Do you think your mind has a lot to do with going into labour?

OMGOSH....yes...defn. I think the mind plays a huge role in conceiving and labour itself......

Whilst all my children appeared on or there abouts on their due date, i honestly believe i was ready mentally for labour at that time.

My last labour (2 weeks ago....:lol:) i wasnt physically exhausted from my labour (only 3 hrs) but i was mentally exhausted. It took sooo much outta me preparing for the 2nd stage of labour, the transistion, and the pushing i honestly have never felt so mentally exhausted like that before....
The mind is soooo powerful. Ive said this before, but will say it again. Midwives told me in my last contraction NOT to push.....(his head was out.....) she said if you push, you will tear.:doh:. It took so much energy, focussing, and willpower NOT to push. My mind was in overdrive. It wasnt my body that prevented me from tearing....it was my mind.

YOur on the right track it seems.....GL.

quote: Doula's will tell you a woman who doesn't feel supported in life or during her pregnancy will often find her birth harder than a woman who has a lot of support

I totally agree with being supported by positive people - I totally didn't want any intervention (unless I or DD was at risk) - luckily, hubby was very supportive of these as was my mw - i was lucky enough to get a group practice mw so we had built up a great relationship and she was really aware of what i wanted. It turned out DD was posterior and after a good 20 odd hours of is it happening, is it not, I was exhasuted and decided to head to hospital earlier (all the while thinknig i just want pethadine to sleep) luckily by the time I got to the birthing centre, my lovely mw had the bath run, the aromatherpy going and I jumped in the bath and relaxed - and didn't ask for drugs at all. Because she was posterior, DD got stuck and it was a long, tiring process but even when I said I couldn't do it any longer, either DH or the mw would talk to me calmly about how i was doing so good, and then when the next urge to push would hit I would find the energy somehow and push with everything i had - even after 2 and a half hours of pushing (qhich followed a couple of hours where I had to actively stop myself from pushing).

quote: why can't more people talk about how wonderful & empowering birth can be ...

Yeah, you always hear the bad stuff!! well, DD's birth was wonderful, and it was very empowering - especially coz a few of the mw's thought I was a supermum for birthing a posterier bub with no intervention or drugs!! I remember talking to a lady about how long i was pushing for and she said "oh how barbaric" and I just said no, its what I wanted and it was fantastic! She looked at me a little oddly!!

quote: OMGOSH....yes...defn. I think the mind plays a huge role in conceiving and labour itself......

I've been thinking about this - we're ttc #2 and I keep having niggles about am I really ready, is it the right time...I don't think my mind is yet in the right head space - unlike first time round, when it happened straight away. Go away -ve thoughts!!


Anway, the point of the matter is - think positevely, surround yourself with positive and like minded people! and I think it will all work out how its meant to!

Absolutely! I hypnobirthed my daughter, last year when I was in New Zealand. When i did the hypnobirthing classes the instructor taught us all to visualise the exact birth experience that we wanted. i was way terrified of giving birth and "just knew"that i'd go over my due date. i went over by two weeks and the ob got edgey and insisted an induction. i kept trying to calm down and eventually managed to. my little girl's birth day ended up being really relaxed and calm but ihad to consciously focus on relaxing and my hypnobirth visualisations. it wasn't "exactly"like i visulised but pretty close.:dance: