Well now, if you made it this far, GREAT! We are at the closing section of this online journey in childbirth education. As you have discovered, you are not only giving birth to a baby, but also to a whole new way of life, and bringing to the birth experience a lot of personal feelings and attitudes that can affect your parenting experience. What you and your partner experienced together as a couple will change now as parents. How you integrate your birth experience - the pregnancy, the birth and postpartum, into your lives will influence your new roles as parents, with each other, and with that new little person. (Please review pg 101 in your book) What book?
There are many parenting resources available to you. The internet has a million places for parents, for new mothers and fathers to chat and share ideas and experiences with. Just do a search and you'll find them. There are others listed in your book. (Please read pgs 70 + 71 in your book) What book?
If you've gained anything from this site, I hope it is this: Childbirth is a mystery, and so is the experience you will have. There is no way to control its process. But knowing this it opens doors for YOU and YOUR PARTNER to embrace the experience for what it is - a natural life event, and to do what YOU can to encompass it comfortably, emotionally, physically, and with knowledge.
You can't control the process of birth, but you CAN control the way you respond to it.
It doesn't matter if you choose to birth in a hospital, or at home with a Midwife. What matters is this: it's YOUR birth experience, YOUR emotions, YOUR decisions, YOUR life, and YOUR ability to cope with all of it, and YOUR feelings of achievement! You, your partner and this new bundle of joy, is your new family unit. A unit you both created, and will nurture throughout your lives REGARDLESS of the type of birthing experience you have. "Birthing My Way is Best" also implies taking responsibility for those choices, your pregnancy, your labor experience, your new baby, and your new family. Becoming a parent is challenging, and full of anxieites, but it will also give you and your partner moments of incredible joy over and over again, starting from the day you knew you were pregnant, throughout the rest of your lives.
Breaking the Cycle of Fear, is stopping the fear that is associated with childbirth, and which is deeply embedded in American culture. Once we accept birth as a natural physiological process, we can begin to overcome the fear. Womens' bodies are designed, constructed, and chemically programed for childbirth. It is not a medical event. It has developed into one during the past 100 + years, and as a result has shifted a "mind set" in this country from a normal, natural, family event, to childbirth being a medical procedure. Even the vocabulary we use feeds the fear in childbirth (review Breaking the Cycle).
Love, emotional support, positive words of encouragement,and trust in your own abilities to give birth will help to break the cycle of fear, as well as your ability to accept the birthing process, where ever you labor and deliver. Childbirth, and everything that goes with it, (the contractions, dilation, discomfort, emotional challenges, etc.) is not a woman's enemy. It is a woman's innate capability to birth her child. With recognition, acceptance, appreciation, compassion, and nurturing during the childbirth experience for yourself, from your partner, and others, the cycle will break. Enjoy the miracle.
In the back of your book there is a Labor Record you can fill out and send to me if you like. I like to get the questionnaires because I want to know about the variety of experiences couples are having, and what you did during labor, what worked for you, how this site helped you, etc. EVERYTHING IS CONFIDENTIAL. So think about it, it's your decision, I welcome your story. (PLease read pgs 103, 104,105 + 106) What book?
So, I wish you the best now and in all the days to come! Many thanks for visiting Leslynotes! I hope it helped you.
My best,
PS: Have a little fun on page 102 in your book. What book?
