Embrace your birthing power!

by Esther Jones

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Changing our mindset around labour changes the sensations of labour. Learn why embracing and trusting your body’s power is one of the best ways you can prepare for labour.

Esther Jones is a Hypnobirthing practitioner who has been working with couples since 2007.

She believes we don’t often think about childbirth in terms of how powerful we are. Instead, labour is seen almost as something that happens to us. We‘re at its mercy, helpless, out of control.

But that’s actually a really unhelpful and misleading perspective and one that encourages us to feel fearful and anxious. And that’s a vicious circle.

So, let’s talk with Esther about your birthing power.

Muscles of the uterus

The strongest muscles in the human body

The muscles of the uterus are incredibly powerful.

They’re the strongest muscles in the human body, and when they exert their full strength, their power is equivalent to a weight of 40 kilos pressing down.

So, logically the sensations of labour are strong. And the feeling of not being able to control those sensations can be scary.

But, if we can shift our way of thinking, we can really change how these sensations feel.

So, instead of feeling like these enormous sensations are happening to us, and they are beyond our control, we can own them, and we can embrace the power we’re feeling as our own power.

And it’s true, we can’t control labour with the conscious mind, but our bodies are very much in control.

Mindset

A really important shift

Accepting this awesome power as your own and trusting your body is a huge part of eliminating fear and allowing labour to flow without resistance.

If, when you feel the surges in your body, you welcome that power and trust your body, you’re much more likely to be in awe at your own strength rather than scared of it.

If, on the other hand, you feel those surges as something happening to you, something that you can’t control, and that you don’t trust, then that fear will cause you to resist them and to tense into them.

And when we’re scared and tense, the muscles of the uterus tense up and become resistant.

We release adrenaline instead of oxytocin, and things just don’t flow as they should.

Messages

Confidence and trust in our bodies

Unfortunately, many of us have learned not to be confident in our bodies, and to not to trust them. We’ve also learned not to trust childbirth. So, the idea of surrendering to our body’s deep birthing knowledge, and letting go of trying to control anything with the mind. Well, this can feel like a huge leap of faith.

This is something we really need to work on before the birth, so that when we’re in labour, we’re absolutely able to trust our body and embrace its power.

The first thing you can do is to tune into the kind of messages you tell yourself about labour and about your body. Do they give you confidence or leave you feeling disempowered?

Work out what’s going on in your mind. This is so important. Because whatever is in your mind, your body will respond to it.

A great way to do this is to just take a half hour to write down everything on your mind. Be as unfiltered as possible.

Trust

Your body knows exactly what it needs to do

Then think about how your body is working for you.

Whatever point you’re at in labour, your body is doing everything it can to nurture your baby and to keep them safe.

Your conscious mind has little to do with this. Sure, you see your doctor or midwife, you try to eat well, stay healthy.

But, here in your conscious mind, you have no idea of all the millions of little things that are happening in your body every day.

Your body knows all of this and it knows exactly what to do.

And, you trust it. If you can trust your body to create and nourish your baby, you can also certainly trust it to birth your baby.

Positive thoughts

Feeling strong and capable

Spend some time really working with these positive thoughts, appreciating how well your body is working, and learning to really trust it.

Really work at feeling strong and capable.

So, as you do this, week by week, you’re learning to recognise the disempowering thoughts when they come into your mind, and to replace them with these confident, empowered thoughts. That your body is powerful and wise. And that you can relax into that power and wisdom.