confident birth

How to Have a Confident Birth

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This week, I’m super excited to have Hilary Erickson from Pulling Curls here to talk about childbirth and how go have a confident birth. As a labor and delivery nurse, a mom, and the creator of an awesome childbirth class for couples- the advice she’s about to give is great! No matter what type of birth you are planning to have, being confident and not afraid are SO important. Enjoy!

Being confident in the delivery room is one of the most important things you can do for your own mental health.  What does a confident delivery look like and how do you get there?

Hi, I’m Hilary.  I’m the curly head behind the website Pulling Curls, the nurse behind The Pregnancy Nurse, and the creator of The Online Prenatal Class for Couples. I’ve been a nurse since 1997 and I have 20 years of labor and delivery nurse experience.  I am an expert at helping families have a confident collaborative hospital delivery.  Today I want to share what benefits a confident birth will give you and how to get one!

Getting Your Confident Birth

Benefits of a Confident Delivery

Everyone likes to feel at ease.  I like to compare it to driving somewhere.  When I have moved to a new town I have to give myself often even double the time to get to my destination.  However, with time I get more confident and I’m grateful that I don’t have that pit in my stomach finding the places I need to go.

Labor is very similar, except your body tells you to “go” rather than picking your own departure time.  If you spend the majority of your time in labor wondering where you’re going, what will be next and if you’re making the right choices — you won’t be able to relax and enjoy the anticipation of meeting your new little person.

Remember that your stress can transfer to the baby since you share the same bloodstream until after delivery.

empowering birth

Elements of a Confident Delivery

Know what to expect

The most predictable thing about labor is how unpredictable it will be.  It has both you and the baby and our good friend mother nature — so you’re navigating a lot of people and situations. 

That being said, there is a normal rhythm of things and a pattern to what types of bumps can be on that road.  That type of thing takes experience though — seeing lots of different births with people with different backgrounds and medication situations — so don’t take your friend’s word for what will happen, because each one can be very different.

Know how to get the information you need

Talking to your healthcare team can sometimes be more difficult than you’d prefer.  Learning the words and the information you can get from them is such a skill.  Remember, they are setting their own boundaries and they also can’t tell the future — so you have to be thoughtful to know what they can tell you.

Related read: The Benefits of Taking a Child Birth Class Online

Make good choices

Once you have a basic idea of what to expect, and how to get information, now you need to know how to make choices.  But then how do you combine that with your own unique situation and needs?

Related read: What’s the Best Online Birth Class for You?

confident birth

How to Get Your Confident Delivery

I think your confident delivery starts with three things:

Experience

You can’t get a confident delivery talking to friends about their birth experiences.  That’s a one person experience that doesn’t translate to yours.  You need a wide-variety of experience!

Related read: The Honest Truth About What to Expect During Childbirth

The Big Picture

What are the things you REALLY need to be concerned about?  There is a lot to take in during a hospital birth — what do you need to pay attention to (aka prioritize).

What is your end goal?

Is your end goal a vaginal delivery without an epidural, or is it a safe mom and baby.

Back to the driving analogy, yes — often our goal is to get to a place on time, but I think we’ve all been caught up in traffic or a weather pattern and realized that our main goal was safety and no one getting hurt.  Just be mindful of what you REALLY want, and what you KIND OF labor want along the way.

Related read: What is a Birth Plan? And Why You Need One. 

How I Can Help You Have a Confident Delivery

I do this every day, and I think it’s done best through education.

I love teaching, and have created an engaging course that allows you and your partner to get ready on your own timeline.

I love what Lauren had to say:

“My husband and I really learned a lot through this course. It provided brief but thorough information in a clear and concise way to make us feel more at ease as first time parents! Would definitely recommend!”

There’s tons more reviews like that one.

Come join me and get your confident birth in just a few hours in The Online Prenatal Class for Couples.

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