Understanding Your Role In Childbirth

by Alesha Wilson
(Wilmington, NC)

Most women spend a lot of time preparing for a coming baby by buying cute clothes, baby gear, and baby books. But how do you really prepare for natural childbirth? Just the mere thought of bringing out a baby through your womb is frightful. So how do you make sure that you stay calm, relaxed, and informed as you go through with it?

You have to understand your role in the whole birthing process. There would be a lot of people will support you, your partner, your doctor or midwife, and nurses, but the star of the show is you. Don't let everyone else do their tasks while you just get carried along to labor. Your role is an active birthing woman. Allow your support team do their individual tasks which would help you get through the delivery.

It is important that you maintain a good and open communication with your partner. Explore the language and medical terms that surrounds birth. Couples who are not familiar with the process struggle to communicate; most even fight during labor which adds more pressure to everyone in the room. So talk to each other about certain terms that would help you both. When your partner says "relax" does not really help, but when he says "relax the tension in your shoulders", it will. It would help you and your partner a lot to talk about terms for better communication.

Birth classes do help but not to the extent of what you have to work with on the special day. That is why birth skills or techniques are essential; with your confidence in the process, you’ll gain the tools you need to deal with the pain. Birth skills help you go through the knowledge that you have control of your labor.


-Alesha Wilson is a staff writer at RockwellNutrition.com. Rockwell Nutrition is a leading online retailer of Pharmax probiotics.