What are your fears about labor and birth.
Birth is still surrounded by mystery, and it is easy to fear what you do not understand. Abnormal fear is the enemy of a productive labor. What are your fears about labor and birth. What are you doing/what did you do to come to terms with your fears about labor and birth.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rachael Fichtner on
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I studied HypnoBabies and it had a fear-release session. I think the biggest part is to acknowledge what you fear. Is it something you can educate yourself about to reassure? Or is it just something (for me, tearing which I did and didn't even feel - ha! all that nervousness for nothing) that you just have to let go and let flow. Keeping yourself and your view of birth positive will help you in ways you cannot even imagine. Keep yourself away from negitive stories or stuff like TV dramas. I do highly suggest hypnobabies by the way. It has a great "re-programing" tape that helps re-shape your subcouncious views about birth; i.e. making them positive.
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Permalink Reply by Kathryn Blitz on -
It makes me so sad that it is the norm in our society for women to be fearful of the best part of being a woman. Giving birth to a baby in all of its glory is the best thing most of us will ever do. It is truly amazing and lifechanging.
Check out this website for info on overcoming the fear. http://www.theholisticparent.org/Fears_of_Giving_Birth.html
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Permalink Reply by Rachel on -
I've talked about this quite a bit on a blog you can find at
http://www.crazibeautiful.com/Index.aspx?category=GirlfriendToGirlf...
I would love to hear others responses to this also...basically my philosophy boils down to this...focus on love, gain knowledge, and be pro-active in your birth.
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Permalink Reply by Maureen Stevens on -
Lack of education about the process of labor and birth and the medicalization of birth set you up to distrust your body and fear birth. You need to change your perception of the pain involved in labor and birth by knowing what to expect and how to approach and deal with it. Learn to trust your body.
•Identify your fears and what you fear most about labor and birth. List what you are afraid of and what you can do about it, and you will find there are many things you can do.
•Work on healing your past. Take a psychological inventory of past problems that may hinder your ability to trust yourself and those around you. See a therapist if necessary.
•Fear is contagious. Surround yourself with people who have a positive image of birth.
•Balance your fears with the belief in your power to manage them. This will help you to develop the flexibility to adjust to circumstances beyond your control.
•Don’t listen to sensationalized birth stories.
•Learn about all the interventions available and their purpose and disadvantages, so that even if things do not go as anticipated, you will feel positive about your educated participation in the decision-making.
•Select the birth “style” that suits you and your particular situation.
•Rehearse for labor and birth. This serves as a cognitive rehearsal and ensures that the knowledge and the skills will be there for you when you need them.
•During your last trimester, find your own way of moving and devise your individual approaches to manage the pain of labor.
•Remember, the pain of birth is a valuable tool—a signal to relax or make a change in position to adjust your body to ease the pain. And remember that pain releases the necessary hormones to facilitate an easier labor and birth.
Educate yourself for labor and birth. The more informed you are the less fear you will have.
Rachel Leavitt said:I've talked about this quite a bit on a blog you can find at
http://www.crazibeautiful.com/Index.aspx?category=GirlfriendToGirlf...
I would love to hear others responses to this also...basically my philosophy boils down to this...focus on love, gain knowledge, and be pro-active in your birth.
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Permalink Reply by Maureen Stevens on
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Yes, it is so sad. But it is real. There is an inherent cultural fear of birth (because no one sees a real, honest go with your body non-interventional birth anymore; all that is seen is what is portrayed in movies, on TV and what is heard from horrid birth stories about how they were saved from some “emergency” or “complication”. So because of fear women go to the hospital for an abstract sense of safety.
Also advice from many healthcare providers is filled with so many don’ts. Where are all the do’s? Who has the control? Women are told by their healthcare providers “Come in, we will do this,” and many just do it, no or few questions asked. So because of fear women go along with what they are told.
If women want less intervention at the hospital, everything they want (or do not want), if not on the ‘schedule’, is fought for and not often won.
So many women believe that they can not have the birth they deserve. If women are not asking for something different or even asking questions about their care, why should healthcare providers change? When women became educated, and speak up for themselves and their babies; then we will see a change and all women will embrace birth .
Kathryn Blitz said:It makes me so sad that it is the norm in our society for women to be fearful of the best part of being a woman. Giving birth to a baby in all of its glory is the best thing most of us will ever do. It is truly amazing and lifechanging.
Check out this website for info on overcoming the fear. http://www.theholisticparent.org/Fears_of_Giving_Birth.html
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Permalink Reply by Maureen Stevens on
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Cesarean section (c-section) is the most commonly performed surgery in the United States. The frequency of surgical birth has increased from 4% in 1965 to about 33% today, despite World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations that a 5% to 10% rate is optimal and that a rate greater than 15% does more harm than good.
Medscape: Could fear be the reason for women agreeing to surgical birth? Are women enduring pain differently than in previous decades? Is the surgical scenario easier to contemplate than the unknowns of a natural labor and delivery?
Dr. Spry: Exactly. I think all of that has to do with the fact that our culture actually breeds fear around childbirth. We've got TV shows, popular culture, and horror stories from friends and families; women are taught to expect a negative experience and incredible pain. ... the unknown parts, such as labor, its duration, birth, and even the unknown of when labor will start, makes it more appealing for some women to schedule a cesarean.
From Medscape Ob/Gyn & Women's Health
07/22/2009
The Real Risks for Cesareans
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Permalink Reply by Mandy Hand on -
That is a good point but let's not forget that even in 1965 natural birth wasn't the norm - it was the era of "twilight birth". So while c-sections per se were at 4% the vaginal option was far from natural. In order to return to our "roots" so to speak we need to go all the way back to pre-1900.
So we do have a long way to go as far as education and fear eradication but each and every woman who seeks and gains true CHOICE in childbirth is one more step in the right direction.
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