Congratulations on being pregnant! Having a natural labor is what your body is MADE to do! With these tips, you can prepare for a natural birth will little pain and have the natural, beautiful birth you want!
Wanting to have a natural birth can be really scary. So many women don’t go down the natural route (which is totally fine!), but it can make you feel alone. I know I felt this way, and I share a lot about it in my natural birth story here. Not to fear. I am in your corner as your virtual friend! I will share all of my resources and tips for how to prepare for a natural birth and have the labor and delivery you want! Be sure to check out the free downloads and other posts linked!
5 Tips to prepare for a natural birth
| Education |
I like to emphasize that women’s bodies were made to give birth. Lots of women didn’t even have the option to have an epidural, which is proof that it can be done! BUT this is a huge downfall to a lot of women.
So many women go into labor without doing any studying, relying on their bodies knowing what to do. Your body will know what to do, but it will be more mentally and physically exhausting if you don’t educate yourself a little. You won’t know what stage of labor you are in. Your contractions will be so much harder because you will fight them instead of relaxing and letting them do their work. Then you will fatigue yourself mentally and physically and give up.
I read a lot of blogs and birth stories on natural labor. The only labor book that I read was The Bradley Method and it was a life savor for my natural labor. I 100% would not have had a natural labor and would have given up if I didn’t read this book. I talk about why this book is so important and why it helped me in this post on the 3 books you NEED to read for a natural pregnancy and birth. A lot of natural mamas also love Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth for a natural birth.
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| Support System |
Be sure to think about who is going to be your support team in your room with you and at the hospital. It’s important that they are supportive of your natural birth plan.
As your virtually friend, I will tell you that there will be a time when labor will become difficult. It will be hard to think for yourself because you will be focused on pain management and your baby. There may be a point you want to give up. (This WILL happen and it’s when many mamas opt for the epidural. They talk all about this in The Bradley Method.) You need a people who can help give you encouragement and talk to the doctor for you.
As I read through The Bradley Method, I told my husband what he needed to know as my support person in labor. When I had a hard contraction, he knew to tell me to relax and let the contraction do the work. When I had been laboring for 15 hours, he suggested I take a shower to help relax. When I wanted to give up, he told me that I was at the emotional signpost of self doubt, and I’d be delivering the baby soon to help me keep going.
If I hadn’t informed him as my support person on what I was educating myself on and what our birth plan was, he wouldn’t have been able to help and support me through the harder points of labor and talk to the doctors for me.
| Care Provider |
Don’t forget that whomever you choose as your care provider is your support system too. If you choose a midwife or birthing center for your labor, they typically encourage and solely practice natural birth. On the other hand, if you want to labor in a hospital, you will want to make sure that your doctors and nurses understand your birth plan and are supportive of a natural delivery.
Because there are so many women who choose an epidural, not all doctors love the idea of a natural birth. It’s out of their scope of knowledge. Do your due diligence to look up hospitals that are supportive of a natural birth. These questions are a great starting point to see if your doctor and practice would support your natural birth plan.
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| Exercise |
At the end of your second trimester and all of your third, it’s a good idea to start practicing labor positions, pain management positions and exercises to prepare for a natural birth.
These pregnancy exercises will help strengthen your muscles for pushing, move baby into the right position in the birth canal and teach your body muscle memory. Doing these exercises will help ease your pain and make labor smoother and faster!
| Raspberry Leaf Tea & Dates|
There isn’t a lot of science for tea and dates for labor. A lot of naturally-minded mamas practice drinking raspberry leaf tea and eating dates during the third trimester to prepare for a natural labor.
Raspberry leaf tea is said to strengthen the uterine walls to help pushing and contractions and ease labor pain and time. In fact, it’s highly encouraged not to be consumed until the third trimester. I drank 2-3 cups in my third trimester and will definitely do it again!
Eating 6 dates a day is also said to ease labor pain and time. Dates are supposed to increase cervical ripening. They soften the cervix so it can easily dilate for baby. It also lessens pain because the cervix is soft and baby can more easily push through. Eating 6 dates sounds like a lot! I ate 3 dates everyday either by themselves or in a smoothie and got the rest in with a yummy LaraBar. (Blueberry muffin and chocolate chip cookie dough are SO good!)
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You were made to give birth! You can totally do this! If you want more help or advice, I’d love to chat! You can always reach me HERE!
Want help packing your hospital bag with things you ACTUALLY need? You can read about it HERE.
Want to reread this in your third trimester? Save this pin for later!
This post has so much great info! Each tip I feel it critical to having the best natural birth experience. I know many woman that birthed naturally and talks about how wonderful the experience was! I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy 2 years ago in March. I didn’t last long laboring on my own naturally and ended up opting for the epidural and also was given petocin because I was not dilating! My mother had 3 natural births, me being her first. I commend women that have labored through the pain au natural!
Laboring is hard and the epidural is there for a reason! My labor was long but reading and educating myself really helped. My husband was super supportive too haha If you have another baby and are planning to go natural stop back for more tips!
Great tips. I was induced for my pregnancies, but definitely use all these tips to help prepare myself and my body as best I could.
I was almost induced for my first baby but I walked and walked and walked to get contractions going!
Such great tips and info. I just gave birth at the end of March and while I was pregnant I was always looking for good posts about what to expect. I ended up having an emergency C section after pushing for an hour+, but I’m still glad I did my research because I went in pretty relaxed despite the circumstances and remained that way even when I had to have the c section. Thank you for your post!
I’m so glad you had a good birth experience even though it didn’t go the way you wanted. Doing your research is so important! Congrats to your new bundle of joy!
Such great info! I feel like so many people are overwhelmed by all the choices that need to be made to have the type of birth they want, but this is a great place to start! P.S. Love the layout and design of your blog
Thanks Codie! There is definitely overwhelm when planning for birth! I hope this helps mamas wanting to go the natural route!