From the wonderful women at Independent Childbirth comes the following quote:
“Women gain the best birth knowledge from other women who have chosen natural childbirth with supportive birth care. Women are intuitive and need not accept the negative images of labor that the media portrays.”
A definition I like is one from midwife and author, Penfield Chester:
“The holistic model holds that birth is a normal, woman-centered process in which mind and body are one and that, in the vast majority of cases, nature is sufficient to create a healthy pregnancy and birth.”
My certifying organization, ALACE, uses the word holistic to mean a childbirth educator who incorporates psychological aspects and mind-body integration into their classes.
A concept I find useful to share in birth classes is that of Rhythm, Relaxation, and Ritual–the Three R’s of Childbirth. This is a concept developed by Penny Simkin and is illustrated in her labor support video by the same name. Ritual refers to a repetitive coping mechanism that spontaneously arises during labor–it usually is rhythmic and may be something like humming, singing, repeating a favorite phrase, tapping, vocalizing, rocking, swaying. You can think about and plan for possible labor rituals in advance, but the ritual that is most useful to you is often one that just arises on its own during your own individual labor and birth.
These are three R’s that enhance a woman’s experience of birth and help her cope with her sensations. When thinking about them today, I also came up with three R’s that detract from a woman’s birth experience: Routine, Restriction, and Risk (perception of).
I also considered other supporting R’s: Rest, Relationships, Rapport, and Respect.
One tool I like to offer during birth classes is the use of birthing affirmations. I have a list of favorites that I hand out and I also encourage couples to create their own affirmations that hold personal meaning for them. An affirmation is a positive phrase that you repeat to yourself. Some women like to cut these phrases out and post them around the house to read during pregnancy (such as on the mirror in the bathroom or on the wall in the bedroom). The affirmations can then “sink in” and when labor comes, they are part of your mental vocabulary of birth. Also, some women in labor find the use of rhythm to be a useful tool (humming, singing, swaying, rocking, etc.) and repeating a soothing phrase can be part of this rhythm.
Another use of affirmation is to have your labor support partner read your favorites aloud to you as you labor.
Some favorites from my list are:
The corresponding affirmations for a partner to use:
A question was posed on another list recently: “what about the idea that women shouldn’t ‘prepare’ for but rather just experience birth?”
My response to this question is hard to articulate, but basically I would say that you can *experience* rather than *prepare* for birth if you are birthing on completely your own terms. If you are in a setting involving other people (doctors, nurses, etc.), your birth experience will be impacted by THEIR birth “preparation” and you will likely need your own preparation in order to have your OWN experience rather than an experience modified by another person’s fears or opinions about birth and how birth should be.
Maybe I’ll gather my thoughts more clearly later and will add more… 🙂
Welcome to Talk Birth–childbirth education, resources, and information for women in the Rolla, Missouri area. I am pleased to serve the Rolla community with independent childbirth education classes!
Talk Birth 