Birthing in Your Brain
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The Strength Within.
Rethinking your perspective on pain in Childbirth
How do I handle labor pain?
Will I be able to endure a natural childbirth?
How do I avoid an epidural when childbirth is so painful?
How will my partner support me best with the birth choices I make in labor?
How do I manage my labor pain?
In my childbirth education classes pain is a major topic. We talk about it openly because childbirth is seldom without pain. We can’t avoid pain in general, it is part of our human experience, so how can we best manage it?
First and foremost, it starts with our perspective about pain.
Do you see pain as something to avoid at all cost?
Do you run to the medicine cabinet at the first sign of a headache?
OR
Do you see pain as a normal function and part of the human experience?
Do you see pain as a warning system telling your body to pay attention & listen to its needs?
Do you have healthy ways to manage pain in your life?
Life is full of pain; from skinned knees, paper cuts, bumps on the head, to illnesses, sick, and broken hearts. Emotional pain is usually the hardest. Pain is part of life and we will experience it our entire lives. It is a fact of living. So, establishing healthy ways to handle pain is crucial in living a healthy life.
For the laboring woman, regardless if you birth in a hospital, in your home or a birth-center, regardless if your birth is natural, medicated, or surgical, regardless if you desire a VBAC, HBAC, have hired a doula and have taken childbirth classes; you will need healthy ways to manage your labor.
No matter how you wish to labor, my hope is that it will be a day that is empowering, awesome and one of the highlights of your life. Childbirth should NOT be suffering, for suffering is a product of the mind. It does not occur in any other place in your body but the mind. And it arrises when we do not have healthy ways to deal with pain. We turn our pain into suffering. Labor should NOT be suffering.
So I encourage you to begin to think positively about pain! The better we learn how to manage pain in our lives, the better our lives will be.
Especailly for labor pain. As a doula I encourage the woman I work with to think and say to themselves:
With each contraction I am getting stronger.
Labor is the POWER of my body & my I am POWERFUL.
The stronger the contraction the more strength I feel.
These sensations mean my body is working perfectly.
Your MIND is so POWERFUL!
Whatever you tell yourself WILL be your EXPERIENCE.
Make sure that your mind is safe to birth in!
