Advice and reading re: intense labour/birth fear

My beautiful sister is 13 weeks pregnant with her first bebe and is absolutely fearful, terrified of pain in labour. She can barely even talk about it she is so freaked out by it and confessed she had told her OB she wanted an elective cesarian - luckily her OB is not keen on c-sects at all so tried to steer her away from that idea.

I also told her why, in an ideal scenario, the baby should be born the old fashioned way (for breathing etc), just told her she needed to thoroughly research any potential choices / options but I could tell she was overwhelmed.

I told her that my DD2's birth was not painful but intense and at worse a bit overwhelming at the end and she just gave me a look and said 'I find that very hard to believe.'

It is early days I know but are there any books I might be able to buy her? Along the lines of overcoming birth fear, mediative tools etc.

I just want her to do her research and feel equipped with accurate knowledge yet I don't want to push her, or come across as the righteous sister with two births under my belt already.

I found ina may helpful and birthing from within the best.

Btw - i had my first by elective csection because i was too scared of giving birth.

Ah yes, Ina May I was trying to think of her name. Thank you.

Ina may is brilliant. Perhaps her partner could also read Cheers to Childbirth to support her.
Calm Birth and Doula would be fab too.

I found Juju Sundin's book about active birth very calming. Another idea: would your sister find it helpful to talk about her fears to a psychologist who specializes in pregnancy and post-natal mental health issues like anxiety?

Hypnobirthing by Marie Mongan. If possible, maybe encourage her to do a hypnobirthing course? It goes into taking the fear out of childbirth. I can honestly say I loved my labour with my son and found it so calm and peaceful. My hubby did the Beer n Bubs session where he got the Cheers to Childbirth book and thought it was a great idea for new Dad's to get together and talk about how best to support their partners during childbirth.

I know yoga worked wonders for me. I went eight months refusing to believe that it was actually coming out. The last month, I went completely crazy switching between wanting natural and c-section because of the pain compared to being cut open. In the end, I went natural and drug free. It wasn't that I was opposed to the drugs, just that I was expecting much worse than it was... I didn't read anything, opting for complete denial and completely ignoring the actual birth options.

Oh, I feel sorry for her! You are a great sister, wanting to help her in this way.

"Birthing from Within" is a great book to help mentally prepare.

There are also great belly belly articles àbout how the hormones work, how fear causes tension which causes pain... Look at "Birth as a bowel movement" as a great humorous start.

Google to see if there is a "Positive Birth" group in her area.

Perhaps birth videos of calm, peaceful births. She possibly has the stereotypical movie scene in her mind.

Sorry, who wrote birthing from within? Can't find it under Ina May Gaskin?

Pan England & Rob Horowitz

Thank you