Think about the last movie you saw that featured someone giving birth. I’m guessing there was a woman screaming, a man freaking out, and a doctor yelling “Push, push push!”
Now tell me how many of your friends are terrified by the thought of giving birth? Maybe you’re included in that group!
Popular culture does a really good job propagating the culture of fear around birth.
And that translates into our everyday lives.
You hear negativity about birth all the time. Even friends who haven’t had kids say things like “oh, you’ll be screaming for the meds” or “are you ready for your body to be destroyed”. Seriously, Sarah heard both of those things while she was pregnant.
I remember in my first maternal and newborn care class, so many of my friends whispered to each other during lecture about how scared they were.
I was scared too - how could I block out all that negativity?
But those lectures taught us about physiology. About how pregnancy is not a medical condition, it’s normal.
This drove me to look further, to learn more.
So, I dove head first into the birth world. Reading books, articles, watching videos. This lead me to a doula training. Everything confirmed what I learned in those first lectures.
Birth doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t even have to be painful!
My education and understanding of physiology took away my fear.
It also got me incredibly excited! I NEEDED to learn how to help parents achieve empowering birth experiences.
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This lead me to HypnoBirthing. This training taught me techniques that help parents remain calm and relaxed. Techniques that work WITH our physiology, to facilitate empowering birth regardless of circumstances.
How we view things matters.
So, that crazy pop culture birth scenario doesn’t have to be my experience. It doesn’t have to be anyone’s experience.
The more I go to births, the more I see how beautiful these moments could be. Labour can be a sacred space. Parents can connect with each other and welcome their babies into warm, nurturing environments.
All of these experiences have completely change my outlook about birth. Now, I look forward to becoming a mother and naturally birthing my baby. There is no more fear.