How to Prepare for Childbirth

Introduction to How to Prepare for Childbirth

If you are getting ready to have a baby, you might be asking yourself, “What is the best way to prepare for childbirth?” In this blog, we’ll review some of the emotional, physical, and mental strategies we’ve found often work for people. How to prepare for childbirth is a personal question, so although we’re giving some recommendations and tips here, we highly encourage you to think about yourself as an individual and decide what will work best for you. Spend some time relaxing, in a quiet atmosphere, and imagine the day: what will you need? What do you like? What is supportive to you? What motivates you? Then work backward from there to figure out how to prepare for childbirth. Below you’ll find a big reservoir of ideas to choose from, and you can select the ones that you think are going to serve you the most on your big day. 

How to Prepare for Childbirth: The Physical 

Childbirth is, essentially, a physical event. You are going to help your baby move through your pelvis and out into the world. That takes stamina, determination, and a certain level of physicality! Babies are active participants in the birth process, meaning they move and twist in order to be born, but a lot of work is done on the part of the birthing person. For this reason, one of the main pieces of advice we give to our clients in our practice is to prepare for childbirth by being active and using your body. We recommend at least 20-30 minutes of cardio movement 2-3 times a week throughout your pregnancy. This can include yoga and pelvic stretches or traditional cardio. This helps to prepare for childbirth by strengthening your muscles and getting your heart accustomed to hard work. It also stretches the pelvic bowl, as well as other parts of the body, and helps move everything into alignment. We evolved moving throughout the day- our hunter-gatherer ancestors were walking, stretching, climbing, squatting, etc. all day long, and our bodies and particularly our pelvises are still happiest when we do that. Find a time each day that you can move- it can just be a brisk walk from the office during lunch time, or before you head to work. The movement does not have to be all at once- maybe you have a few small children at home and you can’t get 20-30 minutes at a stretch, but you can get it in bits and pieces throughout the day. Keep a tally of the movement you’re doing, and try to make it a game. Find the ways to move your body and you will notice when you are laboring! 

Movement in pregnancy also helps with a lot of other factors. Movement can help to ward off some of the complications of pregnancy, including pregnancy-induced hypertension (high blood pressure in pregnancy) and gestational diabetes. These complications can result in early inductions of labor, so another way you help yourself prepare for childbirth through movement is by setting yourself up to be as healthy as you can be so that you have the opportunity to go into labor naturally. Labors that begin on their own are often less challenging to deal with from the point of view of the mom, so it’s something worth considering when you don’t quite feel like going out for a walk after a long day of work. 

How to Prepare for Childbirth: The Emotional 

Childbirth is an event that requires a lot of us emotionally. It’s a really big day or days, full of strong emotions. You might feel scared, excited, nervous, in love… and lots of other things! Sometimes, our emotions can help us along our path when we are having a baby, and other times our emotions can get in our way. Spend some time sitting with yourself prenatally, practicing mindfulness. What do you notice comes up for you when you think about having your baby? What parts are you excited about? What parts are you nervous about? What questions do you still have? How can you create an environment that is supportive to all the different feelings you might have? What will you need to give birth to your baby? These questions might feel hard to answer, but really sit with those feelings. Notice what comes up for you. There’s no rush, and there’s no wrong answer. Only you can know what you really need to prepare for childbirth, and that’s why it’s up to you to listen to yourself. You’ve totally got this, but part of giving birth is preparing ahead of time for the challenge and how to equip yourself to meet the challenge. 

How to Prepare for Childbirth: The Mental 

When you’re talking about how to prepare for childbirth, you’ve also got to think about the mental. Most people know that there will be a moment during childbirth where they might think, “I don’t want to do this!” This is where the mental component comes in. You want to allow those feelings to be there (“this is hard, I feel scared”) and also have the mental practice to tell yourself, “Yes, this is hard, but I can do hard things.” It’s a lot like running a marathon- of course, there will be moments you want to stop moving your legs, but if you’re determined, you won’t do that. 

In mental preparation, there’s also the work of getting ready to surrender. You might have the perfect birth plan, the perfect labor set up, everything ready to go, and then things change drastically. Birth is unpredictable, just like life, so sometimes things don’t go the way we imagine. How can you build flexibility into your mental space? How can you prepare to surrender to the process and not be outcome-oriented? If you think you need the perfect, quiet, peaceful waterbirth to feel like a success, how else might you think of it? Our job as midwives is to help set our clients up for success, and sometimes that’s getting ready for waterbirth. Other times preparing for childbirth is preparing for whatever comes their way. We never know exactly what will happen for this woman, and this baby, on this day. 

How to Prepare for Childbirth with Hearth and Home Midwifery

First off, set up a consultation with us! No matter how pregnant you are (even if you are in your third trimester), it’s never too late to start planning for the birth you want. As midwives, we are passionate about helping people have birth choices, so we want to hear from you if you want our help. Once we’re working together, we’ll walk you through step-by-step everything you need to know to get ready to have your baby in our care. We have a complete, comprehensive prenatal program that allows people to feel ready when the day comes. It’s relationship-based care, so as we offer advice, counsel, and nurturance to our clients, they use their own volition and autonomy to make decisions that are best for them in service to their own labor. We can’t wait to hear from you and start working together!