Birth, with its blend of anticipation and unpredictability, is a journey filled with moments of joy, challenge, and profound connection. However, the way birth is often portrayed in movies and TV shows can sometimes create unrealistic expectations.
All tagged Childbirth Preparation
Birth, with its blend of anticipation and unpredictability, is a journey filled with moments of joy, challenge, and profound connection. However, the way birth is often portrayed in movies and TV shows can sometimes create unrealistic expectations.
(Please enjoy this guest blog post from our Community Partner, Christine Dixon, Osteopath extraordinaire!
See her bio below for more info on Christine and how to book treatments with her.)
Osteopathy in Calgary (and most of Canada) is by no means a household term. I want to give you an introduction to what osteo is and what to expect out of a visit with me (stay tuned for my next blog post where I’ll explain in more detail the changes that happen to your body during pregnancy and how osteopathic treatment can help your body adapt to these changes ❤️).
I can’t count the number of times I’ve worked with clients who have a clear vision for their birth that would 100% be better supported by birthing at home (and conversely, has a high chance of being derailed by birthing in hospital) and yet they’re dead set on birthing in hospital anyway.
We can influence birth, but we can’t control it
What I mean is that there’re a lot of decisions that you can make in advance of birth that statistically affect outcomes on a population level. For example:
Choosing a midwife increases the chance that you’ll feel positively about your birth experience
Choosing to birth at home decreases the likelihood of experiencing birth interventions
Choosing to have a doula present at your birth reduces the chance you’ll use pain medications
Choosing which hospital you birth at affects your chances of having a cesarean birth
But none of the above are guarantees. When it comes to YOUR birth, you’re a sample size of one and either a thing happens, or it doesn’t.
Have you ever thought about what qualities you want in your medical care providers? What makes a care provider/patient relationship work for you?
If not, and you’re currently pregnant, now’s the time to ask yourself the following questions. In my experience, answering yes to these questions increases the likelihood that you’ll get respectful, nurturing care whether you’re with a midwife, OB, or family doctor for your birth.
Welcome to Birth Geekery, the blog series designed to put interesting, fun, USEFUL, and usually nerdy resources at your disposal.
Each post features two to three resources that I either love and frequently share with our clients OR something I’ve come across recently that’s got my brain all 🤯.
Do you ever get tired of hearing about surrender? Yay, me too.
The reason birth workers go on about it so much though, is because surrender is often a necessary part of birth and parenting – sometimes it’s surrendering to the power of the surges running through your body, or surrendering to the need for unwished for medical interventions, or surrendering to the sleep deprivation and high needs of your newborn in the early weeks of postpartum.
Planning a home water birth? Here are 10+ practical tips to create a smooth home water birth experience:
Talk to your care provider about their experience and comfort with water birth
How often do they attend water births? How often do their clients who plan water birth actually have water births? When and why might they ask you to get out of the tub?
Welcome to Birth Geekery, the blog series designed to put interesting, fun, USEFUL, and occasionally nerdy resources at your disposal.
Each post features two to three resources that I love and frequently share with our clients so that you can check them out too!
Labourland is the place you go when you’re in labour (particularly unmedicated labour):
As oxytocin flows…
As contractions intensify…
As endorphins soften the world…
As focus and energy turn ever inward and down…
You enter into labourland.
A few months ago, I read the book Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What Is Right for You by Jerome Groopman, MD and Pamela Hartzband, MD. The book covers both internal and external factors that influence our medical decision making while also diving into some of the cognitive shortcuts humans use to make those decisions (SPOILER ALERT: while cognitive shortcuts often help us make quick decisions, they don’t always help us make good decisions).
If you spend any time at all in "natural" birthing communities someone will inevitably tell you that you can "trust birth".
Usually, what they're saying is that you can trust the process, the physiology of birth; you can trust that all of human evolution has brought us to a place where birth actually works quite well.
So you don't need to be afraid. You can just trust birth.
