You are about to find out how amazing you truely are. (Preparing for Birth)

Member Name: maria14

Product:	Preparing for Birth
Date:	06/02/09 (385 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The most wonderful thing you will ever do.

Disadvantages: Why does it have to hurt so much?

I am conscious as I write this that most people reading it, will have already given birth. For most of us, giving birth is THE most amazing thing we have ever done - amazing both in a bad and also a fantastically good way. That's why we go on about it all the time, and love to read of other people's experiences.

For the few who are reading it before giving birth - I think it can be summarised in the following way. The enormity of child birth only hits you when you are right in the middle of it. But by then, you won't have time to think about it. You've just got to get on with it! And the majority of the well meaning advice you received before hand is likely to be forgotten.

But there are a few things you can do, and are perhaps useful to know. Here are a few of top tips based on my own experience.

1. The most important thing (in my view) is to get your birth partner geared up to be your support and your advocate during labour. Whether it be husband, partner, friend or mum, you will need someone there to be thinking and speaking on your behalf.

There is a lot that goes on during labour and you will be very busy. What sort of pain relief do you want? Is the gas and air working? Do you need to shift position? For me, during my first labour, I got upset that they kept asking if students could give me internal examinations. It was my husband who spoke up and told them 'no more.'

Preparing the birth plan with your birth partner will really help them get tuned into the issues and what you want. They will then be better prepared to help you and speak up, should you need it.

You probably won't stick to your birth plan. But at least having discussed it beforehand, ensures you are on the same wavelengh if and when there is a change of plan and decisions have to be made.

Things get pretty busy in hospital - but you deserve professionals best treatment and attention and to be treated with respect. Sometimes this can be overlooked. Its then that your birth partner needs to speak up on your behalf.

2. Re the pain.

Childbirth is one of the few times in our lives when pain is a good thing.
The muscles involved in childbirth are huge and immensely powerful. When they kick into action, its gonna hurt.

There are three sets of muscles, vertical ones, horizontal ones and diagonal ones. They'll work in turn, firstly dilating you and then pushing the baby forward and out of your body. This is amazing stuff. Your body is stronger than you could ever imagine. But it is going to hurt. Probably an awful lot.

So - whilst the intensity of the pain of contractions may surprise you, remember they are necessary and taking you forward to the birth of your baby.

During my first labour, I was completely panicked about how much it hurt and tried to beat the contractions. I remember having this bizarre mental image of being in the TV Gladiators show and battling up the travellator, during each contraction. I was pretty fit then, and I do think I managed to prolong labour, by working against my own body. It was only when they gave me some pethidine, that I suddenly relaxed, and then things seemed to happen much quicker.

Secondly, don't panic. If you can't cope with the pain, there will always be another form of pain relief. Pethidine did it for me, even during my home birth (third pregnancy). Some manage with just with gas and air. My sister fell in love with the doctor who administered her epidural.

Finally, whilst a caesarean is a major operation, which needs to taken very seriously, they are also a very safe way of delivering your baby.

So you are going to get through this. One way or another, your baby will be delivered.

3. The bit where you going bonkers.

Just before you commence the second stage and get ready to push, your body is flooded with a special hormone that kick starts the diagonal muscles in your abdomen. These are the real bad boys - so strong they are going to push that little human being out of your body.

It is nature's cruel trick that the effect of these hormones can also be send you temporarily bananas. During my last pregnancy, I took off all my clothes and had the overwhelming sensation of having turned into a cow.

During a previous pregnancy, I grabbed hold of my husbands collar and tie in a grip I had learnt from ju jitsui classes many years previous. No amount of persuasion would make me let go, though the midwife managed to loosen my grip sufficiently to allow him to breathe.

However, on each occasion I rolled over onto my left side, without knowing why. I have since read that this is a very good position in which to give birth. So maybe I wasn't completely mad after all.

Giving birth - no matter how you do it - will test you to your limits, but you will be up to it, with the assistance of those around you. You and your body are amazing and you are about to find this out.

And nothing beats the wonderful feelings of exhaustion, happiness, peace and hope as you hold your baby for the first time.

Jolly good luck.

Summary: Hard work, very painful, but so worth it.