13 Best Tips to Have a Natural Birth

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13 Best Tips to Have a Natural Birth

Are you having a baby?

Congratulations, you are going to be a parent! Whether this is your first or second child it can be scary and exciting all at the same time. How can you alleviate the pain naturally during labor and delivery? How soon should you start preparing for a natural birth? These are all questions that might be on your mind. How you go about preparing for a natural birth will vary depending on your personal comfort level with the idea of having a natural, drug-free childbirth, how far away you are from your due date, and what type of medical care you are planning to receive during your pregnancy.

What is natural birth?

First, let’s address what an natural birth is. An “natural” birth is an unmedicated, vaginal child birth in which the mother does not experience any pain relief or control from drugs during labor and delivery. This may sound scary, but there are many benefits to going through this type of childbirth without medical intervention:

Because of these amazing benefits, more mothers are choosing to have unmedicated births all over the world! You can give your baby the best start to life by having a natural birth!

Natural childbirth is about mothers taking control over their own bodies and doing what they feel is best for themselves and their babies, rather than being passive and accepting whatever the doctor says. I had both of my kids unmedicated and naturally with midwives. I even opted for a water birth when I had my daughter – which I highly recommend. It was a magical experience. Both kids were overdue (son – 5 days, daughter – 8 days) and both were over 8 pounds at birth. I was in labor for 23 hours with my son and about 5 hours with my daughter. My midwives made sure everyone was safe and healthy to wait it out, so that’s what we did. I trusted my body to do what it was meant to do and I am so thankful that I did.

Why do labor interventions happen during a natural birth?

Some doctors oppose natural childbirth because it might result in a female experiencing “pain” or worse yet, the rare but dreaded “emergency situation”. The medical establishment also relies on its pain-killers & medications for other routine procedures to maintain the profession’s power and invincibility. Many doctors are trained in the tradition of interventive birth. They are taught that when labor is not moving along quickly enough, to use whatever means necessary—pitocin, epidural, cesarean—to get the baby out ASAP. The mantra for many obstetricians is “once a cesarean always a cesarean”, so they have a vested interest in creating more cesarean births. A US study showed that women who received an epidural during their first birth were roughly four times as likely to have a cesarean for their second birth.

Yes, “pain is a powerful incentive for change”, but medicalized birth causes so many more problems than it solves! Obstetricians need an excuse to maintain dominance over other specialists that could offer better healthcare alternatives. To stay relevant, they need to promote fear about giving birth naturally/too quickly by scaring people with stories of horror from the past where patients died during labor as a selling point for their expensive medical practices.

Dr. Josephine Cochrane, founder of the first birth center in the United States, believed that “birth is a natural event and should not be interfered with too much.” She also believed that women who had been taught about their birth options will make decisions based on facts, not fear. The method of delivery was a woman’s choice unless her health or baby’s health necessitated intervention. Natural births result in less maternal injury and shorter recovery times for both mothers and babies. Fewer cuts mean less chance of infection, more oxytocin means faster healing post-delivery as well as better bonding between mother and child during the intensive care process as opposed to being doped up due to painkillers from an invasive caesarean.

13 Best tips to prepare for a natural birth

Let’s go through the best tips to have a natural birth by preparing your body and mind for the experience of your dreams. I’ll also include some helpful products.

Tip 1: Educate Yourself

There are a few ways to prepare for a natural birth. The best way to prepare for a natural childbirth is to educate yourself on what to expect during labor, delivery, recovery time and postpartum life. Preparing for the unknown in this way can help reduce any stress you may be feeling or allow you to pass any anxiety onto your partner. It can also can make the experience easier and less scary when it comes time to give birth.

Learn as much as you can by taking a childbirth class or reading books on what labor and delivery are all about. Learning when contractions happen and what they feel like is one of the most vital parts. This can be very useful when it comes to having a natural birth with no unnecessary interventions that could harm your baby or yourself.

Recommendation: Take a Bradley Method class or check out MamaNatural.com. Laying the groundwork for what to expect can make the experience much easier since you will know what’s going on and there won’t be any surprises as things progress.

Tip 2: Create a Natural Birth Plan

Now, you may be wondering how to create a “natural birth” plan. How do you know what positions you should use, and what positions will help your baby move down the canal? How will you encourage your body to open up so that the delivery can go as naturally as possible?

You’ll want to learn about all of these things before you go into labor, and ideally before you even know the sex of your baby.

As a result, you’ll want to learn everything about how your body will respond during labor, and what kind of positions your doctor or midwife will want to use to make a safe delivery for you and your little one. You can read books about childbirth, take childbirth classes, and watch videos.

Recommendation: Check out this Visual Birth Plan that you can edit to suit your needs.

Tip 3: Find a Support Person

Finding a support person you can count on is key to preparing for a natural birth, because you are going to need someone to coach you through labor. How can they help you prepare for a natural birth?

• Your support person should be able to listen and provide emotional support
• They should also be able to help you find the energy when it’s running low, by coaching you through contractions or distracting you.
• If possible, they should also be willing to coach you through the entire labor, which can mean they’re providing words of encouragement, massaging you, or making sure you’re doing everything you can to prepare for a natural birth.

Having someone who’s willing to assist you through the entire process be beneficial because they will tell you what to do and that will make labor seem easier. How is it that something as simple as giving you directions can help you with your natural birth? How is it that your partner can help you more than just by being there, holding your hand and telling you that you’re doing great? The reason is that when you’re in labor and the pain gets intense, your brain becomes more primitive: it starts acting out of pure instinct. How is this important? Well, it’s because at that point your brain will start releasing endorphins to help you fight the pain.

Recommendation: Hiring a doula (a professional labor coach) is also a great idea, because she will be there to help you through the entire process.

Tip 4: Stay active in a prenatal exercise routine

One of the best ways to prepare for a natural birth is to stay active in a prenatal exercise routine. How you will use your body during labor is very different from the way you’ll use it when you’re not pregnant, so if you want to have a smooth and easy labor, your best bet is to maintain your physical fitness throughout your pregnancy.

This is very important, just like how it’s important to keep your body fit for pregnancy . During labor, you’ll want to be strong enough to handle the pain and deliver your baby without drugs.

Yoga is an excellent way to prepare for delivery because it has many benefits. It can help you keep your focus on breathing, can potentially make your uterus stronger, and will generally bring some peace of mind before you give birth. Plus the movements are gentle enough that they won’t hurt you or cause contractions

Yoga is a great way to get in touch with how your body works. During yoga sessions one learns very consciously about controlling their breathing, focusing their attention, following instructions given by the instructor- all of which are important parts of giving birth.

What’s more, staying active throughout pregnancy will reduce your risk for gestational diabetes, a blood sugar disorder that can cause a difficult labor.

Recommendations: opt for pregnancy yoga, prenatal Pilates or anything else where you’ll move around but be in a comfortable position.

Tip 5: Visit a Prenatal Chiropractor regularly

There’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the phrase “prenatal chiropractic care”, and you’re probably wondering, how does this type of alternative medicine work?

Well, prenatal chiropractic care is essentially a therapy meant to help you better prepare for the process of giving birth by relieving pain and eliminating or reducing the need for epidural during labor. How does it do this? By helping your body make room for the baby as well as realign your pelvis so that it’s capable of opening up more readily during labor. This means you’ll be able to go through labor without needing any pain relief medications.

Now, finding a prenatal chiropractor can be pretty tricky. There are A LOT of them out there who claim to be the best in their field, but not all of them are qualified to help you achieve a natural birth. How can you find someone who is qualified? Do your research and look for one that has been certified by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA).

Recommendations: schedule an appointment with a prenatal chiropractor 3-4 months before your due date.

Tip 6: Eat Dates

Eating dates is another way to prepare for a natural birth. How can someone as simple as a date turn out to be beneficial for your childbirth experience? How is it that something so sweet and tasty could influence the way your body prepares for labor?

The reason dates are great is because they have an oxytocin-like effect on the body, which results in easier and shorter labor.

Recommendation: eat three dates a day, starting two weeks before your due date.

Tip 7: Drink red raspberry leaf tea

Red raspberry leaf tea can help you prepare for a natural birth.

Why? It’s because raspberry leaf tea tones muscles and builds up the uterine walls. It contains two constituents that your body will respond to: fragrine and glycine. Glycine causes your muscles to relax, while fragrine causes the uterine walls to stretch and expand as needed (since it can trigger contractions). So if you drink it throughout your pregnancy, your uterus will be able to handle contractions effectively, which means you’ll go through labor faster (thus reducing the length of time you’ll be in pain).

Recommendation: drink one to two cups of red raspberry leaf tea starting a month before your due date.

Tip 8: Stay hydrated

Staying hydrated during pregnancy and labor is important because it will help your body to flush out toxins and maintain the correct balance of blood in your system.

On top of that, when you’re dehydrated during labor, you may not dilate as quickly or be able to push as effectively (both of which can prolong labor).

Recommendations: drink at least three liters of water every day, and keep drinking water throughout your entire labor process, especially in early labor when you’ll be thirsty more often.

Tip 9: Don’t stress

Stressing out is one of the major reasons your labor could stall, and that is the last thing you want to happen if your goal is a natural birth. When you’re stressed, your body produces cortisol and adrenaline, which sometimes causes contractions to slow down or even stop. Many women find that practicing some kind of relaxation technique during their pregnancy helps them to remain calm, even in the presence of contractions. What does this have to do with natural childbirth? Simply put: learning how to manage stress will help you manage pain. So make sure you practice relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation in the weeks leading up to labor. You’ll also want to limit stress by not over-scheduling yourself with social engagements during the last trimester of pregnancy.

Recommendations: spend early labor at home and find a position during your contractions that feels best to you.

Tip 10: Use aromatherapy

How can you use aromatherapy to help prepare for a natural birth?

Well, let’s think about how your body reacts during labor. How is it that you are able to let go of the pain and deliver your baby? One of the reasons is that your brain responds to an assortment of natural chemical signals in the environment, and when it’s exposed to these signals, it releases hormones that will help you reduce or eliminate the pain.

This is one of the reasons why your sense of smell is heightened when you’re in labor: your brain looks for signals that will help you prepare for labor. How can essential oils help you? Well, they work in the same way: they provide your brain with a signal that it will use to prepare you for labor.

Recommendations: ask your partner or midwife to rub a few drops of essential oils on you, or diffuse and inhale them to prepare for a natural birth. A suggested essential oil to use is lavender, which can help you relax and relieve anxiety.

Tip 11: Use massage oil

Now, I know that having your partner give you a massage seems like a luxurious treat you can give yourself. How could this possibly help you prepare for giving birth?

Well, it turns out that a massage can relax your muscles and release tension. And when you’re relaxed, your body will be able to open up more easily so the baby can come out. And it’s also known that when you’re in pain, having a massage can reduce cortisol levels and therefore diminish some of the pain you may be feeling.

Recommendations: ask your partner to give you a prenatal massage during your early labor, or even throughout the whole process. You’ll be less likely to need pain relief during delivery if you receive a massage regularly in early labor.

Tip 12: Recite birth affirmations

Many women find that when they recite certain affirmations during labor, their pain is lessened and the experience is much easier. You can make your own affirmations or borrow some from people who’ve had successful natural births.

Birth affirmations can remind you that your body and baby know how to work together. When you say things like “my body was designed for giving birth” or “my muscles know what to do,” they help reinforce this message in your mind, which will allow your muscles to relax and start working.

Recommendations: find a list of positive birth affirmations and memorize a few to say when you feel nervous or anxious.

Tip 13: Practice Kegel’s

Your uterus and pelvic muscles are going to be the biggest tools you have during labor. Preparing for a natural birth is as simple as exercising those muscles before your due date. How can Kegels help you give birth naturally?

Kegel exercises strengthen the pubococcygeus (PC) muscle, which is what allows your vagina to hold your baby in during labor. Preparing for a natural birth by doing Kegel exercises will also help you have an easier postpartum period. How is that possible?

You see, when your body goes through the process of giving birth, it starts developing a “mommy makeover”. That means you’re going to be going through a lot of changes in a very short period of time. Preparing for a natural birth will make the whole process easier and less painful.

Recommendation: every day, do three sets of 25 Kegel exercises per set.

Conclusion of the best tips to have a natural birth

Most people think childbirth is something that just happens without any preparation, but the truth is that there are so many things you can do to make your experience as perfect as possible. I hope these tips help you along your journey through pregnancy and your birth.

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