If I had known…

Four little words I’ve often heard, followed by “I would have done…differently”. My heart breaks when I hear that.

No one should feel like that after the birth of their child! How different would the experience be if parents to be felt empowered, positive and prepared?
This certainly doesn’t mean everything with the birth will go as planned. Mine didn’t! However, even though my preferences for what I wanted my birth to look like changed, it was beautiful. It was so positive. And I felt so empowered.

Why did my birth look so different from the drama of childbirth that we see on TV and in movies?

How can others experience the joy of having a positive birth?

How can you?

It’s incredibly simple really. Four things.

Four things I used to empower myself and my husband, gave us an incredible, positive birth story.

Knowledge. We armed ourselves with knowledge. How the body works during labour and birth.

Tools. We learned tools like breathing, self-hypnosis, acupressure, and affirmations.

Support. We made sure our care providers were going to be supportive of our preferences and my husband had a (metaphorical) toolbelt full of ways he could support me.
Preparation. We practiced. Over and over. We practiced our tools and techniques that we had learned over and over so that they’d come naturally when our bub decided to make their appearance.

But the biggest part of our preparation, that gave us these four simple things and made the world of difference to us, was taking Hypnobirthing Australia classes.

There are so many choices when it comes to the birth of your child, and only you know what’s right for you. But any choices you make should come from a place of being informed; of having all the facts, the pros and cons of the different avenues that present themselves when you’re having a baby.
That’s how you prevent yourself from being someone who later says, “If I had known…”. Because you WILL know.
Empowered with knowledge, you can make the best decisions you can, for you and your baby every step of the way. You can make the best decisions that are right for you and your baby because you have confidence in the preparation that you’ve done.

The techniques and tools that you’ve practiced, you’ll know how they can help you to relax and let your body do what it’s designed to do.

You can have the support of your birth partner and caregivers and feel safe and comfortable in the space where you labour and birth. You’ll know the huge difference this support makes in having a positive, empowered birth.
You can be calm, confident, at peace when the time comes, because you have prepared for this. You know what is happening and what your body is doing, and you can embrace the process of your body bringing your baby into the world.

Hypnobirthing helped me know. You can know too.