Giving Birth

Like I said, I am so looking forward to labor and birth. I am doing it natural. Not torture-chamber natural (like Anne), but, as I believe, God-intended natural. I have put so much time and effort into preparing.

I've been practicing meditation for about a year. It has been a wonderful adventure of learning how to be in tune with my body and mind (and spirit). Basically, meditation is learning how to calm, slow or stop the mind from running on auto all the time, in order to relax completely. You know, when you can't get to sleep because you've got so much on your mind? Or when you feel uptight during the day and you can't seem to unwind? That is one benefit of learning and using meditation on a regular basis. From our mind comes the stress that effects the rest of the body, whether physically, mentally and sometimes spiritually.  Meditation gives us the break be in tune with ourselves on a level of unwinding that a movie or music or food, a phone call from a family or friend, cannot quite reach. I highly recommend it...

Anyway, from this, called by different names (conscious meditation, guided meditation, guided hypnosis, hypnotically guided mediation), I heard of a way to give birth where the body is aided by relaxation as opposed to apprehension, dread and fear of the birth. The whole premise of Dr. Grantly Dick-Reads studies and practice as an OB/GYN, found that when women have negativity or fear (in our minds), it creates tension in the body (on sympathetic and autonomic levels) and where there is created tension, muscles (the uterus) which would work well under efficient stress-free function, are worked against, and when you work against a muscle it creates pain. He calls it the "fear-tension-pain syndrome." (Think of when you really have to go to the bathroom, and you are far away from one and you have to hold it in.) His book is called Childbirth Without Fear, first published in 1944. I enjoyed reading his book, even more than a previous book on the same subject by a different author because of the depth of his knowledge, explanation, with no pretenses or cloudy promises.

I've found a wonderful midwife who is familiar with this method of giving birth (sometimes called hypnobirthing), and since she will be in there during my active labor (unlike all previous births with Dr's) I am confident that the 3 of us (Joe educated, trained and included), will work together great. All I can say is I am soooo looking forward to using my practice of relaxation to my benefit! And going through all the phases of labor more educated, more excited and more aware of the miracle of the birth of this little girl or boy!