A facebook friend wrote me about yesterday's blog post: "Hello, I personally am glad you wrote that blog. I am so scared and the more I think about it the scarier it becomes. When I read what you wrote it helped me relax a little bit and think maybe I can do this. Your little girl is so precious!! I am excited for the next step in this wonderful journey and yet I am still scared a little bit when it comes to being able to feed him naturally. So if you have any more helpful tips or tricks sharing them helped me I could only imagine how someone else feels. Thank you! and Congrats to you and Colin on Margo."
I thought my response could be helpful to more people as well :)
Wow, I'm so glad you found this helpful. I too was terrified of labor and delivery for a really long time. I read a book called "Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Natural Childbirth" and it changed EVERYTHING. I honestly didn't know if I wanted to do things naturally at that point, but wanted to know about all the comfort methods and have as much prep as possible. The best part of that book is the first third. It is FILLED with positive birthing stories. Some of them are pretty insane. Like, I've heard of at LEAST 3 people birthing breech babies on their own at home naturally and with little pain... in fact, one of those stories was from a close friend that lives in Germany and even had her cord come out first. The baby (Amara) is perfectly healthy. Our bodies are crazy amazing. It's just a perspective shift from the American medical system.
In the traditional American hospital, Epidurals and Pitocin are almost always used. They do this to make labor as fast and painless as possible. Honestly, if all goes as expected, I would imagine it to be a pretty sweet gig in the moment. The problems come after. Because you can't feel how to push, it usually takes a lot longer and tearing, episiotomy, or forceps/vaccum are used frequently. This makes recovery longer for you.
Here are some suggestions on how to make things easier (feel free to ignore any and everything lol).
Have a birth plan and keep it simple. Think about it as a thesis. Ours was "We would like as natural and peaceful birth as possible, but are open to suggestions. If natural comfort measures are not sufficient, we would like the freedom to request speedy medical intervention."
Think of contractions on levels of intensity, not pain. They are like waves that you are surfing. The intensity will crest and then you can rest.
I made notecards with positive affirmations on them to remind me of all the things that I knew to be true but might not remember if concentrating on other things. They are pretty hippie, but seriously so helpful. My favorite was "my labor cannot be stronger than me, because it is my body doing it." You can find some great ones here and here:
http://desertbirthandwellness.com/pregnancy-and-birth-affirmations/
http://www.positivebirthstories.com/affirmations/
For the labor Coach: bring a book, get sleep, count her through contractions so that she can focus on breathing, repeat positive affirmations (you're getting there, you're doing great, you're so beautiful, you'll meet her soon, you're progressing), when she is about to push: remind her that she is almost done and her body will feel better when she pushes. Contractions slow down and pushing feels good.
Breastfeeding: I've been so lucky to have a really easy time with it. When your milk comes in, it's pretty uncomfortable. Keep nursing through it, and believe it or not, cold cabbage on the breast helps a TON. I have has zero nipple pain, which I feel like a lot of people talk about. Margo must just have a wicked solid latch. If your hospital has a lactation consultant, get them there as close to delivery as possible to start off on the right foot. I personally love the "football" hold. They can tell you about it. It makes it super easy to control both your baby's head and your breast at the same time. You WILL need both hands at the beginning, so don't expect to be able to have a hand free. We watched a DVD called "Simply Breastfeeding" that was super informative if not all that exciting.
Feel free to ask me any questions if you have them. Everything is still really fresh in my mind.
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