Best Way to Physically and Mentally Prepare for Birth

Your attitude about labor and delivery is very important. Think of yourself as an athlete getting ready for a race or contest. You want to condition your body and your mind for this event.

Childbirth Preparation Classes

A childbirth preparation class will provide you and your partner tools and information to help you manage childbirth. Taking these classes is a good investment of your time and money. These classes will:

•  Prepare you for labor and childbirth. Most classes include a tour’: of the hospital or birthing center, and many show a film of the birth of a baby.

•  Reduce your fear of the unknown. If you know what to expect, much of your nervousness will dissipate.
•  Teach you relaxation techniques that will help preserve your vital energy and strength, and help decrease the discomfort of contractions.
•  Teach you breathing exercises to ensure that you and your baby have adequate oxygen during the strenuous work of labor. These exercises will also help you relax.
•  Most classes provide training in visualization or imaging.

You may already know you’ll be having your baby by cesarean delivery. Because you will still have to go through some parts of labor, childbirth preparation classes are still valuable. You’ll learn what will happen leading up to and through your cesarean. These classes will answer your questions about a hospital delivery, how to relax during labor and during the surgery, and about pain management and recov­ery time after a cesarean. You may want to inquire about childbirth preparation classes specific to having a cesarean.

Visualization or Imaging

An important tool used in labor and delivery is “imaging,” or visuali­zation. This is a technique used to help focus your attention toward comfort measures and away from the pain, discomfort, and over­whelming feeling of a loss of control brought on by the contracting uterus during labor.

Visualization was first used inFranceduring World War II, when laboring mothers had to deliver without pain medication because there was a shortage. It has been found to be effective during labor and is also used as a behavior modification technique in the treat­ment of other medical conditions. It takes concentration and prac­tice to perfect, but many women are surprised at how beneficial it can be during labor.

Many athletes spend a good part of their training time working with visualization, imagining themselves going through an upcoming event. A star basketball player might be told to close his eyes, lie down, and concentrate on visualizing himself in the most important game in his life. He’s told to recognize the “fear of failure” that most of us have when we know how important our success is at a particu­lar time.

In the player’s case, he may fear he’s not performing as well as he can, that he’ll miss the game-winning shot or foul out. He’s told to see himself shaking off that fear, getting back into the game, mak­ing the key shot, and playing the best game of his career. He is told to recognize how he feels and to see himself as being successful, smil­ing, hearing everyone congratulating him, and even how the trophy feels in his hands.

The player is told to practice this visualization often, so that when he hears the music start just before the game or hears the basketball hit the floor, he immediately goes into a winning mode.