps my day go much better.

When you think of giving birth, what do you feel? Take thirty seconds and really think about it. Do you think about the complications that can arise? Do you think about making decisions? Do you think about the doctor, nurses, doula, midwife, husband, etc. attending your birth? Are you scared of birth or are you ready to embrace it, whatever will come.

I feel like we talk a lot about switching our mindsets when it comes to exercise, work, school, sports, and marriage but no one talks about it with birth. In this study, a little more than 45% of women fear birth. Birth should feel empowering and we should be making decisions out of a place knowledge and intuition, not fear. If we live in fear then our decisions aren't our decisions anymore. Like when I went into labor, I made a lot of decisions based on that my baby needed to come because of his risk of infection within 24 hours because my water broke and labor stopped progressing. What I didn't know is, the risk of my baby getting an infection goes from .5% to 1% after 24 hours chance. Had I known that I probably would've gone home to rest and try to get labor (build up my oxytocin) to start and if it hadn't started by 36-40hours I would've come back and done Pitocin and an epidural.

tips for changing your mindset on birth

• research what you fear the most

• remembering that your doctor/midwife works for you

• make a birth plan or guide

• talk to mothers about their births-learn what went wrong for them and what they wish that they could change/loved

• remember that this is your first step into motherhood

• read this book to help prepare your mind for birth and beyond

Let me know if you have any other tips! I hope that this helps get you kickstarted on your journey of an empowering birth. YOU CAN DO IT!