So How Do You Prepare?

• Books- how many and which ones?
• Birth plans- a help or a hindrance?
• A living birth plan
• Protecting your minds
• Learning to listen to your instinctive voice
• Childbirth classes- which ones?
• Pain coping techniques that work

Birthing Instinctively

• Trust your body
• Forget learned patterned breathing
• Follow instinctive behavior
• Get good labor support
• Avoid induction or augmentation

"Women are tricked into believing that a managed, predictable labour is not only desirable, but safer for themselves and their babies.” “Have we placed our faith in medical men when we should have had more faith in ourselves and found female companionship for labour and birth?” –A. Robertson

Protecting Your Birth Space

• Preparing the space- what makes me feel safe?
• Addressing the fears ahead of time
• Environmental controls, privacy
• Reduction of people, things and procedures
• No negative languages, behaviors or people with anxiety
• Avoid conversation- keep a woman in laborland

Virtually all women have the potential to give birth easily and safely and no special knowledge or learning is required.” –A. Robertson

Doulas

“Part of the increase (in using doulas) stems from the fact that the consumer is taking back birth into their own hands and wants to be a part of the decision process. Also, it is a natural instinct to gather the right kind of support around you.”-Ridd-Young

Doulas- Why do I need one?

Who can be my doula?  Mothering the mother

Four women with a woman in birth: The Mother, the Maiden, the Crone and the Midwife

“<st1:PersonName w:st="on">Women</st1:PersonName>, often unaccompanied by knowledgeable support people, and made vulnerable  by their emotional and hormonal state are ripe for seductive messages conveyed by “experts? That labour pain has not benefit.”– A. Robertson

Doula Studies

Promises promises- what can she really do?

• 25% shorter labors
• 60% reduction in epidural requests
• 40% reduction in pitocin use
• 30% reduction in analgesic use
• 40% reduction in forceps use
• 50% reduction in cesarean births

“Your heart and hands are the most important. If someone’s not certified, they’re not necessarily less qualified.”-Guralnick

“Good doulas make fathers feel more involved and more useful at a stressful time.”-Guralnick  <o:p></o:p>

Dads- what help are they really?

Men have not experienced the innate birthing instincts since they don’t give birth- this may make them more uncomfortable with woman in labor.

What role do they feel comfortable with?

• The pitfalls of being a labor coach
• How do I help him to prepare?
• Find someone to help support him as well.

Doctors and midwives- are they really different?

Average doctor visit is 6 minutes- midwives on average are twice that.

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