The Power of Preparation by Ceri Elms - Elms Wellbeing

As a culture and society, we radically undervalue birth preparation. There is a

propensity towards thinking it’s pointless as birth doesn’t always ‘go to plan’, or to

prioritise buying things for the baby rather than investing in antenatal education and

postnatal recovery. This results in many women and families feeling unsupported,

clueless and terrified of birth, and therefore more susceptible to suggestion and

relinquishing control of their pregnancies and births.

Birth is a physiological process and birth is unpredictable, but it’s in preparing for all

and any outcomes, and preparing your mind and body together, that gives you the

power of knowledge, confidence and choice, however birth unfolds.

When we feel unprepared, or uninformed, we feel anxiety, tension and stress. We

produce adrenaline and cortisol that keeps us in an alert, stress response and

causes our body to prepare to fight, flight or freeze, a primal urge we are still wired to

act on. This is our sympathetic nervous system, the everyday state we live in - useful

to keep us safe, manage risks, and protect us from potential threats.

This is not however the ideal state for birth. To birth freely and instinctively, we need

to tap into our parasympathetic nervous system, the altered state that is produced by

the release of feel-good hormones, oxytocin and endorphins, which are also key

birth hormones. In this state we can take deep oxygenating breaths to fuel our

birthing muscles, oxygen and blood flow is unrestricted, the heart rate regulates and

the body releases and relaxes tension.

Preparing our mind, body and heart for birth is where the power to accessing this

relaxation state lies.

When you prepare your mind for birth, you are setting the foundation for your birth

experience. Connecting the mind to the body is integral to understanding how birth

works. Where the mind leads, the body follows, so beginning with your mindset, and

discovering how you really feel about birth and where this may stem from is the first

step to unlocking your power. This is where Hypnobirthing comes in, as a

comprehensive holistic approach.

The hypno part is helping you to find practical and simple techniques and methods to

promote calm, aid relaxation, and believe in birth as a process, and in your innate

ability to birth. You prepare for this by gathering knowledge about your whole self,

and what you really need to feel safe, calm and able to surrender to birth with ease.

Finding ways to turn on your relaxation response on cue produces more essential

birth hormones that facilitate birth on a physiological level. Oxytocin and endorphins

induce feelings of calm and relaxation that enable you to let go, trust your body and

instincts, and release and open, just as you need to do in birth. The mind prepares

the body.

When you prepare your body for birth, you tune in to how it feels and what it needs

along with reducing physical tension, improving flexibility, aiding sleep and releasing

more feel-good hormones. When you listen to your body, you learn to pick up cues.

Your body and baby will send signals during your birth on how to move in order to

open, release and work with the process of your birth. Preparing for this will make

you more responsive and guide you to trust your own body and instincts.

Preparing your body also involves understanding how movements and positioning

can help birth progress, encourage your baby to move and bring comfort to your

labour.

This mind-body connection and preparation are about bringing all the little elements

together to make a big positive impact on your birth experience.

These techniques support you to achieve your birth ideals. If birth takes another

course, these techniques help to support you to know what you need to still feel

calm, relaxed, and centre-stage of your own birth experience, and to focus on what

you can control to protect your birth experience. A positive birth experience can be

achieved in any birth if the mind and body are connected, prepared for everything

and equipped with the tools to calm and cope.

Attending the right antenatal course, reading reliable birthing books or blogs,

familiarising yourself with your chosen birth centre or hospital if applicable, watching

real life birth videos, creating your ideal birth preferences – with your birth partner so

they are prepared too, and curating your ideal birth environment, are all part of the

invaluable process of becoming educated about your options, your wants, don’t

wants and non-negotiables. This is the birth part of hypnobirthing: it’s the

background research and the evidence-based information gathering.

Prepare yourself with realistic expectations of what birth actually looks and feels like,

find out about all your options, both medical and alternative.

Only when we truly know our options, and fully understand them, do we really have

them. You would not get behind the wheel of a car without knowing how to turn it on

and off, accelerate, break and park. Why would you go into birth without

understanding the basics of how it works, what you can do to make it easier, and

how you can maximise the potential for a positive experience?

There is so much power and value in being prepared. This is your birth. These are

your birth choices. This is your baby.

If you know all your options and alternatives, you have the confidence to question, to

advocate for what you want and to reduce feelings of anxiety around the unexpected

and the unknown. You are less likely to be coerced or persuaded into something you

don’t believe in if you have educated yourself on what you want and need, and what

your choices, rights and birth preferences are.

If you know what your body needs to let go and surrender to birth, you can move

with confidence, ease, power and freedom. You can choose positions that work with

gravity, aiding your uterus to contract, helping your cervix to dilate and making it

easier for your baby to work with you. This can make birth progress more efficiently

and comfortably.

If you know what your mind needs to tap into a state of relaxation and to feel calm

and safe on cue, you are assisting the production of birth hormones which are

fundamental to starting labour and facilitating the entire birth process. You are

allowing your body to move freely, release tension and surrender to birth. You are

cultivating a positive experience for your birth which ripples into your experience of

parenthood and matresence, and can ripple all the way into informing how your baby

and family experience birth too.

The power is in the preparation, the power to enable more positive birth experiences,

and easier, efficient labours fueled by birth hormones and oxygen, supported by

gravity with women at the centre of their birth story. The power is in preparing birth

partners and families to support birth. The power is in better mental health outcomes,

respecting birth knowledge and passing down practical techniques, wisdom, and

positive experiences for generations to come.

Preparing for your birth is the best investment you will make in pregnancy.

This article was originally written for Juno Magazine Early Winter 2025 edition