Every pregnant mother-to-be, especially those going through the experience for the first time, will spend plenty of time thinking about their options for the birth. This will include the question of how natural the birth should be.
This is a significant question, given that NHS figures repeatedly indicated that caesarean sections often make up nearly 60 per cent of hospital births. In contrast, 11 per cent of babies are born with assisted or instrumental births, with 33 per cent of mothers having natural vaginal births.
Often the reason for such high numbers of C-section rates are due to the medicalisation of birth and inundating women with numerous risks and statistics, which scares them into opting for a caesarean as she is led to believe she’ll be risking her baby’s health if she doesn’t follow the suggestions.
Sometimes a previous tough birth experience may make a pregnant mother feel that opting for a C-section is the best choice.
Explore your options
This is where having a well-informed birth doula by your side will help you. I provide you with all the evidenced-based birthing options, not just the options that best suit the rushed culture in our hospitals.
I will provide you alternatives and a selection of choices that are open to you, ranging from natural and traditional birthing practices to more modern techniques, giving you a comprehensive knowledge of what you might be the best choice for your birthing experience.
Enabling mothers to enter labour with confidence in their birthing choices and to feel fully empowered.
Women naturally feel anxious about the discomfort they may feel while giving birth. Many don’t realise that the environment and medical examinations during labour can increase feelings of pain. When a woman feels completely safe and fully trusts her birth supporters to advocate and care for her birth wishes, the sensations of pain are reduced.
Labour and birthing in an environment where interruptions are kept at a minimum helps the body release the hormones we need to deliver our children into the world.
Being constantly asked questions by hospital staff, bright lights, strangers coming into your room and being constantly reminded of what might go wrong creates a lot more fear and stress for mothers, which has a direct result of interrupting your body’s birthing hormones and instead increases levels of pain experienced.
You can find out more about this on this podcast.
There are numerous benefits that arise for you and your baby by birthing in a more natural way, like generations before us have done.
You will have the freedom to move around and change your birthing position in any way that feels right for you. You could use biomechanic techniques, a rebozzo or birthing ball to assist your baby to get in the perfect delivery position. Both mother and baby recover faster from a natural birth which therefore means breastfeeding is easier to initiate and continue.
Overall, women who have experienced natural birth feel much more positive about the birthing outcome and have lower rates of postnatal depression or birth trauma. This really puts parents in the ideal position to face the future as a family.
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