Your Birthing Environment Should Be Private, Safe and Unobserved
When it comes to the labouring woman and what she needs in her birthing environment, there are three little words that pop up time and time again.
- Private
- Safe
- Unobserved
Why do we want mum to feel these things?
Well, when she does, all of the major birthing hormones will be produced at their maximum, optimal level.
Her uterine muscles will work in harmony and the flow of birth is likely to be steady and positive.
It’s all well and good to hear those words, but what do they mean and how can we make sure a woman in labour feels those things on a primal level.
Let’s break it down for you and give you my top 9 tips on how to achieve it.
Safe
- In order for mum to feel safe, she needs to have complete trust in every person present in the room. To achieve this, she will have tirelessly researched her birthing options, written down her birth preferences and made them known to those attending her birth.
She will feel secure in knowing that her wishes will be respected. - She will also have total confidence in her Birth Companion, often her partner but it could be a doula, sister or her mother. She must be sure that her Birth Companion will hold the birthing space for her. They will be responsible for things like managing noise and conversation levels, tending to music, keeping the room warm and cosy and lights dim.
- She will have a firm knowledge about her body both physically and hormonally during childbirth and know to her core that she is fully capable of birthing her baby powerfully and positively.
Private
- This can be as simple as closing the blinds or curtains and closing doors to the room mum is in. She needs to feel free to move, change positions, make noise and get nude if she wants to.
- Birth is not a spectator sport! If there is someone that hasn’t been invited or is not serving a purpose, mum needs to know that her Birth Companion will rectify the situation easily and calmly.
- Feeling private may mean making some informed choices about certain interventions to decline. Some women may find it hard to feel like they are on their own private birthing journey when they have a fetal heart rate monitor on or are hooked up to an IV. Making these choices would entail prior research and open communication with a supportive care provider.
Unobserved
- Mum could choose to decline any vaginal examinations.
Internal examination can feel very invasive and painful and serve no real purpose than to tell those present the exact dilation of mum’s cervix right at that present moment. - Mum needs to know that she is not on a schedule during labour.She is not expected to meet any deadlines or time frames and she knows that all her support team understands that too.
- Mum may like to remove or cover any clocks in the room.
They serve no purpose for her when she has gone within to her birthing body and could lead to disappointed if she feels she isn’t progressing quickly enough.
During our HypnoBirthing course, we explore each of these points more deeply and couples learn how these tips can be applied to labour at home, in the car and at hospital.
