3 Mindset Tools I Used to Prepare for My First Birth
Birth has been on my mind because, well, number two is right around the corner, I have tons of friends that are pregnant or who have just had babies, January tends to be a month of planning and manifesting and my birth is one of the greatest manifestations I’ve created to date. I want to preface that I am not a doctor, nor do I feel like the way that I approached my birth is the “right” way. What’s most important in the process is that you tap into your intuition and do what feels right for you. My goal in sharing is simply to give you some options, if they resonate with you, and what I realized after my birth is that the tools I used to prepare for my birth are the same tools I use to create anything I want in my life. Whether you are a birthing person or simply looking for some practical ways to achieve what you want this year, there is something for you here.
In tandem with the following mindset tools, I made sure I had a birth team whose beliefs were in alignment with mine. I also was very tapped into my body and listened to what my body needed – food, exercise, etc. Birth is a whole mind, body, spirit experience so I made sure I was looking at the full picture, but here is what I did to keep my mind right:
Create a Vision: One of the first things I did was create an ideal scene of how I wanted to experience my pregnancy and birth. The fun thing about creating a vision is it only needs to be 50% believable, so allow yourself to dream big. Once I created my vision, I shared it with my birth team, my partner and a few close and trusted friends that could all hold the vision for me and with me. I put my vision up in a place where I could reference and connect with it often.
Application for the non-birthing person: You can use this tool for any aspect of your life you’re wanting to create. I did it for birth, but you can do it for a relationship, a career, money. Make it unique for what you want.
Stay Connected to Possibility: When I was preparing for my birth, I only read one book Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent. It is a compilation of birth stories and really opened my eyes to what was possible for me during birth. Staying connected to possibility also meant protecting myself from the stories I listened to. I didn’t watch or listen to any stories about birth trauma or the sensationalized depiction of birth where women are screaming down the hospital walls. I didn’t ask my friends about their birth stories and I had a few very uncomfortable moments where I had to firmly tell my friends to stop telling me stories that I felt took me out of my connection to what was possible for me.
Application for the non-birthing person: Read stories and surround yourself with people and experiences that keep you connected to what’s possible for you. Find people in the world who champion for you, support your vision and have perhaps already done what you want to do. Find people in loving relationships that you want to emulate, or that are creating abundance in their career while spending time to be with themselves or their family. Make yourself available to possibility in your life, stay connected to it and protect it at all costs!
Watch Your Language: With the help of the Hypnobabies class I took, I shifted my language. As it related to my birth, I completely removed the word pain from my vocabulary and replaced it with pressure. This had a huge impact when I went into active labor because I experienced all the sensations in my body as pressure which allowed my body to be more relaxed. I also upgraded the word contraction to pressure wave. When you say the word contraction, your body literally tightens which is in complete contrast to what you want your body to do during birth. By using the phrase pressure wave, I actually experienced sensations in my body as waves with a slow build, a peak and a release. Again, this was pivotal in supporting my body to relax and breathe.
Application for the non-birthing person: Clean up your language. Go on a word fast – remove words or phrases like: should, can’t, that’s not possible, I can’t afford that and use language that supports you in actualizing your vision.
Sending light ahead to all your birthing and manifesting journeys this year!
Big love,
Karlie