On one of my courses recently I was asked “how painful is birth really?”. As someone who’s given birth three times, I’d say I can speak from experience.... but only MY experience. And each one of those experiences were different. Everyone experiences birth differently, and environmental and emotional factors will play a huge part in what that experience is like. Your perception of “pain” can be massively influenced by:
⚡️who is with you in labour
⚡️how supported your feel
⚡️what the atmosphere in the birth room is like
⚡️where you’re giving birth
⚡️and yes... what position you’re in!
If you’re giving birth at home, in a familiar environment, surrounded by people who love you and support you, and you feel comfortable and confident in the situation you’re in, you’re much more likely to be full of lovely hormones that both facilitate birth as well as help cope with intense surges.
If you’re birthing in a very medicalised setting, somewhere you’ve never been before, surrounded by strangers, and feeling anxious and stressed, and have no methods to help you cope, you’re much more likely to be triggering stress hormones which are going to make labour painful.
From my own personal experience of both of these scenarios, one birth I asked for an epidural, and the other I didn’t even consider asking for gas and air.
Birth doesn’t have to be agony. It’s intense yes, but when there’s nothing pathologically wrong, it doesn’t necessarily have to be painful. Utilising hypnobirthing and breathing techniques can genuinely help with labour. Im a huge believer. It’s why I trained to teach.
So if you’d like to learn how to help cope with labour, whatever the situation or circumstance, drop me an email and get in touch!