How to Prepare for Labor (Mind & Body) - Transcript

This is how to prepare for labor, both mind and body, and if you're new to me, I'm Nichole Joy. I'm a pregnancy coach, a birth doula and childbirth educator. I also host the empowered moms group and I think most of you are in there.

So here's an agenda of what we're going to cover today. We're going to start with why you would prepare for labor and then I'm going to go into what you can do in your first trimester and then your second and third trimesters are kind of all combined and we're going to talk through everything you can do to prepare your body for labor, everything you can do to prepare your girl parts for labor and preparing your mind. So mindset work as you lead up to labor. And then at the end I have a section, a couple of slides dedicated to vbac moms, so vaginal birth after Cesarean. And what I'll just kind of preface that with is that preparing for a VBAC is a lot like. I mean, it's really very similar to preparing for just a standard, you know, first time vaginal birth, there's just a few extra things and it's more of education and mindset work than it is anything else. But I wanted to cover it too.

Okay. So let's go ahead and jump right into why you would want to prepare for labor. So these pictures I pulled were kind of just different images and things that your labor might look like and I think that we all kind of, if you grew up in the United States, you kind of have this and you're surrounded by most of, you know, kind of the, what we see in the media, you know, what you grew up thinking about labor and seeing about laborers, that it's painful. It's scary. Women, you know, birth on their backs. Epidurals are super common, which they are. Um, so Syrians are normal common. Um, so this, we have this like birth background is kind of something I talk about a lot and when I talk about preparing for Labor in this class, I think it's important to take a step back and assess our birth background.

And what we know about birth, uh, based on how we were raised and you know, what exposure we had to birth, and so there's so many different types of births that I think it's important to recognize and understand. So why you would prepare is because your body has never done this before, right? Or you're mentally, physically all of these things. Labor is something that if this is your first baby, you know, you've, you've never done this. So it's commonly labor is commonly compared to running a marathon. And most people don't wake up in the morning and just decided to run a marathon without ever having trained for one. So I use that analogy a lot because I think it's important to recognize that your body and the muscles that you're going to be using during labor and during birth, they've never done this before. If it's your first, um, and possibly if it's your second, because if you've had a c section before planned c section, you may not have ever gone through labor.

So I think it's important to prepare your body because there are a lot of things that you can do right, to get your body ready for Labor Day and also to prepare your mind because again, like I said, a lot of us grew up with this fear, fearful feeling surrounding birth and um, I think it's important to try to identify where that fear comes from and kind of unpack that a little bit and really expose yourself and do some mindset work during pregnancy to prepare you for labor and help with removing that fear. And so if you took my coping with contractions class, I talked a lot about the fear, tension, pain cycle, and so when we start with fear, um, you know, ultimately it can lead to more pain. So I think it's important to kind of work on mindset to hopefully reduce that fear and it will help in Labor to.

So first trimester I purposely did not include a lot of things in your first trimester because a lot of women experience a morning sickness, you know, food aversions, overall exhaustion, really challenging first trimesters. And so I don't think that it's, I don't think that it's valuable to try to push women to do a lot of labor prep during your first trimester. Now obviously if you have energy and you're feeling good and you want to get a headstart on these things, go for it. Um, but I think for a lot of women it's more important to, in terms of your body, eat what you can, when you can. I know a lot of women get very stressed out about eating the right things during their first trimester and living off of carbs as my whole pregnancy. Going to be like this. Questions like that come up.

Um, yeah. I'm not keeping my prenatal vitamins down. Again, take your prenatal vitamins if you can, and if you can keep them down. Great side note, if you're experiencing severe morning sickness type stuff, then you may want to talk to your doctor about hydration and dehydration specifically. And I'm Hg. So if not, and you just kind of have very common symptoms of your first trimester rest. Allow yourself great. There's not a whole lot that you need to be doing in your first trimester. Um, in terms of prepping for labor, it's more of just kind of doing what you can and when you can and allowing yourself that grace.

Okay, this is the best picture because I think everybody's had morning sickness and their first trimester feels like this and their second trimester or whenever that morning sickness lifts, right? Or your food aversions, reversion start to kind of go away. Then you just feel like good dance and walk on water. Alright. So let's start with preparing your body and what you can do to prepare your body for labor. The first I want to talk about is exercise. And so when you get it, when you are into your second trimester, if you experienced fatigue and things like that during your first trimester and then you really want to ease back into it, you know, working out and having a routine. If you're somebody who is super active before, um, if you had the energy and there's workouts you were doing pre pregnancy generally if your pregnancies healthy or doctor will tell you, you can continue doing those things.

Um, but I'm not going to talk about your pre pregnancy type of workouts. I'm talking here more about Labor preparation exercise. So there is a difference and I want to distinguish because I think a lot of pregnant women, especially when they are pregnant with their first are very concerned about body image issues and how they look while they're pregnant and staying really in shape. And I get that. I completely get that. I mean that was me, my first pregnancy and you know, it's still something that comes up every day in my head. Like, I, you know, I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be doing that. Working out. I'm doing all these workout classes, but I want to just distinguish what I'm talking about here is specific exercises that help your body prep for Labor. And if you have the energy and you still want to do all those other things that your doctor has said is okay for you, go for it.

Um, but what I'm going to talk about here are things like walking, which is very underrated in terms of prepping your body for Labor, Prenatal Yoga. Why? Because Prenatal Yoga work specifically on the muscles, stretching them, loosening them, strengthening them, that are going to be used during birth. So Prenatal Yoga is very helpful if you can do that at least a couple times a week even. And there are free sources on youtube that are pretty great. Um, squats. So squats are great for prepping your body for Labor. And I've referenced a lot in the private group and on my page about INA may, gaskin, who was like the midwife of all midwives and she has this quote that says, if you squat 300 times a day during pregnancy, you'll have a fast, easy, short birth, um, something like that. So you don't have to do 300 squats a day.

And I'm not even gonna tell you to do that. But if your doctor has approved physical activity, I'm squatting is a really good workout exercise to prep your body because think about what your body is doing. Your pelvis, especially when you're squatting, your pelvis is opening up and stretching and kind of spreading the way it will during birth. So doing squats can help your pelvis continue because you've got relaxing hormones running through your body all during your pregnancy. And so squatting. We'll open up that pelvis. And so I want to make, um, I want to make a quick comment about your form during squatting. Um, I would suggest doing a little bit of research about the types of squats you're most comfortable with. What I've heard a lot is that your feet pointing parallel and forward is the most ideal position and not to angle your feet out.

Um, and then also a lot of people will tell you that professional. So like a pelvic floor physical therapists for example, will tell you that squatting and going really deep and kind of holding the squat and allowing the pelvis to just sit and open and holding that position longer is arguably more valuable. In preparing your body for birth, then squatting up, down, up, down, up, down, and trying to get 300 in. So just some food for thought, something to think about when you are adding squats into your routine. Um, it might just be part of your stretching routine and we're going to go into stretches next, but you can even use squats as a stretch because you're not necessarily going up, down, up, down, like I said, you get in that deep squat and just kind of hold it and really allow your pelvis to do the opening. So there's a difference, right between the squash.

You may have seen

crossfit people doing or heavy lifting at the gym with the big bars and squatting. I don't mean that kind of squat. So, um, that's actually going

stretches now. So I think that's important and this is a good transition.

So I've got this pregnant woman pictured here on her birth ball because I think every pregnant person should have a birth ball. They are so helpful if used consistently during your pregnancy to prepare your body for birth. And so after class and the checklist I'm going to send you, and then the resource list, I have links to all of these things that we're going to talk about. So easy links that you can find everything we've referenced, a research access to the tools, things like that. So getting a birth ball, maybe a $20 investment, it's also known as an exercise ball, right? But when pregnant people use them, we called them birth balls. So having an exercise ball at your house is a great investment during pregnancy and will be helpful during postpartum. So stressors that you want to do throughout your pregnancy. And you can start these in your second trimester.

I've been doing these almost every day, um, since my second trimester. And you can do them before bed if you have five minutes, you can do them in the morning before, after workouts, whenever you can, squeeze them in. If you have other children, grab your Yoga Ball, your exercise ball, and you know, do your rotations while your kids are watching tv or while you're coloring and hanging out in the evenings. Um, anytime you can be spending time on the ball is really good for your body, so a couple of specific stretches to try. The first one that's really helpful is called a cat cow or pelvic tilt. And so if you do maybe three sets of 25 of those and do I don't feel like you can do too many, but it's really good to get that pelvic tilting because it helps the baby to stay in the right position for birth hip rotations.

So you see this woman sitting on the ball, I have a demo of this, it's an older video, but I have a demo of hib rotations and the empowered mom script that you can go back and check it out and I'll link to it in the resources as well. Um, but basically you're sitting on your birth ball and you're just spinning your hips around and rotating your hips. Really good for the baby positioning, good for your body, good for opening your pelvis, which leads us to the next one, which is pelvic openers. You can actually just google pelvic openers and find a ton of different types of pelvic opening exercises, and if you've ever done a post workout class stretch, you've probably done some pelvic openers. Anything that feels like you're opening your pelvis, think seated butterflies where you're just kind of sitting on the ground and your feet are together and you've got your life, you know you're kind of Nice out and you're stretching your pelvis. Anything you can do to really stretch your pelvis, and then in terms of the birthing ball or the exercise ball, um, make sure that you're getting the right size for your body, for your height. So what you want, and as you can see in this picture, this woman, her knees are below her hips and that's the position you want to be in when you're on the ball. So it needs to be inflated sufficiently and the right size so that when you're sitting down, your hips are higher than your knees.

The benefits of using the birth ball, it's supporting, aligning, and opening your pelvis. It supports good posture, which is really good for pregnancy. It's great for back pain. I'm also, if you're somebody who has had diastasis rectus separation, which is the separation of your abdominal muscles and having that good posture is really helpful in recovery and also in subsequent pregnancies, you really want to be aware of your alignment and your posture and then being in that good posture allows your abdomen to hold the baby. I'm comfortably right and helps the baby get in good birth position. So spend time on your yoga ball. The next thing I want you to do when you're prepping your body for Labor is get into see a chiropractor and not just any chiropractor, but a webster technique certified Cairo. Yes.

Sorry, sorry guys, hold on. Okay. Okay, so back to what I was saying, sorry for the interruption. They alarm guys still here and still messing with the. With the batteries. So you want to get into see a webster technique certified chiropractor, the webster technique. I'll send you a link, I'll share it with you so you can read up on it, but it's specific to pregnant moms and prenatal chiropractic care and you really should be seeing a chiropractor as soon as you feel comfortable. You can get into see one, and I've even had art, you know, my chiropractor that came live in the group and did a group interview for us and empower bombs. She was actually mentioning that prepregnancy you can even be seeing a chiropractor to be in the best alignment possible to conceive. So if you had a rough first trimester, you can start going as early as 13 weeks.

So as soon as you're feeling able get and create that relationship, um, you know, start seeing that chiropractor and go for the duration of your pregnancy as often as they suggest that you need to, um, you really want to be keeping your body. Again, I talk a lot about alignment so the chiropractor will help you keep your body and alignment and to help create space in your uterus for the baby to turn and get into optimal position or stay in the optimal position. Right? So the chiropractor can actually, when they are doing their adjustments, create space in your womb, keep you in alignment, help with back pains and the pains that are common during pregnancy. Um, and they help to prevent necessary and birth. Because they can keep the baby in the best position, which is head down, right?

Or another specialists that I would recommend you see during your pregnancy to get ready for labor is a pelvic floor therapist, also known as a women's health physical therapist. And if you aren't familiar with what they do, again, I had a pelvic floor therapist come and do a live interview in the empowered moms group and I would go back and check out that video. Really, really helpful. Um, and you can actually see them. They're not just to help you repair any pelvic floor damage that may have been done during birth. They can also look at you during pregnancy. And so what they'll do is actually go in and they are the only providers other than your ob Gyn that can do an internal assessment. And so they'll hook you up to a machine that connects these electrodes to check your, um, your pelvic floor muscles strength.

Please hold. So it's important why you want to do that, right? It's because what they're looking at it, one of the things they can look at is have you get into different laboring positions and check to see what positions your pelvic floor muscles relax the best. Um, and that can give you a good idea of what positions might work well for you during birth. Another thing they'll do is assess the strength of your muscles to help you decide if your pelvic floor muscles are not strong enough. They will assess the strength of your muscles, your pelvic floor muscles. And if you look at this image, if you've taken my other classes, you've probably heard me talk about this and you've seen this image before and even in greater detail, but it's all of these muscles that are around your pelvis, your pelvic area, so around your vagina, around your anus.

So all of those muscles of your pelvic floor and what you want during Labor is for your pelvic floor muscles to be kind of just the right balance. Strong enough to be able to support your birth. But also I'm able to be relaxed enough to let the baby out easily during labor and during birth. So it's very personalized. Obviously in cables are not the only thing that will help you. Uh, for some women they're, their muscles are too tight and too strong and need to be relaxed a little bit. Some women, their muscles aren't strong enough. So seeing a specialist can help you to identify where your muscles are pre-birth and get them in the best position they'll put you on a therapy plan and to help you kind of, you know, get to the right balance for you getting leading up to your labor. And then of course you will want to see them postpartum as well, even if you had a vissarion. Um, and I think that it's usually about six weeks when you go see one, again, I'm going to recommend that you watch the video in the group because it's very helpful.

Okay. Nutrition. So this is something else you can do in terms of prepping your body for birth. Um, again, I, I moved in the first trimester. It's eat what you can when you can. But once you start to feel and your second trimester, hopefully like now you can start eating some vegetables again and you can enjoy, you know, you can keep your vitamins down, things like that. Um, then I would start to really look at your nutrition and you want to get balanced meals from a variety of food groups and there are certain nutrients that are really helpful to prep your body for Labor. And I'll tell you a couple of them. One proteins, you want to be aiming for 70 to 80 grams of protein a day. You want obviously as many vegetables as you can because what person, what nutritionist doesn't tell you that I'm not a nutritionist, but I think we all have kind of heard that, right?

Healthy fats. So this is huge because fats do so many things for your body during pregnancy. Um, one they're helping with your skin elasticity to. They're helping with baby's brain development. So if you're not getting enough, Omega threes are healthy fats in your diet. Even if you're getting a lot, consider taking a really, um, higher end, you know, oil supplement, maybe an Omega three supplement, maybe a call liver oil, something like that. I would recommend taking those m and a little tip I take mine at night because sometimes the taste, even with the nice ones and the good quality supplements from the health food store can have that funny taste. So I take it at night before bed and I find that it's a little bit easier to stomach that way. Calcium, you want to be getting at least a thousand milligrams of calcium a day because the baby is really sucking your body dry of nutrients.

Um, and then, so skin nutrients. I included just a quick summary of this here, but I'll note that I go into greater detail on these items and the vaginal tearing workshop because in the vaginal tearing class, one of the things I talk about is nutrients that can help your skin elasticity. So, which would ultimately you'd hope, um, help you in terms of minimizing your chances of tearing your cranium and your skin down there. Right? So it's not something that's gonna hurt you to have these healthy nutrients in your body. If anything, it will help. So consider adding healthy fats like Omega threes, cod liver oils, silica, selenium, vitamin E, vitamin C, because also that helps with Collagen. Um, so yeah, go back, if you haven't seen it, it's on the website, it's on the blog and watch that vaginal tearing workshop because I go into this a little bit more in detail and talk about what kinds of foods you can add to your diet that incorporate those nutrients, right?

So preparing their girl parts. This kind of goes hand in hand with repairing your body, but there's a few things you can do specifically to prepare your female organs, right? The first is drinking red raspberry leaf tea. If you haven't yet heard of this. Um, I have a great resource that talks about the benefits, um, but primarily red raspberry leaf tea is known to strengthen your uterine muscles and tone your pelvic floor. So why do we want to do that while your uterus? It's muscles, right? And you want it to be strong and in good shape for labor. So drinking red raspberry leaf tea is a super natural way to strengthen that muscle. Um, and you can certainly read more about it and the resources if you're interested. And then also Tony in the pelvic floor, we just talked about some of the benefits of having a strong pelvic floor and this is kind of a kind of a super food for pregnancy.

And so during your second trimester you want to be drinking one cup a day. And so this isn't just raspberry tea, it's red raspberry leaf tea and I'm going to share the link to the best place to get it. Lately I've been buying it in bulk on Amazon. It's a lot cheaper and you get, um, you know, you get high quality organic red raspberry leaf tea for a reasonable price. So you're starting with one cup a day in your second trimester and then once you're into your third trimester, you can begin to increase how much you're drinking. I'm also side note, you can drink this postpartum too because your uterus is still has a lot of work to do during your recovery. So when you deliver your baby, your uterus is going to continue contracting to go back to its original size and things like red raspberry leaf tea can certainly help with that. So you want to continue drinking this postpartum as well.

Dates. Alright, so there was a study done in Turkey a few years back that showed that concern. Women who were 36 weeks pregnant and beyond the eight, six dates per day overall, um, had a better chance of spontaneous labor, meaning they went into labor on their own and we're not induced. They had a shorter first stage of labor and like I just mentioned, they had reduction in induction and augmentation. So the difference being induction when you're pregnant, you know, to be induced. And then a lot of the similar things that doctors can use to induce you, they can also use during your labor to speed things up. So women who ate six dates per day and the last four weeks of their pregnancy tended to have lower levels of these things, right? Um, so this was a study done in Turkey and if you're at 36 weeks along, start eating your six a day, now tips for getting them in.

If you're not a huge state person, um, you can add them to your smoothies. That can be difficult to blend if you put them in kind of the way they come, like kind of raw. Uh, what I'm finding is that soaking them in water overnight softens them up enough that it's a lot easier for them to blend into your smoothie. Um, there's a lot of really great date recipes on pinterest. Also, larabars are kind of a granola bar and they, their primary ingredient is dates and then the new relatively new are x bars. Those are really great source as well because they have two dates per rx bar. Uh, and there's other ingredients, not a whole lot. They're super clean and there's other ingredients that add some protein. So it's kind of a nice balance like egg whites, um, fruit, nuts, things like that. So our bars, if you're pregnant, you and your law, your honor, last four weeks of pregnancy, you should definitely be carrying them around in your back.

Okay. Also preparing your girl parts. We're going to talk quickly about printing massage. This is also something that I talk a lot about in the vaginal tearing workshop, um, because perineal massage during the last four to six weeks of your pregnancy can be really helpful to prepare your perennial for birth. So what's your perennial, uh, this area down here, if you can see where my mouse is. So if this is your vagina opening that bottom skin that leads down to your rectum, that's your perennial. And so most vaginal tears that occur occur on the perineal. So when we talk about perineal massage, this is the last four to six weeks of pregnancy and it's a physical manual thing that you can do at home, on your own or with your partner, um, and you use your thumbs and kind of. I have a video that I'll send you a link to that's really helpful, but you basically are using your thumbs to, um, to stretch the perennial skin massage is kind of a poor term for this because it's not very relaxing like a massage. Um, it's not super comfortable, but it's something kind of gets you familiar with that feeling of what it feels like for your perennial to kind of get that stretch in that poll and you, there's certain oils that you can use that make it a little bit easier to get that stretch and more comfortable. And so I would recommend trying like vitamin E oil is really common. Um, and again, that four to six weeks if it's something that you want to do.

So let's move on to how you can kind of get in the right mindset for Labor, right? And what you can do to prepare your mind. I don't know if you guys have ever heard this quote or the statement, your thoughts become your reality. So your mindset during pregnancy, what you're thinking about, what you're feeding into your, your mind. I'm really, really can shape your experience in pregnancy and birth, so I think it's really important to talk about the things that you're doing and be conscious of what you're hearing, what you're listening to, who you're talking to. I'm the type of information you're exposing yourself to. All of those things. Get into your subconscious, right, and can really affect your reality.

So positive vibes only, right? So keep the company around you. Positive Company. We all have those girlfriends that we start talking about pregnancy and we start talking about our experiences and they are just so quick to want to tell you they're super freaky. Scary, hard birth stories, right? Everybody knows somebody who does that. Um, it's not that their stories don't deserve to be told they're desert. Their stories. There's a place for them and the time, a time and a place, but during your pregnancy, while you're pregnant, that's not the time or the place for them to tell you horrific birth stories. And I think there's a difference in telling factual stories that may have resulted in an undesirable outcome and kind of taking from it and being able to assess that story and taking from it, okay, this is what I've learned, or this is my experience and this is how I feel about it.

There's a difference between that, right? And the other. So kind of be careful about the kind of stories you expose yourself to them. Be careful about the kind of company that you're keeping during pregnancy because those people and if it's negative company and negative stories, it just sit in your brain and they stay in your subconscious. So it's not that you don't have to listen or that you shouldn't listen to your friends stories. It's being able to identify that their story isn't your story and maybe holding off on hearing some of those things until after you've had your baby and allow yourself the space to write your own story and to have your own experience. Right? So because you don't know what happened during their birth, they may be telling you something that happened that sounds really horrific and really scary what they're not telling you necessarily as the facts leading up to it.

What happened, what was their history, um, what were the statistics around what happened to them? Because the stats for a lot of those super scary sounding things are actually pretty low. And while it doesn't change, it doesn't invalidate their feelings. Their feelings are certainly validated, their experiences are validated. It's just not something that's helpful for you right now. So there's a difference, you know, and then think about the sources of information and what am I talking about? So for example, if you're a part of facebook groups and private mom groups, private pregnancy grips, which obviously if you're watching this, you're probably in my group. Um, I've been a part of a lot of pregnant groups on facebook over the last few years because this is my third child right now. And so I've, I've seen a lot of different dynamics in different groups and the type of information that is shared from the people in the groups and what I've realized is that some of the groups are so incredibly negative and there's so much shaming and there's so much horror stories and I'm really, really poor quality advice and really poor quality information.

Um, everybody kind of thinks they're an expert, right? Nobody's really an expert. You are an expert of your own pregnancy and listening to your own intuition, hearing what your providers have to say is important too. But listening to yourself and your intuition is a lot more important sometimes. Then hearing poor advice in somewhere like a, like a mom's group or private forum. So I'd be cautious of what kind of information you're reading and being exposed to. Not to say that it's all bad there. Certainly some really, really, really amazing groups out there. Some of you I've met through those groups and I love those groups because the women are supportive, they're empowering, they tell their stories even when it's a hard story, but not in such a way to try to scare women or shame them into making decisions more so to empower other women.

So the group that I created called empowered moms, um, I created it because I felt like that was something that was missing in a lot of groups was, you know, creating this group at the core of having a Doula, a childbirth educator, a pregnancy coach, administration, so running the group, but then also creating this super positive supportive environment where we're kind of surrounding each other with this helpful information and empowering each other. And then the next thing I want to say is like reframing the language that you use. So think about the words that you use when you're talking about giving birth. Pain is a big one that comes up. I'm trying for. So what do I mean by that? A lot of the back mom's, you'll hear envy back as vaginal birth after Cesarean. A lot of feedback moms will say, I'm trying for us to Syrian, um, or let me, my doctor will let me go to 40 weeks before he wants to induce me.

Things like that. So the terms pain, trying for, let me, um, I'm trying to think of other words, other language, whatever terms that you're using, just really kind of take a step back and think about them and think about how they make you feel. So the word pain, um, when you're talking about contractions and labor, pain is a huge word that comes up. Um, but if you kind of reframed and try to re, um, you know, take a step back and look again at what the pain is like, what it's really being caused by. It can help you to change the word and reframe the language. So the core of the pain is a contraction, right? The contractions are purposeful. They are a very purposeful, intense feeling because your uterus is contracting to help your baby come out. So while it can be perceived as painful and it's not that it's not painful, it is a purposeful thing that's happening to your body to help that baby come out.

So if you can start to really think about the core of those things and think about the terms and what they mean to you. So this isn't for everybody and if you haven't seen my coping with contractions, Cos I do talk a lot about reframing language and kind of, you know, shifting that, that mentality in terms of contractions in that class as well. And we talk more about the fear, attention, pain cycle. Um, so think about what these terms mean to you because instead of saying, you know, oh, this is so painful, I'm afraid of the pain. Maybe reconsider using another word like intense. So these contractions are very intense and purposeful, you know, and what I'm feeling is intense, um, because it is intense, right? And it can be painful, but if you really hone in on that pain word, um, it gets into your subconscious, right?

We tell yourself it's painful, that's going to be painful. So just a couple of things. I'm positive birth stories. So I mentioned earlier about how we all have those girlfriends who tell us these crazy scary bird stories, right? Um, if you haven't already started listening and subscribing to these podcasts, I highly recommend doing it, especially if you have a commute to and from work. Um, if you need something to listen to while you're out doing your walking, subscribe to these podcasts and just listened to a few of these positive birth stories. They're not all perfect cupcakes and rainbows. Stories, there are stories of challenges. There are stories of pain, there are mentions of pain, there are mentions of, you know, unexpected things, but it's the way that these stories are presented and talked about and what you're left feeling is empowered by hearing these women's stories. Not Scared.

So there's a big difference in how the person telling the story, it can leave you feeling. So I found that these two, um, the birth, our birth, we'll have a lot of really amazing positive birth stories. Um, there's several other out there as well. Those are just a couple and I'll link to them. And the resources, okay. Birth culture. So I didn't really know how to explain this or what to define it as um, but we talked earlier about your birth background and kind of what you were brought up, your birth culture, like what your birth culture was growing up. Right. And like I said, a lot of us that grew up in the United States, we saw painful birth on TV. What did you say when a woman went into labor? Her water breaks. She's super freaked out. She's had a lot of pain. If she has a man with her, he's freaking out.

They're calling nine slash 11 and rushing into a cab, running to the hospital. It's this urgent, crazy situation. And the reality is it's not usually like that. So I feel like I'm, a lot of us haven't seen other types of births and a lot of us haven't been exposed to what birth can really be like and really look like for other, um, you know, for most women. So what I'm including here as far as recommended birth culture and these are pretty natural kind of, you know, green, crunchy, driven, um, sources and that's not to try to encourage you to have a natural birth. That's not my goal. I had a c section, I had an epidural birth with my second vaginal birth of my second. I'm planning a natural birth for this third birth here, coming up soon. But that doesn't mean that I'm trying to encourage you to have a natural birth.

I watched these things during my second trimester, my second pregnancy, and I still wanted to have an epidural. That's not the point. The point of watching these things is to just expand your birth culture and just to kind of see what it looks like. Um, what you know, what birth can look like. So I may gaskin has a book called the guide to childbirth, which is just like the holy grail for a natural birth moms. And again, even if you're not cleaning a natural birth, there's some very good physiological birth information and content and her book. And just understanding what's happening is super empowering as you're preparing for birth. Right. And the couple of documentaries that I've listed here, the business of being born, that's where Ricki Lake documentary, it's about 10 years old. I'm really incredible and I think it's super helpful to kind of give you another look at the industry in the United States.

Um, there is some natural birth in the video and it can be a little much for people and I get that. Um, and then there's orgasmic birth, which you're probably thinking like, what the hell is that? But yes, there are. There are women who orgasm during birth. Yes they do. And I've watched the documentary a few times. Um, that might not be you, it might be a little out there for you, but I just think it's helpful to kind of expand your knowledge, expand your culture a little bit and just read up and watch the documentaries so you can see what is possible and what can actually happen. So those documentaries, um, they are paid, you have to pay in rent them, they're worth the rental fee in my opinion. They're really good. And maybe one day we'll have like a watch party and watch them together. That would be fun.

Okay. So more mental preparation. So prayer, if prayer is something that you're into, you want to be including prayer and your mental prep for Labor affirmations. So what are affirmations? Pregnancy, birth affirmations, you know, once you get into motherhood, you know, positive affirmations for motherhood, for any aspect of your life, um, are really helpful. But here I'm talking about positive pregnancy and birth statements. I'll send you out a link to my pinterest where I have a lot of them that I like saved. Um, I think they're just super helpful to kind of remind yourself, um, you know, just to have these positive statements running through your head as often as possible. I've also, um, I'm going to get into visualization a little bit too, but they kind of go hand in hand because if you want to talk about, if you want to print out affirmations maybe from pinterest or write your own, make your.

I've seen moms make their own artwork with their own affirmations and display them throughout their bathrooms or wherever. And then bring them to the birth to kind of keep them in that mindset. Um, it can be a very helpful visualization tool, so more on visualization if you're wondering what that means. A couple of ideas on how you can use visualization to mentally prepare for your pregnancy. Um, one, maybe visualize your birth story as a movie so you can actually write it out. And that next bullet point down journaling, right, your birth story. You can actually write it out, write your ideal birth story, like a movie script, and then just visualize it so you can continue to visualize and kind of put it in your subconscious exactly how you want things to kind of, the experience you want to have, right? You can create a pregnancy and birth vision board.

I have one in my bathroom. I'll share it with you guys too. Um, you can, you know, use pinterest, but anything that kind of, any pictures, images, phrases, words, anything that kind of represents what your dream and ideal birth experience looks like. Printed out and pin it to your birth board and hang it somewhere that you're going to see it all the time. So mine's in my bathroom right next to where I get ready. So in the mornings when I'm brushing my teeth and doing all those things, it's right in my face. Guided imagery and meditation. So, um, there's a few different things you can ways that you can use this to prepare mentally for birth hip. No babies has, if you're not studying hypno babies, um, as a course to get ready for birth, they actually have like one off meditation tracks and affirmation tracks that you can purchase individually and it's an audio recording that you can listen to anytime when you're in the shower, when you're driving to work.

Um, and it's just kind of putting these positive now meditations I wouldn't listen to while you're driving, but the affirmation tracks you can listen to anytime and they're putting these positive affirmations that you can listen to. It's just another channel of getting positive content into your brain. Um, I find their tracks really, really helpful. I love their affirmations track. It's like 45 minutes, um, I'm usually plug it in when I'm in the shower in the morning and just let it play while I'm getting ready and the kids hear it and it's just a really positive thing to listen to now meditations or something you'd want to listen to when you're, when you're laying down or rusting or in a comfortable position and not driving, not trying to do anything. I'm not trying to do anything else. And if you're having trouble sleeping, if you have some pregnancy, insomnia, um, a lot of women find that listening to the meditations really, really helps with that too.

Okay. I couldn't talk about getting ready for Labor without mentioning a birth plan because you guys know how I feel about birth plans. So I have a free birth plan that I'm happy to share the link in the resources. If you haven't already gotten a copy of it, you can. It's customizable. It's editable. So you download it, delete what doesn't apply to you and keep what does, why would you want a birth plan? So birds are unpredictable and I talk a lot about that in the group, um, but I still think that it's important to have a birth plan, even if you call it something else, your wishlist, your preferences, whatever you want to call it, it's important to go through the process of creating one because you will probably minus comprehensive my template. And so when you go through the template and you're identifying what you like or what you're interested in versus what you're not interested in, you'll probably see things that you haven't yet heard of or that you didn't realize were options and things that you could have a voice in.

So it's a knowledge tool. So when you go through the process, you will learn, hopefully you'll learn something, um, that you know, you can use in your own birth. It's also a communication tool. So when you get to labor, when you're in the moment, again, I've talked about this a lot in my birth basics class and kind of what to expect kind of during Labor. If you haven't seen that, go back and watch it. It's a three part series that talks a lot about early labor, active labor hormones. I'm pushing pain management options, all of those things, so birth basics. One of the things I talk about in the class is the hormones that are being released in your body during labor and the effect that they can have on you, and it's a good. There's a reason, so you're having oxytocin being released, that's helping your uterus to contract, but while that's happening, if you haven't had any drugs yet, your body is also releasing endorphins to help with the natural pain management.

So what that makes you feel like it's a lot of women kind of feel like they're in this like labor land and you can feel kind of out of it, you know, kind of drugged because it's a natural kind of drug for your body. It's a good thing, right? It's good for your birth, good for your labor. It can make it hard for you though to communicate. So a lot of moms find that the last thing they really want to do when they're in labor, it's have to go back through their entire list of everything that they really wanted or really didn't want done and make sure that everybody in the room is aware of it. So it's a great communication tool to have your birth preferences leaned, laid out. It's also your voice, again, in the moment. This is something that is written out.

These are your decisions, this is your voice, and these are things that you want done no matter what unpredictable things might come up. You have that flexibility of knowing that no matter what happens, these are still your, your wishes. So even if you end up meeting as a Syrian, there's a section at the back of the birth plan of kind of Plan B, c, and d. So what happens if this happens? If I'm having a Sicilian or if my baby needs to go to the Nicu, um, there are unexpected things that can come up. You still have preferences. You still have a voice. So having a birth plan is not so much mentally attaching yourself to this exact birth and this exact plan, it's more of saying no matter what happens in my birth, these are the things that I want and these are my choices, right?

So texts, we're putting your birth plan together, print out the full draft, um, because then you'll just kind of want to walk through it one thing at a time, cross off things that don't apply to you, um, and you can continue to revise it and edit it and reprint throughout your pregnancy. You can have working drafts and bring them to your doctor's appointments, your prenatal visits because you want to be talking to your provider about your preferences in advance. You want to see what their protocols are and what they're, how, you know, kind of how they work with what your preferences are. So I think that's, those are important conversations and quality conversations to have with your provider during your pregnancy. So as you get nearer to the end of your pregnancy, try to really narrow it down to keep the final version to a page two at the most, just because you know, if you need it longer, you need it longer, but ideally when you're having nurses, providers, people kind of in and out of your room, um, to keep it easy, one to two pages is usually pretty acceptable.

Okay. So part of my birth plan template talks about creating your calm birth environment. And then also in my coping with contractions class, I talk a lot about this in there as well. But in terms of preparing for labor, when you're doing your birth plan, you can start to think about what would be the most relaxing, calm situation for you in birth. What relaxes you pre pregnancy or during pregnancy? Um, think about if you want something to play music or affirmation tracks, what might you want to listen to in the moment? Lighting. It can be really, um, it can be really unhelpful for a lot of moms. When you go into a hospital room and it's brightly lit, there's a ton of lights in your face and doctors and nurses, it can make a lot of moms feel super uncomfortable. So maybe you want the lights down, right?

Perfectly acceptable request. Maybe you don't want a lot of people in the room. Um, that's a really personal point because I know a lot of moms that have big families and they love having all of their family and many as many family members as they can there. I get it. Also not know a lot of moms that really just want their husbands their or their boyfriend or their why. It's just one person and I get that too. So think about what would be the most relaxing for you and bring you the most calm, maybe closing the door so you have some privacy and not leaving your hospital door. Open Aroma therapy, um, access to water. So the bathtub or shower rooms if they have them in your hospital. And then breathing, of course in all of these things, I go into a lot greater detail in the coping with contractions class. So if you want to, you know, talk more about that or look more into it. It's on the blog. I'm the replays available, so check it out.

Okay. So also during pregnancy, good time to begin researching newborn procedures. Um, and again, when you go through that birth plan template, you'll reach that point of what your preferences are in terms of what you want after the baby comes. So these are a few things that you can start to look up. They're all in the birth plan template as well and I'll share some resources for where, um, where you can get quality research based information and evidence based information on each of these. So I won't go into detail on all of them right now, but while you're preparing for labor, these are things that you can be looking into. So the vitamin K injection and a lot of these are protocol by the way, there. They're pretty standard protocol at most hospitals in the United States, but also know that you have a choice and you can request something different.

So I would do the research on it and see what works for you. And what works for your family and include that in your birth plan. So vitamin K injection, the Erythromycin is the antibiotic ointment that you see a lot of babies have that like gooey stuff in their eyes. I'm the hepatitis B vaccine. If you're having a boy, this question of circumcision might come up of course. And little side note that although about half of the baby boys that are born right now are not being circumcised, which is just very different than it was, I think when we were all kind of growing up. So just a little side note, something, you know, food for thought. It's a really controversial topic, very personalized. So I would do the research on it before you make your decision. Um, immediate skin to skin versus the first bath and swaddling the baby.

So there are great benefits and I don't want to go into all of them right now. That's for another class. But there are great benefits to having immediate skin to skin contact with your baby. Meaning not having their bath right away, not being swaddled with a blanket before they're laid on you, but rather late on you make it and have their skin right on your skin and your skin will warm them and help them regulate their body temperature much better than a warm bath and a swaddle will and then you lay a blanket on the outside of them, right so that you can have that immediate skin to skin contact even if you have a Sicilian. So I would do some research on that as well if it's something that you're interested in, cord blood blank, a banking also something that, you know, I would do the research on and check it out and see if it's something of interest to you.

But these are all things you can look at during your pregnancy as you prepare for your big day. And then delayed umbilical cord clamping. Um, I'm not gonna go into great detail on this either, but there are a lot of benefits and I'm going to share a link to some of those benefits in the resources tab. A couple of videos that I think are really helpful, um, and just know that you know, you have those options available to you for your birthday. All right, so breastfeeding, I think a lot of moms don't really think a whole lot about breastfeeding while they're pregnant. You might think, okay, I'm going to try it. Okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to have my pump and I'll have some bottles and you know, I'll, I'll do this or that. Um, I think if it's something that you're really interested in and really thinking is right for you and your family during pregnancy, I would go ahead and contact, make your local connections.

So the last thing you really want to be doing is waiting until a postpartum when you may be struggling with breastfeeding, should have a support system. So a lactation consultant, um, there's different levels of certification for the lactation specialists, but you can start to research and your local mom groups or if you have a Doula to talk to your Doula to find recommendations for lactation consultants and you can actually make those connections during pregnancy. You can have the conversation with your insurance, make a call to see what's covered and how is it set up and you know, what do you need to do now to be proactive about it and then, you know, make that connection and find out where your having the baby or birth location, if they have lactation consultants on staff, um, are they, they're rotating, you know, do you bring your own and how does it work?

There are a lot of nurses have some breastfeeding training, but what I find a lot of moms are getting is mixed information from nurses because it's not, it's not a, that's what their primary, it's not their primary thing, right? I mean nurses, they can help you with breastfeeding and some have a lot more knowledge than others. Um, but really having a specialist is so important. And then if there are local breastfeeding support groups in your area, a lot of pregnant moms find it super helpful to start attending some of those meetings just to even see what it looks like to breastfeed. A lot of moms have never seen somebody breastfeed. So just going into those meetings, go into those groups, you know, struggling to create those connections so that after you had the baby you can easily jump right back into, go into those groups and you're not kind of postpartum in pain or struggling and not sure where to go, not sure who to call. These are things I would set up during pregnancy.

Okay. So this question came up recently with a mom that I was working with about touring work locations. So I do recommend touring possible birth locations and I say possible birth locations because, um, I don't think that just because you've been seeing this particular ob for all of these years and he's your ob or she's your ob and that's where they deliver that. That's where you have to give birth. I think that starting with your birth plan and starting with what kind of birth you want, your preferences and kind of taking that core information of what you want into a birth location tour can help you decide if that's the right birth location for you. Now I understand that for rural areas you may be limited, but in a lot of, you know, kind of bigger cities or a non rural areas, there's more than one option in terms of where you want to birth.

So if you have, let's say for example, a super healthy pregnancy, no complications, no issues, and you want to have a natural birth, a hospital might not be the best place for you and you might know that and discover that if you go on the tour and start asking about their protocols and see how they align with your birth plan preferences, um, or what if even if you end up maybe in that example, you do need to go to a hospital, um, because it's the only location around you. Okay, that's fine. But then also take your preferences to the tour, take your draft template to the tour and talk to them about what their protocols are for newborn procedures for placenta delivery. So those are conversations that you can have at the birth location as well to find out what their protocols are.

I think it's not just to find out where to go when you're in labor, but also to see if that place is the right place for your particular labor, for your birth, right. It's not a one size fits all. So having said that, you'll need other people on your team to kind of support what kind of birth you want. So if you've heard me talking in the group, I've talked a lot about doulas and I'm a Doula. This image here is actually me and my doula. So this is um, you know, and she's with one love Doula services in Tampa. So if you're interested in using a Doula, obviously during your highly recommend during early in your second trimester to start doing the research and seeing if a Doula is something that might work well for you, um, you can ask around local private facebook groups like local mom groups are pretty helpful for a referring you to know recommended doulas in the area and this is a good time to begin interviewing them.

So during second trimester is a great time to kind of say weed out dualist that you don't think would be a right fit for you and your family, um, and look at the cost points and look at your insurance and what's covered if the costs makes this a thing that something that you just can't swing. There are a lot of doulas in training that are working on their certification. They have a lot of knowledge, they have a lot of skill and they have a lot of heart and desire to help moms. And so there are doulas that are working on certification that are willing to provide pro bono services. Um, and asking around, I guarantee you you'll find them. They are there. Um, you know, you just have to kind of get out there and get to know them. So hopefully that's something that you would consider.

Um, if you're not going to use a Doula. Again, I suggest going and watching that coping with contractions class because it's kind of a diy doula class. So I tried to bring a lot of dual and knowledge into kind of the mom space and give moms and their partners tools. So even if you're using a Doula, I would watch the video, but if you're not certainly watched the video. Okay. So childbirth classes, this is a big one that comes up because I think a lot of moms are a little overwhelmed at how many different types of childbirth classes there are out there. There are a lot of different ones, right? And I'm in this field so I'm familiar with a lot of them, but I understand what it's like to feel overwhelmed by the options. You've got hospital birth classes that can be really focused on protocol.

You've hospital birth classes that can be super natural based and physiological birth based classes too. So there's a huge spectrum of even what a hospital costs could look like, let alone stand alone. Classes that are offered by local birth centers or individual teachers. Um, I do my classes virtually right now. That's, that's, you know, what I kind of enjoy doing. It allows me to reach more moms. Um, and, and having young children at home, it's a way that I can still teach childbirth Ed, uh, without having to kind of leave my kids at night and go teach classes.

So I think researching what type of class works for the birth that you want. Again, going back to that birth plan, birth preferences. So I would start there with the kind of birth that you want and then pick a class accordingly. Usually moms will pick their class during their second trimester and then take them, schedule them for their third trimester so that the information is pretty fresh. Um, so in terms of timeline, that's kind of, you know, the norm, um, regardless, I would start with the free classes that I have on my blog. They're, almost all of them are available on the blog right now. Um, but to recap the, know your options. Bird series is in the private group under units, it's a five part series and it basically kind of guides you through your birth plan. So that's a good starting point. Then the birth basics class is on the blog.

It's also in the private group. It's a three part class, so the first part covers early labor, the second day covers active labor and the third day covers transition and pushing and so it kind of talks to you about pain management, medications, what your options are, things like that. So that's a really good core class and you can watch it as often as you need to. Vaginal tearing class. I'm primarily talking about what you can do to minimize your chances of tearing your vagina during birth. A really, really good class, evidence based information, statistics, um, tips whether or not you're having an epidural, things like that. And then coping with contractions is also on my blog and that's the one that's kind of a diy dual class and it helps you kind of have these tools and techniques for you and your birth partner to cope with your contractions either during your entire birth or until you reach the point that you're ready for an epidural if you're planning to get some pain management drugs.

So I'd start there, start with all the freebies and you can always add on the, in person classes too. Um, because the free classes virtually, they don't really replace what some women enjoy that in person experience and that personal connection of having the class and having the moms and their partners there and you get to know each other over the course of several weeks and moms really like that. So if it's something you're interested in, I still say go for it. You can never be over prepared or overeducated, but I mean, I'm a childbirth educator so of course I'm going to say that right.

Okay. So pregnancy coach, I want to explain a little bit about what this is. I think a lot of people get confused and hear that and think I'm a beachbody coach or a fitness coach during pregnancy and that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about somebody that you work with virtually. I, I'm a pregnancy coach. So when I work with clients virtually, it's primarily through one on one video calls. It's also through virtual messenger type support, like walkie talkie, messenger access. Um, we talk about all kinds of things. Pregnancy, birth, postpartum. So we're talking, you know, it, it may start out as kind of, okay, what kind of birth class should I take or what do you think about the s and here's where I'm going through have, how can I make this decision, it's nice for me and my family, or I'm having this type of pain or where do you think I can find evidence on blank?

So these are the kinds of questions that a pregnancy coach will be answering for you throughout your pregnancy. Um, but it also turns into a lot more than that too. It turns into an evolves into this relationship. The kind of it goes beyond and it's just somebody kind of like concierge type service. Like, you know, hey, I need help with blank, or you know, I find that women, especially their first time pregnancies first pregnancy, it, it's just, there's so much to learn. There's so much information, there's so much you need to do and it can be really overwhelming. Particularly if you're somebody with a busy career, a busy life. You have a lot of other things going on. I'm having a pregnancy coach as your primary person can be super, super helpful and just kind of supporting you and helping you go through that journey into motherhood.

So that's my spiel on that. Reach out to me if you ever want to talk about it and see what it looks like in greater detail and then provider. So I kind of saved this for later in the class for a reason. Um, because again, I mentioned earlier that a lot of women have been seen the same ob for so many years that you kind of think that you or feel that you need to be with the same provider. I'm just because we've always had that relationship and you might feel uncomfortable. I'm breaking that relationship, but I think what's more important is to take a step back and think about the kind of birth that you want to have in discussions with your provider at your prenatal visits to decide if they're the right provider provider for that birth, for your preferences. Right. Are they truly supportive of your choices? So I save this for later in the class because I think that once you've gone through some of those processes and you have a good idea of what you want and you can make that decision, and I wouldn't be ashamed at changing providers. I wouldn't at all I've done it. Um, it can make a big difference in your overall birth experience.

Okay. So vivax, let's talk a little bit about the bags here. So have you back is a vaginal birth after Cesarean and I think a lot of us have heard that once a Cesarean, always a Cesarean statement, which is just not true. I'm going, I have this quote because I think it's pretty cool. I'll be back. Very brave and courageous. Not because it's risky to give birth, but because it takes courage to stand up for yourself and your baby in the face of profound opposition. So I liked that because I feel like there are, and now that I've been in this world for awhile, um, and I've heard a lot of stories, a lot of women are led to believe that the backs are dangerous and risky and that's just not always the case. There are risks involved with vaginal birth after Cesarean. There are also risks involved with repeats, Assyrians.

So if this is your first pregnancy and VBAC is not on your radar, think about if future planning future family plans. So if you're planning on having a bigger family or more children and possibly beyond this pregnancy, know that there are risks with repeat, so Syrians, so if you need a sincere, and it's an amazing life saving surgery and technology, right? Unfortunately, it can be misused in this country, have taken lightly and, and kind of used a little too often, right? And it can certainly affect future pregnancies. Um, so I, there are risks with both now when you're planning a VBAC, I think the first thing you should be doing during, you know, during your pregnancy is educating yourself on the facts. So there's a lot of information floating around out there and unfortunately sometimes your doctor is not the best place to get the information, so you'll need to take it upon yourself to read through the facts and these two sources.

The VBAC education project has an entire curriculum for parents. It's really good research based facts, um, and it's free. So I'll link you to their site and the resources email that I'll send you guys. And then VBAC facts is actually a website that I'm Jen, I believe it's jen chemical put together. She has a lot of great free information as well. Um, so the first thing I think is important to do is look at the facts, look at the research for both vaginal birth after Cesarean and pieces, and try to decide what works best for you and your family. This is probably going to take some time for you to really think through and have the conversations with your, you know, your husband or your wife or your partner, and really think about what works best for your family.

If you've made the decision that you want to be back, you're going to need support during your pregnancy because unfortunately, um, I mean there's just no way to sugarcoat it. We do live in a country where, um, there's a lot poor information out there about feedbacks and if you're not getting the proper support, um, you can easily be discouraged or persuaded or coerced into not doing this or not even planning it or not even considering having a VBAC. Right? So in terms of support, I would take a look at. I can, um, I can, is the International Cesarean awareness network. Um, they have local and private, I'm sorry, local and a national private facebook groups. You can go in person as well. Um, but a lot of women really liked their private facebook groups because there's a lot of very good data being shared in those groups.

These women are very passionate because a lot of them have experienced, um, either traumatizing Syrians in the past or absolutely necessary life savings, Syrians, but that maybe now we want to do something differently with their next pregnancy. So there's a lot of good information. There's a lot of very positive, encouraging birth stories, so if you're thinking about VBAC, I would highly encourage you to go into these private groups. I'm also, if you're in a local, I can group a private facebook group. It's a great place to ask about VBAC friendly providers, which is my next topic. So VBAC providers can be tolerant and friendly. Um, what do I mean by that? So it depends a lot on their protocols and their outlook and kind of how they, how they handle their VBAC clients. There'll be that patients, right? So maybe, um, whether or not they induce a VBAC.

Well, you know, some providers will not do a VBAC. Pregnant woman, um, some of them won't let you go to a certain point in pregnancy before they want to schedule your success. So maybe they say you have to be 41 weeks or 40 weeks. It varies. So when you're considering the back, you need to be having a lot of conversations with your provider to see where they stand. Um, so I've listed a few questions here. They can, they're a starting point on questions you can be asking. So is your provider comfortable working with a Doula, are they patient, are they a good listener? And while that might not sound like it is all that important, it's actually really, really important because even if you're not backing on the day of your birth, you want your provider to be patient with you and listening to you because it's your choices, it's your timeline, not theirs.

You don't want them to be urgent that you don't want them to be rushing. You are putting a clock on you for certain things unless there's a medical problem. So these are good indicators, right? During your pregnancy, do they appear to trust the woman's body? That's huge. Um, what's their success rate with you? Backs and then what's their philosophy on plan feedback's going past 40 weeks. Like I said, some, some providers will, will want you to schedule a Syrian if you go past 40 weeks and it's entirely okay and common for pregnant women to go past 40 weeks. It happens all the time because it's not an exact science. Due dates are not precise. So what's the flexibility like, you know, and then what's their philosophy on suspected big babies among plan vbacks? So if you start to hear, um, you know, that I'm saying things like, well, if this is what I was told by my second, um, during my second pregnancy with my ob, well if we think she's going to be over seven pounds, I don't think will be successful at having a feedback.

So I have a couple of problems with statements like that. One, you're guessing on what her weight might be. That's not accurate to you're telling me that my body, if it grows a baby bigger than seven pounds, that you don't have faith in my body, that it can't push a seven pounds or greater, bigger baby out. And um, and, and a three, the word successful. I don't like using that word. So that when we talked about reframing language, so if I, if it wasn't successful, it failed it. Birth doesn't fail, your body doesn't fail. So even if I didn't have a successful VBAC or I didn't have a VBAC, I don't like the word successful, right? Because I think that the opposite of that means I failed. Why would I use that term? That doesn't make sense. My Body didn't fail if I need as a Syrian, I need as a Syrian, fine. I had a birth, I successfully belly birth my baby. Right? So there's a lot of things to kind of really pay attention to the terminology that your provider uses. Um, and I haven't really exhausted very long list of questions that I can share with you from a link. Somebody else put it together and it's just a really great list of the types of questions that you can be asking you, your appointments. Okay. So that's, that's it for this class.