Top 10 ways to enjoy a more positive birth experience

Anthonissa Moger - 6 Jan 17

Are you expecting a baby?

Do you want to enjoy a calm and positive birth experience?

How many of my top tips are you doing already?

1. Start immersing yourself in positive birth vibes throughout all areas your life, from the moment you pee on that stick. This means cutting out the negatives and focusing on the positives. No more ‘One Born Every Minute’ and no more listening to strangers on the bus telling you their horror stories. Instead actively engage with the good stuff, starting with a powerfully positive book like Suzy Ashworth’s ‘The Calm Birth School’ and some amazingly beautiful births on Youtube. This is my absolute favourite, as this birthing Mama is calm, strong and even having a good time!
2. Your birth partner, whoever they may be (sister, mum, friend, husband, wife) can be your biggest champion and greatest support on the day. They can literally pull you through the toughest moments. But in order to be confident, they may need a little training themselves! Get them involved at every step, give them some books to read and write a plan together of what they will do for you at each and every stage of labour on the day!
3. Getting your body strong for birth is just as important as getting your mind strong. Giving birth is a big job and takes physical strength and energy. Exercising regularly will give you the power to labour AND push your baby out. Some of the best ways are yoga, pilates and swimming. If you have little ones already or have a busy work schedule, this can be pretty challenging, and it might look more like doing a DVD at home or walking for forty minutes, a few times a week. That’s still great!!
4. Start focusing on getting excited to meet your gorgeous little one! You can do this in lots of ways like talking, playing music and singing to your baby, after all they can hear from 23 weeks old! Visualisation is a powerful tool used in sports science which helps athletes achieve their goals, and you can apply this to your birth. Here is one of my short videos explaining how visualisation works and how to do it to support a calmer birth experience. I have designed some FREE pregnancy colouring in, to give you an opportunity to relax and engage with your baby.
5. Think long and hard about where you plan to birth. This can have a big impact on the birth itself. There is good research that shows that planning a homebirth with a first baby, significantly reduces the rate of medical intervention like the use of epidural, forceps or caesarean birth, even if you transfer into hospital before or during labour! Planning to birth at home or in a midwifery led unit sends a strong message to your psyche, that you can do it!
6. The way your baby is lying inside your pelvis can have a big impact on your birth too. Seeing a good osteopath before 34 weeks of pregnancy, can make the difference between having a straight forward birth and needing assistance with forceps or even caesarean. A skilled osteopath can work wonders to align your ligaments, muscles, pelvis AND baby! My favourite osteo in London is the wonderful Rebecca Davies but you can book an appointment for only £20 at the London School of Osteopathy, if you’re happy to be treated by a supervised student. This is such a good investment.
7. Perineal massage!! There is much debate raging in the birth world, as to whether it works or not. In my opinion getting familiar with your vagina and perineum can certainly do no harm, and may reduce the chance of tearing. Start your perineal massage three times a week for ten minutes from thirty four weeks of pregnancy. And don’t forget to do the sides and clitoral area too, here’s a great vid from the lovely Sophie, showing us how.
8. Start thinking about the way your baby is lying of you inside from thirty four weeks of pregnancy. Ideally we want to encourage baby to be in a head down position, with its lovely little back sticking out at the front of your bump away from your back. Ask your midwife to tell you how your baby is lying as it can be hard to tell yourself. Good things to encourage baby into this position are sitting upright and forward as opposed to slouching back on the sofa. Big gym balls are brilliant for this or you can sit back to front on a kitchen chair. If your baby is back to back or breech take a look on this fantastic website, and they will show you how you can gently move your baby into an easier birth position.
9. Think about and plan for the ambiance in your birth room. The environment that you birth in, can have a mega impact on the hormones which control the birth process. So you want to make this a ‘home from home’ vibe, which will make you feel as relaxed and comfortable as you possibly can. Things to consider are smells, sounds/ music, lights, laughter, mobile phones and communication. Basically your birth partner is going to be the ambiance king, DJ and entertainer! But you need to talk about this before the big day, so they don’t get it totally wrong!
10. As a working midwife, I see the difference that hypnobirthing makes to a birth experiences. AND ITS MEGA!!! Hypnobirthing is a complete birth preparation, no matter how you want to birth, be it in a meadow, at home, on a doctor led unit or even by planned caesarean! The best way to engage with hypnobirthing is to do an in person course with a teacher you like and get on well with, but if you can’t afford that, an online course or just a book and set of MP3s are still worth their weight in gold!!

What else did you do to prepare for a calm and positive birth experience? I’d love to hear!

Anthonissa Moger

Hello! I am the Founder of The Hypnobirthing Midwife teaching private and group hypnobirthing classes and also work as a midwife on the labour ward and birth centre at St Thomas' Hospital in Central London. Somewhere in between, I am Mum to my girl Jazz.

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