Are you currently pregnant and planning for a positive birth? Maybe you are wondering what a positive birth actually means or is?
Here, Beth Kitt, Founder of The Bump to Baby Chapter to clue us in on what a positive birth is, and how you can lay the way to have a positive birthing experience.
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“Positive Birth” isn’t a thing in its own right necessarily. It’s not a type of birth or a way of birthing.
It’s a feeling. It’s a summary of how you felt during and after your birth. It doesn’t just include those on a midwife led unit, or those who have a birth that went exactly to the plan. It’s about having a birth that deviates from the norm and feeling ok with that because you are informed, have choice and techniques to keep you free from fear.
That right there is a positive birth.
Here I share three ways you can prepare for a positive birth experience.
Avoid negative birth stories and watching dramatized birth shows.
We have this culture where we want to dramatize birth. We want to make it entertaining with shows like One Born Every Minute and the films that use birth as a comedy sketch, with a woman screaming, breaking her partners hand, rushing to the hospital as soon as a woman’s waters break or lying on a bed, legs in stirrups with a Dr between your legs.
These images that are created in the media of what birth is like, are super entertaining to watch, but they let our pregnant women down massively. Whether we consciously acknowledge that this is happening or not, when we become pregnant and think about giving birth, the images that we have most seen in the media become our expectation of what birth is like. This instils fear. We think of the carnage and the mayhem that we see in the films. This can lead to unhelpful hormones being released in birth. The way birth is shown in the media is not what we would be striving for when preparing for birth.
Birth plans
I love a birth plan, but I prefer to call it a birth preference list. A birth ”plan” gives the idea that you can plan everything that happens in your birth and this is often not the case. Preferences mean that you have thought about all your options so you are going into labour knowing about what drugs you may like to use, what coping strategies you are planning and what options you would like to do in a caesarean birth. It can also be used to let for what you would like your midwife to encourage you to do, for example staying upright and more active or having dim lights and music playing. Sometimes contractions and feeling in the zone in labour can stop you from talking. Having a written-out birth preference list means that your midwife knows what you’d like without having to interrupt your focus.
Birth Prep is key
I would encourage all women to prepare for their birth. Specifically, to cover threeethings. The first one would be to know what’s going on. This will mean during labour and birth; less things will surprise you and so there will be less opportunity to feel fear from the unknown.
The second bit of prep would be to have some coping strategies prepared. Knowing how to cope with contractions and knowing how to feel calm and “in the zone” will increase feelings of calmness and focus. This can be anything from breathing techniques, visualisations, a TENS machine or an epidural.
Feeling calm and focussed helps with your oxytocin hormone which is necessary for birth. Oxytocin will also actually reduce the pain that you’re feeling through having a higher level of endorphins. Oxytocin is THE most important hormone for a positive birth. Lastly, having some general practical tips that may help birth go more smoothly. Even though it IS more about how you feel in the situation, rather than what happens, often women want to avoid intervention if possible. So, knowing tips and tricks that can reduce intervention may help your birth go more smoothly.
Research has shown that birth preparation can improve women’s experiences of their birth. Birth is unpredictable, but I think that stacking the odds in your favour to help your birth and your experience is a key and empowering thing to do.
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